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Our Guide to Tents

Tent choice ranges from lightweight one, two and three-berth models for those seeking the adventure of camping in out-of-the-way places, through family accommodating hoop and frame tents, to the luxury and convenience of trailer tents and folding campers. To begin with, you need to know which kind of camping you’re going to take up. Or kinds of camping, because you don’t have to limit yourself. Are you going to carry your tent and equipment in a rucksack or on the back of a bike, so you can be self-sufficient for a while and backpack into the wilds or cycle the back lanes at a leisurely pace? Or do you want to do your touring from the comfort of a car or on the back of a motorcycle? Do you need to accommodate two, three, four, five, six, or even more people? Do you want the extra space and comforts that a trailer tent or folding camper can provide? Let’s look at what’s available in greater detail, and what you should look for when making your choice.

Lightweight tents come in various shapes, including basic (and increasingly rare these days) ridge tents, and the more popular dome, tunnel and semigeodesic or geodesic tents. Ridge tents usually have cotton or nylon flysheets and cotton or polycotton inners with sewn-in groundsheets. They are pitched either flysheet or inner first and usually have aluminium poles. Because of their triangular crosssection, space inside is often limited.

Dome, tunnel and geodesic tents are much roomier because of the bowed walls created by their much longer, more pliable poles, made from aluminium or glassfibre. Glass-fibre poles are cheaper and heavier but are more easily damaged if not handled carefully, especially in cold weather. Make sure there are adequate guylines at key points such as corners and sides and, furthermore, use them. Flysheets are generally made of proofed nylon or polyester, the latter being more popular because of its greater resistance to the sun’s harmful ultra-violet rays, which can break down the proofing.

Many tents pitch inner first (it makes them look neater), but when it comes to pitching in the rain, it’s better to have a tent that goes up flysheet first. Semi-geodesic and geodesic tents have a pole construction that gives them better inherent strength to cope with windy weather. Undercover storage space is at a premium in lightweight tents, so a tent with a reasonably sized porch is useful. Some have a porch at each end and tents of a transverse design, ie with the inner tent laid across the tent, usually have two extra-spacious storage areas. Don’t forget, though, the more fabric in the tent, the heavier it will be.

Lightweight Tents

Most lightweight tents come with double doors to the inner, with a fabric panel on one side and a mesh panel on the other. This is to enable you improve ventilation at night but at the same time keep buzzy, bitey bugs on the outside, but for it to work effectively, make sure the fabric panel is inside and the mesh panel outside. If you wake up in the night needing more ventilation you just open the fabric door, leaving the bugs outside. If the fabric panel is outside, you must open both panels to get to the fabric one, and in so doing you let in the bugs!

Touring Tents

Modern touring tents for three or four people are very often blown up versions of dome and tunnel tents or combinations of the two. Again there are a few ridge tents, especially with broad porches, often with windows (these are known as chalet tents), plus vis-à-vis (face to face) domes, which comprise a high dome at the centre for the living area and smaller half domes each side for the bedrooms.

As with the smaller versions, outer fabrics are generally either nylon or polyester, though there are a handful of cotton tents for those who prefer their better breathability.

Trailer Tents

With these, fabric and poles are unfolded from a trailer to form a cabin with mattress covered beds off the floor for extra comfort. The basic cabin usually goes up very quickly with a minimum of pegging, or no pegging at all, and is sufficient for overnight halts.

For longer stays an awning is available, either included or as an extra, and this can add substantially to the living space. Folding campers are the up-market version of trailer tents and some are as well-appointed inside as caravans, with furniture such as kitchen units, cupboards, wardrobes and, sometimes, even toilets.

If you go down the road of towing a trailer, make sure your car can handle the extra weight. Most trailer tents can be towed safely by most cars and they are unlikely to obscure rearward vision, but folding campers tend to be bigger and heavier and may need to be fitted with brakes for extra security.

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