Oztents Good,bad or ugly?

They are good for a purpose.

Not small when packed. You need to be able to carry them somewhere ... roofrack etc.

Rather like an annex that doesn't need to be attached to your vehicle.

We have an old one that has been used a fair bit over the years... so I guess it has worked out well.

Wilko,
I purchased a RV4 fitted myself the two kids "10 & 8yrs old" and the wife comfortably.
Recently went up the cape where it bucketed down for three of the nights and all was good, Only issue we found was that our fellow traveller had a RV3 and was using the original poles for the awning, we were using the poles that came with the side walls. found that the water would run down into the poles and siezed up when we got back to Cairns. She has since spoken with OZTent and has excellent after sales service, The difference in the poles is that the upper section on the wall kit is larger in diameter than the bottom, rain/water runs around the out side and can't fill the botom section up.
Regards
Terry

Hi Wilko
We have had an RV4 for just over 2 years and for us, it is by far the best tent that we have ever owned. The only extras that we have is the standard side panel and the fly.

We have only had one bit of bad luck, no fault of the tent, our fault for not pegging it down. We were hit by a mini tornado in Quilpie in August and to save the tent from blowing away, Fiona and I grabbed hold of the front of the tent with all the strength we had. The force of the wind was so great, that we put a nice banana bent in the front frame, which I have now replaced and fixed.

When I spoke to the people at Oztent, they suggested that the tent should always be pegged and guyed down.

We simply love it and you will to.

Here are a couple of pictures of ours at various places.


Cheers


Stephen
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had them for years(10).Got 2 rv4s two years ago & highly recomend them.
downside is the size of them packed,you do need a roof rack to carry them,
but you can get rolar pods? to put them in.
upside is the ease of setting up. 4 pegs in most conditions hold them down
but there are plenty of side ropes for extra strength.
there is enough room inside for our dbl mattress and bags.
if you can get the front walls and sides, it will give you an extra room that is insect proof. for more mm.

I am on to my second RV4, which I bought with all the bells and whistles .. namely the fly, deluxe side and front panels, and the Ozpod to carry it about in.

My wife and I took it around Australia, used it almost every night and love it. We have no issues apart sfrom a small hole at the back which I think came from a tent peg 'escaping' from its holder when the tent was stored. Easily fixed.

Downside for some is its overall length, but I have a tradesman's roofrack and it sits there quite happily when not in use.

They are easy to put up and take down, we have never had any water/leakage problems, and it works well in high winds, torrential rain, and has enough openings to be comfortable in hot weather.

I know from my previous Oztent that after sales service is second to none. These guy care!!

There are plenty of options for you to explore, but I doubt that you will be disappointed if you choose an Oztent.

Jack

I have had an oztent rv4 for a few years .
Its long but it goes on the roof rack , its out of the way and saves room for other stuff in the back of the 4wd . By itself its really quick , i wouldnt hesitate to put it up on a whim . I couldnt say the same for other quick tents . There are so many optional extras , i can set up for a night or weeks . I will never get wet again after having dome tents in wild weather . I love it .

Gooday Wilko,
we use the RV4 and love it. We use the fly and one side panel. We have our tent up quickly, and in use while others are still messing around in the wind and rain. Had to put brackets on the side of my roof rack to carry it though as its fairly long.
regards

Don't muck around, just get one.

You won't be disappointed. We weren't. There have been other queries over the years and all the responses have been positive.

Paul

Hi Wilko,
Whilst I have not got an OZTENT, I was looking at getting one and did a fair degree of research. Included was this site and asking tour operators at the Perth 4WD Show some of whom spend 6 months a year in their OZTENT.
All I can say is they either pay owners $100 to say they are good or they really are. I think it is the latter.
We ended up with a Outback RTT that we put on our off road trailer.


Cheers

Mark

To secure the oztent on the roof i use the spt lockable straps . They have stainless thread and are perfect . lockable tiedowns

Hi Wilko

We looked a lot of tents and were sold on OZ Tent but in the end went for a Black Wolfe 2400 turbo plus, only 2 of us to use it.

The reason we changed was because the PVC floor extended out to the front section something we were very happy with a couple of times when camping and got very wet & stormy weather, with several inches of water running around and under the tent everthing inside stayed bone dry. It is very easy to put up but a bit more work to take down and pack away, cost about the same as Oz tent when you include the front and side panels, may be worth a look.

