Advice on canvas tent brands

The best are made by Southern Cross Canvas

Here:

http://www.southerncrosscanvas.com.au/

With cheaper ones you are compromising on the quality of the canvas and the quality of manufacture.

We have 2 canvas tents made by Australian Canvas Company, Bayswater, VIC. The big, rectangular tent was bought from them in 1994. It has had a lot of use, in tough places, over the years - most recently in Kimberley in 2007. Is tropical weight canvas. We have never needed anything repairing on it, it is so well made. Even the zips are the original ones. Is easy to put up - 3 cross member poles, 6 upright ones, plus 2 for verandah. The side ones are all same length, so it could be put up in the dark - our previous, el cheapo tent had a million different pole bits that only went together one way and was a nightmare!
Bought a second, dome, style tent from them in 2000. We use this when only staying 1 or 2 nights in a place. It has fibreglass poles.
Reckon both will last the rest of our lives.
The big tent cost us about $1200 at the time. We used to calculate the cost of accommodation in it: first night was $1200, second made it $600 a night, and so on. Stopped when we got to under $5 - as said, it has been used a lot.

i have the oztrail tourer 10+ which was around $400 for years.
a quick google found them from $459 to $639 in price.
(ebay Item number: 230327341462)
southern cross and freedom tents are better quality admittedly, but quite some price diffference.(too much IMHO)
(southern cross ultimate trekker $1850?
ultimate deluxe $1750? that can't be right)
best bet is to find out which store has a good selection and see for yourself.
if you go for a centre pole tent, my advice is to get one with the extended rear, gives you heaps more space.

Just a thought, but what about the OzTrail Tourer Tropical. I have been told it has only just come on the market and it's about $280-$300. It's 2400X2400 with the centre pole which makes it pretty easy to put up, you can get the optional side poles. It's not a true canvas but I have been told it's pretty good. All up weigh 10ks. Happy camping

At least have a look at the Black Wolf Turbo tents. There has been many posts over the years about canvas/touring tents and a search will bring up lots of reading.

I did this before purchase and it helped me make my decision and I'm happy with what I have.

You will still need to do a bit of shopping around and get the shop attendant to put it up and down a couple of times with you to see how easy/difficult it is and how time consuming and/or frustrating it is to put it up and pack it away. After 2 months of doing this every day the extra $$ spent will be well appreciated.

Cheers,

Mark

have any of you guys had any condensation problems with a southern cross tent??? i am about to sell my oz tent due to condensation probs.. i like the ultimate 9 southern cross

should look up the "ORION" range, distributed by Tambo Campers, melbourne, better than any of them and comparing quality, a bargain at their prices.