Oz Tents , what do you reckon ??

We had one.

Bought it second hand for half the retail price

Yes it only takes 30 seconds to erect it.

But we found it short on space inside. It weighs 19 kg and won't fit inside normal roofracks. After a while the mesh screen was difficult to zip up. Part of the scissors mechanism of the frame broke in a strong wind one day. Basically the RV 4 was a PITA to handle.

Now we have a 2 room tent that takes up to an hour to erect but it is good, weatherproof and cool in hot weather. It can also withstand high winds.

Cheers

G'day Brian,

I havn't got an Oz Tent but spent 20 days in the Cape with a mate who had one.

Yes - Easy to erect.... I think about 2 or 3 mins by the time you get it off the roof racks. Yes that's right roof racks. If you don't have any you better get some, there's another $500 plus bucks. The tent is roughly 2m long. Way to big for most 4WD's.

Not much room. Very well made though.

I had the good old Jackeroo 4man tent. Picked up a 4 person, Centre pole tent at the 4wd & Camping Supershow at Rosehill last year for under $200. Fits in the back of the car and theres tonnes of room. It got set up and pulled down everyday for 3 weeks. Never missed a beat nor leaked. The winds at Captain Billy Landing are pretty full on and the tent survived it no worries.

Gets used about every 4 weeks now and still goes strong.

Takes about 10-15mins to set up. Pretty much peg it out and throw the cente pole in. Not a great deal of time difference.

And for the $700 difference, I know what my choice would be.

Good Luck.

Hi Brian
We have the RV 4 and we love it. The 30 second claim is correct, then add another couple of minutes if you need to peg in out if windy.

Sure they are not on the cheap side, but well worth in. We put the double swag in the middle of the tent, and still have about 18" either side of that for cloths bags etc.

Cheers

StephenImage Could Not Be Found

Hi Brian, we had a discovery, same as current rv3, for about 10 years and it spent 100s of nights in use, best tent ever.
Still have it for family gatherings, but replaced it with an rv4, and a camper trailer hahaha.
We still use the tent for camping with the grandkids and will use it on long bush trips some time when we get that far.
Yes we too had a breakage , but wasnt tied out as its supposed to be and a storm hit when we werent there, hardly the tents fault.
We used to attach ours via the awning to the side of the roof rack, 3 hooks welded to the side, gave us a cover without any pegs, and then slid in the double swag and could pull up and be in bed in 5 minutes if need be.
You only get what you pay for so get it and enjoy it, fantastic tent.

Cheers Pesty

Brian

We have had our RV3 for 5 year and only used it last year on the AB and return, we just love it and have built our plains around using it on this years trip.

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we have gone out a got a fly which will stay on all the time and front and a side set just in case we stay in a CV park as we did in CP and it got hot in the sun

Cheers

Richard

Gidday

Black wolf turbo 240 maybe a little a bit cheaper than RV 4 nearly as quick to put up and will fit in the car. There is a range of lighter material turbo tents as well

never had an oztent because of the lack of space inside and it's length when packed up.
among my array of tents i have accumalated over the years, probably my favourite quick erect tent is the oztrail 10plus. this is a centre pole tent with the extended bit. loads of room.
only about $400 as opposed to other centre poles.
recently, on a round oz trip i was tempted to take the swag but because i wanted somewhere to lay my gear out, i tried a 3-man black stump 'instant tent 3 euro' (just for myself). $200 well spent.
got mine from ranger in perth.

We have an RV3 and its great. We also have the sides which make an extra room and, if you like you can get a joining piece which permits you to join onto a mates tent to make a massive lounge room...or a big family room.

Expensive yes, but takes less than 30 secs...10 secs more like to erect, not including the extra sides.

On the downside, the tent bag IS long...(and quite heavy) but it fits into the LC200 quite easily..goes in behind the centre console but on the LC100 it has to rest on top of the console. (I have a 200, mate has a 100). It also fits into an X-Trail same as LC100...my daughter has one, they are surprisingly roomy inside.

We have a Turbo 270 --great tent.
Looked at OZ tent but decided not enough room.
Very happy with Black Wolf.

I have an RV-5 and really love it. I only got mine recently, but have been using/sharing a mate's for a while now.