Cheers Rick

Oztent rocks..! Heavy and take up space but make the camping experience the best..!

I own an RV5 and I also bought the side panels and front panels, .
With the family we "need" the whole show, overnight stays, just the Main part is enough.
Pros, easy to put up and quick- real handy if traveling and only making a quick overnight stop.

cons, The Rv5 are around 2 meters long in the bag, NEED to go on a roof rack to store, most 4bys are high, so you will need the weetbix if you are lifting the big sucker by yourself.
Condensation, We had 3 adults and 2 kids, on cold nights, I noticed a lot of condensation building on the inside of the roof, was ok till the sun hits it and then it became rain, inside the tent!!, This has been mentioned before and is worse with more people in the tent, but I believe putting a "fly" over will go some way towards alleviating this issue.
I spend 5 weeks by myself if central Australia as well as Victoria (April/may)and had no problem at all with condensation, only when there was more peeps in the tent is when it became an issue

The tent itself can be up in less time than it takes to get it off the roof rack, I just use the 4 corner pegs if no wind is likely, however, if assembling the whole whole kit and caboodle in add quite some time, guy ropes and more pegs as well as fitting the panels.

Another popular idea is to lay down shade cloth under tent and in work areas, protects the floor from underneath and when it come time to put the tent down, it will remain clean on the bottom side of floor.
I just buy a few plastic tarps from s-cheap ,$3-4 a pop and put pegs thru so it holds flat
Shane

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Hi Wilko,
Haven,t seen you around for a while.
We have one of the original aqua colloured small tent for 2 & a little screen room,.... it attaches to the front if you are staying any where for a while.
We bout ours for going way out where you can't take trailers.
Normally we move on every day as time isn't long enough when on holz.
I don't think there were any side walls when we bought ours or we didn't think we'd needed one, can't remember.
They're fantastic.
Bad points......You have to lift them up onto the roof and lifting them can be awkward. We haven't got a roller pod, that certainly would make it easier.
We always wrap it in carpet to tie it down but still find that on bad corrugations that the ropes can rub where the frame is.
We should have bought a roller pod when they came out ,but there is a limit to what we spend and hind sight has proven hubby that we should've.
We carry a plastic garden rake which you can take the handle off and chip out any obvious problems with the shovel and lay a good quality canvas tarp under it which extends out a foot or so at the sides and back leaving 4 or so feet in the front as the veranda floor.
The other thing , which wasn't the tents' fault was accidentally packing it away with an insect inside of it. Especially those little black beetles in the desert areas.
When we unpacked that night it had eaten through both material and mesh.
The after sales service is great too. I wont fit in here now.
I'll try to find a photo of ours set up on the C.S.R. and put it in my profile folder. Give me about half an hour.
Take care, safe travels. Ma.

Mum & Dad have/had an RV5 and given I've spent a lot of time traveling with them putting the OzTent up and down I can offer some advice...

Pros:

1. Plenty of room and height,
2. canvas is solid & waterproof,
3. good build*,
4."self erecting*"

* with limitation - see below

Cons:

1. we had a problem with the plastic corner joins cracking - however it has been well used - replaced them with metal corner brackets / nyloc bolts, and a bit of grinding/filing to smooth the corner so it didn't rub the canvas and it was as good as gold (and more solid than it was before) - corner bits do have a bit of flex

2. to put stretchers in end ways you really need to peg the back dorsal flap otherwise feet / stretcher will rub

3. for the larger RV's - don't believe the spiel that it's a one man job to erect - you need two - one to hold/pull the front while another slides the self locking arms on the side - also applies on the way down as well

4. while as some said above you can do with four corner pegs, however if you want to erect with the back lifted and include fly cover and front awning, then you're looking at at least 14 pegs... sort of defeats the self erecting do it in 5 mins spiel at the camper shows

RV5 - loooong when folded and can be heavy - won't go inside vehicle and unless you're reasonably mobile - could be a hassle getting onto roofs... my father built a custom off-road trailer just to carry the Oztent and he has shoulder problems

Please don't take the cons as a negative, Mum & Dad loved theirs, and it was a great tent when up, however it's probably not ideal for quick one night stops...

Hi all,

Am going to take the advice and invest in one, and I mean invest cause by the sound of it, it will last a while.

Thanks for all the replies This forum has the best most geniune people in Oz on it.

Cheers Wilko