Oztrail tourer 10 plus

Ash,

anyone who has a Freedom product will tell you that they are worth it....and they are. Expensive but like anything, you do pay for the quality. A Freedom tent will last you many years more than a common garden variety every time, providing you care for it appropriately.

Having said that, Oztrail provide a quality alternative. It's not a Freedom so don't kid yourself but their tents do provide value and quality for money. I am familiar with the Freedom version of your tent and it will comfortably support 2 & 2. Two and 3 may be pushing the floor area if your using single mattresses or fold up beds. Have you considered a pop up (Self erecting, throw type) tent or similar for one or two of the kids? Cheap, easy to set up and gives you so many more options. The kids usually love that extra bit of responsibility/freedom in having there own tent as well. A cheap alternative which would give you more room in the Oztrail.

Cheers and happy camping.

Mick

Hi, we've got friends with the Oztrail Tourer 10 Plus and they are very happy with it. It doesn't have all the features of the Southern Cross but it is a very good tent at a fraction of the cost. We bought a Southern Cross on ebay pretty cheap but if we hadn't got that i think we would have been very happy with the Oztrail. And centre pole tourers are great tents and if you get the 4x3 you'll easily sleep five with a bit of gear in there as well.
Cheers
Dion

we have this same sort (same brand) of tent but the previous earlier model (basically ours is diff. colour and the windows different size and shape, may be some other minor diff. aswell).
we bought it back in 2006 and did 5 weeks up at Cape York with it as it's maiden trip. good value for money tent and still going strong after nearly 4 years of service, we will be taking it to the Simpson in July for a 3 week trip again this year.
we have 2 adults and 2 kids (7 and 2yr olds) and fit very comfortably inside with room for our bags inside aswell. we have a queen size inflatable matress aswell as 2 single ones for the kids, and still had abit of room at the very front of the tent. we have the option extra sidepole kit (not sure if standard these days) which allows you to remove the centre pole from your sleeping area. you would be abit of a tight fit to get all of your family with kids that age into one of these tents, it could be done but i reckon you would end up with people rubbing against the sides and would get very wet if it were to rain or even with a decent heavy dew IMHO.
if you do get one of these tents with the sidepole kit, then set tent up first with the centre pole and then add the sidepoles and remove centre pole at end, it's much easier to erect the tent that way. also have a look at how big these are in the bag, i know mine is huge and takes up alot of room in my fourby, but they may have changed how they are made these days.

Thanks for the advice. After having a good look at the Southern Cross tents at the Vic 4x4 show and the Black wolf turbo 300 twin lite I ended up with a demo model Black Wolf at a good price. Clincher in the end was just the internal space and the needs of a growing family. The BW is 18m2 internally with 3 rooms, the largest oztrail is 12m2 with a centre pole. The oztrail will be quicker to setup but the folding poles of the BW make it pretty quick as well.

One thing I forgot to check until I put it in the car was the fit of the bag. It is a big bag and only fits diagnally in the back of the Disco 3. A challenge to pack..maybe a good excuse for a roof rack!!!