Black Wolf

Hey Matt,
I just bought the queen size oztrail self inflatable. It is fantastic. being queen size you have to be able to have the space for the width of a queen matteress. All we do is fold down one of the back seats in the Patrol to fit it easily. One thing to note, make sure you get one 100mm thick when inflated. I found I would bottom out on the thinner ones after a while in the same spot

Cheers,
Tom

Check this post out Site Link.
Some good feedback there.

Gooday Matt
I have a turbo tent
yes it is good quality and it is very
water proof I do love it But its a heavy
bag to stick on the roof by your self
Maybe I should not have put that lift
kit on the car LOL

silverback

Hi Matt,

I have a Turbo & you would have read my comments in the above thread link.

I am very happy with the turbo tent - I originally looked at Oztent but the 2m length made it unpractical. It is just so easy with 2 people - can be done by one person but takes a little longer.

We have used it now for 6 months total since buying it 2 1/2 years ago. I had an originally realeased tent which did have some plastic components - in my last trip one plastic bit broke (didn't cause us any problem) & Black Wolf replaced the whole tent - even after 2 years. Great service !!

Willy

Hi Matt. I purchased a Turbo300 for our Canning trip this year (ie it was time to replace our old tent anyway). Put it up at home in the first week & decided it was really too large & heavy for what i wanted it for .. mostly touring. Took it back & swapped for a Turbo240 which is a bit lighter & can fit sideways in the rear cargo area if necessary. Have only used the Turbo240 for 2 people & there is bags of room.
Couple of points:
- For the Canning we carried it up on the roof & it was still a heavy beast to lift up there (or am i getting weaker?).
- In good weather we never used the fly, as the tent is waterproof without it. This saves a fair bit of time in putting it up.
- I'd like some kind of small room or walls as part of the front annex so you could cook/sit in bad weather ... I dont like the current options offered by Blackwolf (too bulky for me for touring) so still need to sort out a solution for that.
- I find the tent is awkward to fold up neatly & small enough to fit in the tentbag. Especially early in the morning when the floor is still wet from condensation underneath & dirty. To mitigate this we got a slightly larger tentbag made up & a couple of wider straps for packing up the tent (all from www.infrontcampinggear.com.au). Also had a canvas peg bag made up which could also take the hammer & a couple of guy ropes
- made a small loop of ocky strap so you can hold the 4 legs together once you've collapsed the tent .. in preparation for folding/rolling it up. Made it a much easier one-person job.
- The zips for the windows are on the outside so you need to decide before you go to bed whether its windows rolled up or not!
- all components & canvas seem very good quality

Have a look at a Coleman Classic 4 tent.

I think that Coleman has it for self inflating matresses too.

Such camping gear takes up too much room. So what some do is take a synthetic dome tent and air mattress.

You may find that you will not camp very often and a bit of inconvenience will not matter. Up to you though.

Have a good time.

EV

I went through all this a few months ago prior to an 8 week trip from Vic to WA. I ended up choosing the Turbo 300 as SWMBO was pregnant (now born a little premmie) and we wanted to allow for up to 2 kids with the purchase...hence the biggest one. So for my assessment of the tent....

Good points:
1. Plenty of room, due to the quite vertical nature of the walls. I am 6' and can stand up comfortably in the thing and get changed etc. Room to sit in bad weather.
2. Easy to set up
3. Don't need the fly unless raining.
4. Good quality canvas/stitching.
5. Heavy duty floor ++++
6. No places (that I can see) where the poles will 'rub through' the canvas ...this happened to my friend's oztent. (see below)
7. Fits accross footwell on back floor (tied down++) and little kids will be able to rest their feet on it until they grow to lanky b#$tards like me.
8. Great ventilation with the flywire on the doors and windows...never had any condensation and the external flaps over the windows help protect from drizzle.(Mate says the oztent is like a plastic bag and had lots of trouble with condensation...not too sure how he organises his ventilation, though.)

Dodgy Bits:
1. Bag doesn't look like it will last as long as the tent (made of cordura with a Zip that gets too much tension.)
2. Difficult to fit back into bag without a fair degree of effort (the smaller ones may be easier)...I like some of the ideas above re modifying the bags and straps etc.. I'm on to it!!!!!!!!!!
3. Heavy. This doesn't bother me too much as most of us are way too unfit/fat and lazy anyway (30% kids obese!??!...how many adults???) and the extra effort helps keep my beer gut at bay!! I'll reserve further judgement on this one until I have to put it on the roof regularly, when I'm over 80yo. ;-)
4. Need a fair bit of room to put it up, though this would be no different with any other big tent.
5. Very complicated setup arrangements for the 'closed in vestibule' that is an option...the guy in the store even struggled with it!! And it's WAY too expensive....so we didn't get it...will probably consider getting one of those flyproof tents for eating.

General comments on tents...

Saving a few seconds by buying the tent that is the fastest to set up is a waste of time as I find it takes longer to set everything else up and the tent is the quick bit...stove, food boxes, personal gear, chairs etc all take the time. It is a holiday isn't it? I read a few posts where some people would say that the quicker the tent is up the quicker they can have a beer.....well boo hoo...I have one whilst I'm setting up at my LEISURE.

It's all horses for courses and there simply isn't a BEST tent. Some will always prefer the one-pole types, whilst other swear by the Oztent (my friend swore at it when it developed holes where the hinged frame rubbed through the canvas..though it was replaced with a new one pronto by the manufacturer!!).

Overall I am fairly happy with the purchase, though the pack up issues are a bit of a hassle, mind you it gets easier as you get more experience.

Camp matresses: I have the super duper Thermarest/Camprest and it simply can't be beaten. It is expensive, but what price a good nights sleep? I have several Thermarests that I use for hiking, sea-kayaking, ski touring etc, but the most comfortable is the Thick Camprest....also helps to keep warm and lasts for years. Buy one, you won't regret it.

Hope all this rambling is helpful and good luck with the purchases.....

Cheers,

Mark

PS I bought the Turbo tent of the internet....ovedr $100 cheaper than the stores even with postage and delivered in 2 days.