Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 22:54:28 -0500
Reply-To: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET>
Subject: Re: Bus Depot Side Tent...
In-Reply-To: <4c9ffe11.9269e50a.3920.ffffca2e@mx.google.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
David,
Here is my tent idea. I have an EZ-UP tent I use for art fairs. Takes
me every bit of 90 seconds to put it up once I have it setting out where
i want to put it. I have four side panels for it with velcro closures,
and a bug net that hangs from the inside. It works pretty well except in
the hardest of down pours. I often have to set up on asphalt and can't
drive stakes. So, I have 4 inch and 6 inch PVC pipe filled with concrete
with a really large eyebolt embedded in the concrete. The opposite end
has a cap on on it. I tie one of these puppies to each corner if winds
are expected. If it's really expected to storm, I pack it in.
This system works well for camping in the Van. I just put the tent up
right nect to the Sliding dorr. Workks great. For light rain without
wind, one of the panels can be fastened to the tent frame and hung over
the top of the van, preventing water from getting in the open sliding door.
I think my EZ-UP is great for camping. Sams has their own special
version out now that they get from EZ-UP. Last i looked they were like
$255. That's been a while back, though.
John Rodgers
Clayartist and Moldmaker
88'GL VW Bus Driver
Chelsea, AL
Http://www.moldhaus.com
On 9/26/2010 9:14 PM, David Beierl wrote:
> At 04:49 PM 9/26/2010 -0700, Phil wrote:
>> I am considering buying this tent but before I do I'd like to hear from
>> someone who has bought and used this tent. Did it meet
>> expectations? Would
>> you buy one again? What are some of the pros and cons of this tent?
>
> Mine was delivered just barely in time for Buses by the Buoy (where I
> lost my last remaining cat). For various reasons it's been a rough
> couple of weeks, but I'll see if I can remember that far back.
>
> Nota Bene: The site was hard-packed river gravel. The fifty or so
> (really!) supplied thin steel pegs didn't have the slightest chance
> of penetrating that stuff. Fortunately I had six very serious spikes
> and a four pound hammer with me which held the tent up fine but
> didn't fasten the edges to the ground. I didn't want to use the
> floor anyway so as not to bruise it on the rocks.
>
> Pros:
>
> Excellent construction and good stout bags made out of black tarp
> material, same as the floor. In theory everything fits inside the
> large bag, but then the large bag weighs 80 pounds or so, in addition
> to your having to fold the tent compactly to leave room.
>
> Astounding versatility.
>
> Contrary to what Bus Depot says, it's entirely practical for one man
> to erect the thing. Takes a long time. If there were a lot of wind
> it might be very different. The one thing I did different from the
> instructions was to place the tent on the frame when the frame was
> only six inches off the ground, instead of three feet. Striking it
> (with two people) was easy. It's possible to fold the tent
> reasonably well while it's still supported by the roof skeleton, so
> you don't have to worry about picking up nasties from the ground.
>
> Poles all have internal spring and wire so they assemble easily.
>
> Poles all have color coded dots on them keyed to the
> instructions. As the instructions say, "By the time the dots wear
> off you should know how to do it, or you can mark them with a
> marker." I found that putting it together once was sufficient for
> the whole thing to make sense. Assembly is quite straight-forward
> once you know where things go.
>
> Instructions are brief but they work. One thing I believe they
> failed to mention was that it's good to have all doors etc fully
> zipped closed when erecting; otherwise the zippers may not want to go
> all the way to the end in use.
>
> Looks fairly weathertight when free-standing. No rain, so no experience.
>
> The "privacy cabin" is made of light-weight loosely woven material
> for air circulation, and has a large screened window that faces the
> side of the tent. It is very easy to clip onto the poles, and very
> easy to get mostly out of the way by clipping the ridge pole clips
> onto the side pole. It's big enough to sleep in.
>
> The roof is overhung about a foot in front, might be a help when
> looking for your keys in the rain. Might keep the rain out of the
> front window as well.
>
> The two windows have permanent screens (lots finer than regular
> screening, not so fine as no-see-um netting). They have clear vinyl
> "glazing." The front one has curtains on the inside and the side
> (possibly both?) has a solid canvas cover that zips down.
>
> When erecting the tent initially it's easy to attach the joining
> piece to the van gutter and then move the tent so the cloth is fairly
> taut. The instructions suggest having that cloth taut to improve how
> it works in the rain.
