Tent-Tanamai Tourer

Subtle

I have a Tanani Tourer and love it. Lottsa headroom .. somwhere to hang stuff off the arms. Initially a little tricky to setup, but after a couple of goes it falls into place. Packs up into a nice size, and with the bag for the centre pole, it's pretty compact for my use.
Jack No trees were harmed in the making or sending of this message.
However a great number of electrons were terribly inconvenienced.

I recently bought an Australian made one and have been out twice with it. It is a great tent to use. It goes up in 15 minutes easily although you have to be careful of the arms on the pole because they can bite. It has great head clearance and the arms that support the roof are very handy to hang things on. The built on awning is adequate but I am sure for longer stays it might be the thing to have some "clip on" side extentions. It comes down as quick as it goes up. I had an Oztent which is really quick but to cumbersome to carry and too short in length so my feet touched one end and my head the other.
In a high wind the Tanami rocks about a bit but this can be lessened by placing the guy ropes that attach to the awning and front wall in a certain pattern that Camping Direct do not tell you about. They provide 6 guy ropes and only 4 obvious places to put them. The second night out in it we had a tremendous wind storm with some rain. Although the tent rocked and rolled it showed no sign of leaving Kansas with me the wife and Toto. In the morning I put all 6 guys on in a pattern that reduced the rock and roll considerably. For a bit of fun on that night of wind the arms holding the roof fell down at about 2 am. The section that holds the arms that hold the roof out was floating up and down on the centre pole with the movement caused by the wind. It is held in place by a pin that just fits through holes with nothing to prevent it sliding out. My fault because I had the arms up too high so there was no pressure on the pin. We had a laugh about it.
Now for the not so good news. The first two nights it rained it leaked a little on most of the roof seams even though I prewet it as instructed. It also leaked on the windows which are, I think, very suspect in design. The window covers are on the inside of the tent. I questioned Camping Direct about this and they are quite satisfied they should be waterproof. It is a good idea in that you do not have to get up in the night to go outside to close off the windows. They can be zipped up from the inside. The windows have a neat feature as well that you can half close them in wet weather and because the top third part is see through plastic the rain does not get in but the light does. I have sealed the seams on the roof and windows but it has not rained since to be able to really test it. A hose somehow never seems to be an adequate test. I advised Camping Direct and their response was as much as I could expect. No arguments, they said send it back (at their expense) and they would check it.
I carry it in a Thule top box with all the bedding and soft stuff but I do not bother to put it in the bag. It stores easier as it just folded. Saves a lot of messing about trying to sqeeze it into the bag.
As long as I can fix the leaks with seam seal I will be very happy.
Do a search on the forum and you will find more comments.Richard and Leonie, The grey nomads.