Best touring tent

Grab one of the better quality nylon dome tents with lots of mesh for use without a fly in the warmer northern climate
They are cheap, light and compact and keep the bugs out
Look for one with not too many bows as it is quicker to set up
I used a Coleman one with my family and it worked great

We had dome tents and found they can not witrh stand very strong winds, we have moved from them to the canvas centre pole type tents. Oztrail make some excellent ones. Although I would suggest a centre pole and a smaller dome for the 7 and 10 year for sleeping purposes. We have and 8x8 centre pole for one or two nights and a 12x9 for longer stays. The 12x9 could sleep 5 at a pinch but would leave no room for luggage. Both go up in about 10 mins.
Cheers Pete

I'll back what Madfisher says about the centre pole tents as we've had an Oztrail tourer 9 plus for some years. Not much use and can't use it at all now as I have a bad back but it's not hard to erect when a bit fitter. Very quick.
Cook and I decided to go for the Oztent RV4 as I can slide it up on to a tray with rear rollers much easier.
For sale: One excellent full canvas tent, fully rain proof! Be quick 300 bucks :-)))
AlanH.

We saw many caravans along the Gibb River Road last year of all shapes and sizes. There were also caravans that traveled to McGowans Island North of Kalumbaru.

I love our Oz tent

Yes, Arnhem Land is another no caravans area.

Mum & Dad have/had an RV5 and given I've spent a lot of time traveling with them putting the OzTent up and down I can offer some advice...

Pros:

1. Plenty of room and height,
2. canvas is solid & waterproof,
3. good build*,
4."self erecting*"

* with limitation - see below

Cons:

1. we had a problem with the plastic corner joins cracking - however it has been well used - replaced them with metal corner brackets / nyloc bolts, and a bit of grinding/filing to smooth the corner so it didn't rub the canvas and it was as good as gold (and more solid than it was before) - corner bits do have a bit of flex

2. to put stretchers in end ways you really need to peg the back dorsal flap otherwise feet / stretcher will rub

3. for the larger RV's - don't believe the spiel that it's a one man job to erect - you need two - one to hold/pull the front while another slides the self locking arms on the side - also applies on the way down as well

4. while as some said above you can do with four corner pegs, however if you want to erect with the back lifted and include fly cover and front awning, then you're looking at at least 14 pegs... sort of defeats the self erecting do it in 5 mins spiel at the camper shows

RV5 - loooong when folded and can be heavy - won't go inside vehicle and unless you're reasonably mobile - could be a hassle getting onto roofs... my father built a custom off-road trailer just to carry the Oztent and he has shoulder problems

Please don't take the cons as a negative, Mum & Dad loved theirs, and it was a great tent when up, however it's probably not ideal for quick one night stops...

also - they may have fixed this in later releases - the RV5 they got I suspect had an RV4 bag - that thing was one son of a b*cth to get back into the tent bag - Ma & Pa wound up getting a local upholsterer to extent and gusset the bag..

Wow if the oztent isn't "ideal" as a one nighter I dont know what is. And if it is just a one nighter you wouldn't really need all the bits and pieces to go with it. We stay in ours for a whole weekend with just the tent no extras.

We have 2 and at last camp I put one up myself including sliding the slides up and holding the front bar all by myself while my hubby did the other all by himself too my father inlaw also does his too.

Litlbalt, didn't say it was a bad tent, however I stand by everything I said...

Yep, I'll second that - 30 seconds to put it up.
And I always put it in the bag the same way so that the doorway is always where I want it - I put the bag on the ground so that I always unzip it from right to left and I know that the doorway will be next to our Cruiser. And when packing up I lay the bag beside the rear of the tent so that I zip it up left to right. That way you'll never have to turn the tent about-face when it's raining! nor any other time.

Thanks for your reply Motherhen, we have just purchased a 200 series landcruiser and yes we are looking at a good quality used off roader and are currently grappling with size. I don't want something too big, but again if we are in it for 12 months or so don't want something too small. The research I have done would suggest 19' to 22' - there are some like elite that are near 24' but this to me seems too big for what we want to do (off the beaten track). I am glad to hear that at around 20' the size isn't too restrictive.

Thanks Bob, I hope you mean rain and not snakes.....my wife has just had a meltdown!