Tent size

Charlgrave,

We just bought a OzTrail Tourer 9 Plus canvas tent. Sleeps 6, but good size for 4 people and your bags.

Setup - well it was quick. I mean quick. Roll it out, peg the corners, open the door and stick the centre pole in, put the back poles up. Done.

10mins for a tent we have never used before. Since I have ordered the side pole kit so you don't have the centre pole interupting the floor space. The wife liked it so much, we bought a Tourer 9 for the 2 boys (just so we dont have to put up with their crap at night)

Packs down to a bag or just flat.

We have a 12 person tent if you are interested. only takes 45mins to put up, and 75mins to pull down and roll up :-)

Mate,

How old are the kids and what sex? Reason I ask is that we, also a family of 4 (2 boys) invested in a good tent (oztent) for the family. Worked a treat until they were about 6 and 8 yo. Then they wanted their own tents. Brought a cheap 2 man dome that they take graet pride to setup themselves and adds to their camping experience. Now we are glad that we didn't go for one of those big 6 man tents which is big and takes more time to set up.

Cheers,

CJ

I have a Freedom Northern Tourer. For a family of 4 it is cosy, but fine for touring. Using the A-frame instead of a centre pole seemed to provide more room.

We managed a few trips in it, including 6 weeks up to the top end.

Although we have a campertrailer now, we still use it occasionally as its very quick to set up and not bad to put away; most of the time is packing up the bedding and clothes.

I have a Coleman Chalet 3 room tent. This works very well for us, a family of four. I find it easy to put up, it's framework is a number of fibreglass poles than bend over the top of the tent to provide support. Apart form that, it's just the pegging that needs to be done. It has a fly.

By myself it takes 15 minutes, with help probably 10. If it was windy, would be much easier with two people due to the size of the fly.

The inside is great with a number of pockets to store things like carkeys, and also little straps for holding electrical cable (to keep them out of the way) It also has a skylight roof in the centre room. Quality seems good. The carry bag works well (everything fits back in once you've taken it out for the first time) and it's very light for it's size (16kg from memory but don't quote me on that).

We use this for longer stay trips e.g. 3-4 days at a time in one spot (which is usually in a caravan park), however if we were on one night stays, we'd take an OzTent 5 (which is quicker and easier, but has 1/3 the avaialable space).

I think Coleman call this a 16 man tent, which is exaggerating by a factor of two i think, perhaps they stack folks on top of each other when they worked this out.

Cheers

Hi Charlgrave

We have a Coleman Northstar 8 (which supposedly sleeps 8) for our family of 6 (2 adults & 4 kids ranging from 6 down to 2) and have been very happy with it on trips ranging from 3 days up to 3 weeks.

When we bought it 3 years ago we were also tossing up with how big to go with one tent v's a smaller large one plus some kiddy ones later on. We went with the smaller large one.

So far have been very happy with the Northstar. The 4 kids sleep in the fully enclosed bedroom, leaving the mrs & me in the screened room (this room is a bit colder with extra air flow) along with the luggage etc.

The tent has plenty of room for all our needs, but you do need a tarp setup for those wet days otherwise the kids would be a bit cramped. Its also quick (10-15min) & easy to put up.

The poles for our tent are all aluminium, but I see that Coleman now sells the tent with some fibreglass poles - which always has me a bit worried longer term.

hay there ..we have a oztrail 10 plus.........a great tent miles of room
for all your stuff to............easy to set up ....
Cheers Bundy

Gidday Charlgrave,
with a family of 4 that I have we have settled a southern cross 13 x 10 touring tent.The Oztrail tourer is the same style and although slightly heavier than nylon tents, with the side poles(about $40 extra) instead of centre pole you can stand up inside and setup very quickly.This last feature is a bonus if is is raining.There is room for 4 plus gear etc.

Sludgie