>
> There are substantial flaps all around to attach the floor to.
>
> The floor is made of stout black tarp material, appears very
> durable. There are two extra pieces of floor and some short poles to
> try to seal off the space under the van -- no idea how/if they work
> since the ground was so hard.
>
> Cons:
>
> There's no fly! I managed to miss this little (big) detail until I
> went looking for the fly to put it up and there wasn't
> one. Systematically fixing this would involve complicating the roof
> pole structure. Haven't looked/thought about how to improvise
> one. Being able to open whole sides takes *some* of the curse off this.
>
> When reattaching the vehicle to the already-erected tent it's going
> to be pretty tough to get the connecting part taut. I haven't seen
> any of this in the rain yet, so anything I say about that is conjecture.
>
> There's a strip of Velcro around the entire inside of the tent, where
> the floor attaches to the flaps of floor material that extend inward
> from the tent sides. Unfortunately it's the hook side, so there's a
> couple square feet of Velcro looking to make trouble unless the floor
> is in. I managed to get it slightly involved with one of the
> mosquito screens when striking, and of course it pulled bits off the
> screen (didn't ruin it).
>
> Screens do not open, and the fine-mesh screens restrict air movement
> considerably.
>
> The privacy cabin is big enough to sleep in. Possibly even for two
> good friends, not sure. That means it takes up one whole side of the
> tent when it's rigged (but see remarks in pros:).
>
> The privacy cabin provides privacy, for some value of privacy. That
> light cloth isn't transparent, but it sure isn't opaque.
>
> There are hook-and-eyes at the bottom of several openings to keep the
> integrity of the structure when various zippers are unzipped. The
> bad part is they're made of soft aluminum, and at least two of mine
> were crushed flat (as received) enough that they needed prying open
> to be usable. Hard aluminum, maybe anodized would have been much
> better IMO.
>
> The tent is so versatile that it has loops and toggles and stuff all
> over it, making it look rather messy. The worst is if you raise the
> front wall -- the curtains sagging down from the overhead are pretty
> sad-looking. Also the front wall is heavy enough that even with a
> lot of tension it's sort of saggy, and people about 5' 10" and up
> will brush their heads on it.
>
> You can't adjust the height of any of the open sides. This
> contributes to the condition the instructions warn about, which is
> that none of the open sides will withstand any significant wind or
> rain. Variable-height poles would fix the sides, but the front uses
> a structure that mirrors the roof line, so off-the-shelf poles
> wouldn't work for it.
>
> None of the open sides will withstand any significant wind or rain.
>
> This is highly speculative, since a) it wasn't raining and b) I
> didn't have enough Godzilla spikes to secure anything but the main
> tent itself. But it appeared to me that the elasticized panels that
> are supposed to seal the tent to the van sides would let in
> significant rain. Since you can close either or both of the tent
> door and the van door this probably isn't a big deal.
>
> Somewhat speculative, since I couldn't drive any pegs to fasten the
> edges down -- but reconfiguring the sides would likely require either
> pulling or driving pegs at the edges, as well as rigging/unrigging
> the pole guys. Leaving aside the edge question, it's a snap. But
> those fifty tent pegs are supposed to go *somewhere*.
>
> Point of interest:
>
> This is a serious tent. Rigging and unrigging it for a two-day stay
> seemed like too much work for us two old(ish) men. Of course if it
> had been hissing down with rain we'd perhaps have thought
> otherwise. Traveling as I do mostly alone or with one other person,
> I really wish I hadn't bought it, because $400 is a large amount of
> money for me at the moment and the ratio of work:use seems too high
> for me. Unfortunately I can't give it back as a) Ron points out that
> his return policy has been abused on this sort of thing, so he
> doesn't want to see it again and b) the aforementioned cosmetic issue
> where the mosquito net got caught in the Velcro. I'll give it
> another try or two, but I think I'll probably want to sell it. But
> that's nothing against the tent itself, just how it fits into my
> situation.
>
> Overall judgment so far:
>
> Serious, versatile, well made, quality materials, generally well
> thought-out. Price seems perfectly reasonable for what you get. If
> this is what you need, it will surely do the job for you. To me the
> most serious flaw is not arranging so that an open side can be
> secured against wind and made to shed rain. But for the sides (not
> the front) some adjustable poles should take care of that, I think;
> so it's really no big deal.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Yours,
> David
>
>
| 