I was convinced we had to have one, the night we pulled up at the camp ground about 3 minutes before the rainstorm hit. If we were using the dome tent we would have had to wait in the car until it stopped (45 minutes) and then set it up on drenched ground.

With the OzTent, we were set-up in about 2 minutes, including a basic peg-out and inside and dry. After the rain stopped, all we did was set-up the awning, side and front panels and we were ready for the next hit that came in the middle of the night.
We leave the fly attached all the time as it makes next to no difference when packing it away.

It is a bit of extra stuff to carry with the poles and panels, but it packs reasonably well and the comfort factor that comes with the extras is great. Nothing beats being able to watch a thunder storm through the front flyscreen while you're still being sheilded from the wind and rain!

Gday Brian

We had an Oz tent back in 06, my wife and I had always wanted one and we ended up going through 3 under warranty due to leaking and the last one ended up up with a tear in the floor due to one side arm being longer than the other.
We asked for a full refund after the third one which they did and we bought a Southern cross tent and haven't looked back.

Granted all 3 "could" have been from a bad batch but in the cold climates of the desert nights, Flinders Ranges etc they condensate badly on the roof.
When the sun hits the outer side of the canvas in the morning after a cold night, we found we had to unpack the tent quick smart before a monsoonal season started inside.
This apparently can be corrected by also buying the oz tent fly which defeats the purpose of a 30 second tent.
They definitely dont pack up in 30 seconds, are heavy and long.
The after sales service was great from Oz tent but IMO not worth the money.

Hope this helps
Cheers


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We have the exact setup as Stephen L - and can vouch for its quality and ease of use if you have the right setup. We used it around Tassie, Vic High Country, the Holland Track, and two trips to Ningaloo. It's endured rain, wind, sleet etc and months exposed to the elements on the roof rack. We would have no hesitation in recommending it if it suits your setup. For us, as swag campers (plus kids in swags) with no trailer it gives us the options we need for longer campers and for getting out of bad weather. In fact we are actually looking at the merits of getting a second Rv4 as all the sides can be zipped together to form a larger commune and we can have the kids "room" and our "room" with a central living area (formed by the side and front panel) - saw this setup in Ningaloo last July. On our long stay camps we put the kids in a separate tent (in their swags) and we have the privacy of our own (the RV4). The tent on its own is indeed the 30 sec tent - however not if you setup the side panels and front panel. Whether it is the best option in comparison to other options, I can't comment as we didn't shop around looking at alternatives - just saw it and knew it was for us. Good luck with your decision. MM

We looked at one of those as well as an Oztrail Tourer 9. In the end though brought a couple of 3 man hiking tents (Huon Derwent - one for us one for the kids) and 4wd double mattresses (bit of a contradiction in itself). They can be both set up within 30 minutes including all the pegs.
Anyway due to the bulk of the 4x4 mattresses I'm thinking we may as well have got a couple of swags!!! But they sure are comfortable even if they take up 4x the space of tents!

But back to the point, main thing I didn't like about the others was the hefty weight and the size. Like you financial circumstances amongst other things meant we had to sell the camper trailer. And it was a great decision because the tents still haven't had a decent test, meaning the camper still would have been just sitting there.

If I was to buy any of them I tend to think we would have gone for a pyramid style like Oztrail, Freedom etc, although must say I doubt we'd got for a more expensive brand until the cheaper one proved itself through lots of use.

Hi, Toured for a mnth living in a rv/4 great set up plenty of room for the missis & me.easy peasy to set up and down.If you go this way take a small bannister brush to wipe sand off before you fold up.A mate had his slide bush break,they fixed it no hassels.

Thanks to everyone for your opinions , you really are a half decent lot !!!
One consideration i never took into account was the length of the tent in its container as i did envisage taking it away in my wifes Peugeot diesel 207 hatch which is considerably less thirsty than my old but reliable HJ 61 Land Crusier , havent measured it yet but dont think it will fit
But one final question as i intend to go to a store in Perth or Bunbury and hopefully view both the Oz Tent RV4 and the Black Wolf tents , can anyone in WA reccomend a store where there is someone who actually knows what they are talking about please ?!
There are so many stores now that are just like Bunnings , well stocked with everything but no one to help
Thank you again

hey brian,just came back to perth after 5 months on the road.lost count how many times i put up my oz tent.worked a treat real quick and handled the weather with eze and it is still lookn good.