Tuesday, Jul 07, 2015 at 16:47
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..
FollowupID:
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