"Chinese" Tents????

Like with most things, there are good chinese tents and bad ones ...

As also swags (yep - chinese swags too, though mostly sold under Australianiaish labels).

Check them out first is the best bet.

Cheers
Andrew.

see recent thanks post 46067.

I didn't see the original post (away) but read the thanks because of the centre pole wording.

We have had a Boots Great Outdoors Witches canvas hat tent for 25 years. She survived a cylone on a Bunker Group offshore island but we pensioned her off for a lightweight modern chinese made" dome tent. It shredded in a moderate wind in Tasmania in the first bit of wind. Recommisioned the witches hat after maming many placatory promises to her never to do it again

Stay with the witches hat, southern cross chinese versions if necessary. They dance all night on the centre pole and leave their modern contenders whistling in the wind.

Regards
SKI'er

do you mean roof top tents?

Gday
On a good Chinese tent, the zipper goes sideways, and about an hour with the first one , you will feal like another!!!!!

I bought mine in '04 and has performed very well since with no headache problems. Takes the wind without any trouble at all which is due to the inside frame.Plenty of storm tie-downs fitted onto the tent.
No zip troubles. I wouldn't know if it is lighter than previous models, but it's only 18kg. The biggest plus for me is the wife will put it up and take it down , place in bag, so all I have to do is in and out of truck. She would'nt do that with the Orion before. No worries with rain.

Dont forget that these are little people, a 6 man chinese = 3 man aussie :)

Was wondering why you seemed to only mention Southern cross , in other posts GN

While we find dome tent more effective for some types of stay , we also have aussie disposals type centre pole tent at $179.

It has worked well over the about 1 dozen times we have used it.

It certainly is waterproof.

The main difference is in the floor area - as the lower cost tents in dome and centre pole do not use vinyl floors.

Over a few years these become frayed and leak, but our approach to all of these things has been that there passed there use by date anyway and the much lower costs usually mean they can be replaced with latest.

In getting this centre pole we had in mind to try and make it as effective as our 4 person dome, and this meant modifications to whatever tent we brought and it was a lot easier to cut and shut a$179 tent than a $700 one.

P.S. My wife didn't like the centre pole idea and we got side poles for it @ $28
so it never ended up quite as effective as it could have been.

Robin Miller

G/day GN, mate I`ve got a 10 (oriental) man OZtrail, Southern Cross look-a-like... Points against, (my opinion) floor area material to light, I`ve ripped mine, original carry bag to flimsy, frame for centre pole inhibits the ability to fold up to a smaller size, it can be taken out before folding but it`s a bit of a pain, pegs are to light/short, the front awning/door flap is a great water trap, should be taken down at the first sign of rain, other than that she does the job... & as the old saying goes "you get what you pay for" so if it`durability you`re after you really can`t compare it to say a Southern Cross as the quality of material & build just isn`t there. Cheers Ron.

Not Chinese, but we have an Indian canvas double swag from Rays outdoors. 2 years use on every desert trip and the canvas and zips are still as good as the day we bought it.

Confucious say boy and girl who go camping have evil intent....

Ozzie boy & girl need Chinese tent from Manchuria where the people are larger.

It does not matter which country manufactures the tent material but the thickness of material 2000mm (minimum thickness) is important , seams should be what is now called hot taped pressed.
Asian countries can produce it cheap but there is an American standard of quality or they won’t import the material
I have had dome & canvas, and they will always be around.
Modern day material like the light weight Ripstop Polyester PU is replacing the heavy water absorbent canvas.
My grand kids will say “did they make tents out of canvas in the old days with poles on the inside”.
I like the Blackwolf range (no affiliation) for the first time I saw five different sizes in the one camp area, the tent has not moved in Gail forced winds and heavy rain, where dome & canvas tents ripped & camptrailer annexes shredded.
Just my opinion.
Check out my rig page.

Weve had a chinese made 2 room canvas tent since 1994, it has faded and some of the pole links have fallen out, other than that weve had no problems.
Dean

I think I have one of these Chinese canvas tents.

It's held up all right but there are some quality issues. The extendable poles had securing nuts that looked very much home made, and broke after several uses. So I had to buy replacement poles.

The canvas had one or two spots where it was thin, and they stuck some tape over the holes to conceal the imperfection. I would suggest setting up the tent on a bright sunny day and looking at every inch of the canvas to check that there are no "light spots".

Other than that, they have been reasonably reliable. No less sturdy than the Aussie made ones.

Good luck and happy buying!