tents and rigs for the troopy

kate
have you looked at oztrail tents??? or southern cross tents????
bus type tents with centre pole or can have side pole kits to eliminate centre pole
very easy to set up-literally 4 pegs and put centre pole up inside and thats it
i use southern cross 10X10 and when you pack up each day you really appreciate the ease of setup and pack up
some people like dome tents as some pack up really small but i dislike them as in my opinion to much stuffing round
havent tried 30 second oztent simply cos they were very long and need roofrack or troopy to carry them-which means cant use with other vehichles
oztrial priced about 250-400 and southern cross about 1000
oztrail.com.au and southerncross.com.au
can get you oztrail tents if needed at reasonable prices
fozcruiser@hotmail.com.au

You will also find that the Black Wolf Turbo Tent is quick, easy and very good quality. It also folds so you can fit it inside your vehicle

Happy trails, Mike.

www.southerncrosscanvas.com.au/
have a look here - better quality.

We have an Oztent Ranger (30 second tent) which is great, best we have had after many many years of camping. Very easy to put up, full headroom, waterproof and insect proof too. Only real drawback is length as previously mentioned above, but with roof racks problem disappears. Good thing with carrying any tent on the roof (apart from saving space inside) is that if tent is wet when it is packed away, any dampness is kept outside and not inside where it could cause problems.

Hello Kate,

we have an Oztent that is integral to our camping arrangements. Some friends use one behind their Jackaroo and I think I recollect seeing that Troopy Travellers (NSW) use one with their Troopy

We have taylor made sides to the annex to allow an extra room and I think the friends with the Jackaroo have the Oztent zip on sides. With ours the Oztent clips straight onto pins on the side of our camper and requires no guys and with the gear in the tent, no pegs most of the time either.

I can send some photos if you like, my email addy is behind the Rigpic and some pics there too.

I also have a Black Wolf Turbo Tent & used it for 7 weeks to Cape York in 2004.

It was great & met all our expectations - very quick to erect & dismantle. We looked at Oztents but the length put us off as we did not want anything on our roof.

Everyone I spoke to with a Turbo Tent was extremely happy with them.

Willy

Kate,

I have seen a lot of tents go up and also watched them get packed away,

The 30 second is quick to put up as long as you don't put up any awnings, and that takes a lot, lot longer. The basic tent is good, wide but not very deep.

Packing up takes a lot longer and a few more bodies to get it back into the bag again. Then it's the big lift onto the roof rack and in a troopie if you are not 6ft 6'' forget about it. It could go inside the Troopie but will still take a lot of room.

I go from one extreme to another. I have a 2mt x3mt centre pole tent with the internal frame( no pole in the centre of the tent) 4 pegs the internal frame and a couple of poles in the back and it is up.

The other way is a swag or weather permitting just under the stars.

The down side with dome tents is that unless you get the real big ones that take forever to set up trying to thread all the poles through the tent,is that you can't stand up in them. If you are young you don't mind getting dressed laying on your back but when you get older standing up is a good sign that you are still alive.

At the end of the day, what you choose to sleep in or under is your choice, but a good night sleep is very important.

Wayne

Kate :
As JohnR(ViC) says, we have an OZtent which we take away, I either put it inside the troopy (diagonally) or on the roof racks. We are very happy with it. I carry a small 2 step collapsible ladder which doubles as a coffee table & lets me get easily to the roof racks. Our tent has the side curtain on the awning. The best thing we bought is 2 aluminium cross leg folding stretchers & self inflating mattresses. The good thing about these stretchers is: 1. you can store all your gear under them in the tent and have a passageway between them & 2. They make good seats & it's heaps easier getting out of a stretcher than getting up from an inflatable mattress. Also, pumping up self inflating mattresses, even using the electric air pump, is no fun!
Sparky

Thanks very much everybody - sounds like there is one or two really
good tents out there. Still leaning toward the Oztent but now I have
found out that there is a really good canvas worker just out of town that
might make a rig up for the back of the troopy (kinda thought to sleep in
the troopy and just wanted to have the doors open into some privacy and
a "room" to dump some stuff if staying put for a few days and doing day
drives).

Happy outbacking
Kate : >

As if you haven't been given enough different tents to consider here. We've been camping for about 35 years. First just 2 of us, then as family grew, we got bigger tents that were better for longer stays. Now back to 2 of us, and smaller tent for short stays and touring.
So - Best tents we've owned?
Easy - Coleman have just re-released an oldie goldie and called it the "Classic". Simple to set and strike, no inside poles and you can stand upright anywhere inside the tent. THE BEST. In its new form it's got a beaut fly and awning that the old model didn't have, we were always trying to figure out how to incorporate an awning. See it at www.colemanaustralia.com.au
Would buy one, but currently we have an OZTent 9Plus. Heaps cheaper than the Coleman though. I thought that the inside centre pole might be a pain, but hasn't been so. Like the Coleman, simple to set and strike. Both good quality canvas tents. You've got the choice of packing up the OZTent flat, or rolled up. Flat makes set-up very simple. It's a question of how you want to store it. If you've got a roof rack, flat pack-up would be ideal.
We've also got a Blackwolf Dome tent, but like someone else said, nice tents, but too much mucking around.