Teepee Tent

We used to be avid campers as a family and had many fantastic holidays as our children were growing up but to be honest, ever since I discovered All Inclusive hotels my camping days are long over and it is not something that I would ever consider partaking in again, however, a relative (in all of their wisdom) bought my sons the Argos 4 man Teepee tent last Christmas, quite why I will never know, but I felt duty bound to use it with my children even if it was only in the relative comfort of my own back garden with a working toilet, electricity and shower nearby!

Erection

After being nagged without relent one sunny day in the school holidays I gave in to requests that the tent could be put up in the garden. My sons are 9 and 12 and to be honest, they put up the tent almost entirely on their own which goes to show how easy it is to erect. From start to finish the entire construction took just under twenty minutes and over half of this was the pegging out process. There is only one layer to this tent which is why it is so quick to put up - you literally lay the fabric out flat, peg out the edges pulling them taught, lay down the ground sheet, put the central pole up through the middle on the inside then guy out and clip the ground sheet to the sides and that's the job done. There are tension adjusters on all of the straps, so if you are a perfectionist it is possible to erect this teepee with precision accuracy!

Taking the tent down is just as easy and takes less than five minutes - take out the pegs and pole, lay flat and roll. Most of the time is spent trying to get it back into the small bag; why is it that these things never seem to go back as easily as they came out? At 6.5kg it is not too heavy and with its small dimensions of 80 x 20 x 20cm when it is in the bag it is easily transportable.

Specifications

The tent is made from 100% polyester and the fabric seems slightly thicker than the tent we had before and I think that this helps the fabric not to crease too much so once complete, it actually looks surprisingly tidy. It is mostly a sandy beige colour, but it is accentuated with a darker brown at key points like the very top, around the vents and where the guys are attached. Even though it is not the most interesting colour in the world, I quite like it as it is not too garish and blends in with its surroundings a bit better than other tents that I have seen. The guys are white and I can imagine that they would bet very dirty with regular use, but for as long as they remain white, they are very easy to see at night so hopefully no tripping and landing in the tent face first (we've all done it!). Spare guy ropes are supplied in case of breakages. The central pole is divided into three shorter poles that are attached together by a central string and they fit snugly together without wobbling, but this design obviously means that the floor space inside the teepee is broken up considerably so you couldn't put a table in the middle or anything like that. Although the pegs are fairly chunky, a couple of them succumbed to the hard ground and bent, but you get plenty of spares so it is not such a problem and I have not come across a peg yet that does not bend.

The teepee shaped tent has a maximum head height of 2m, ie, that is how tall the central pole is, but as it tapers down you obviously lose the height so the majority of time spent inside is going to be with a bent back! The internal diameter of the teepee is 340cm - for the external "footprint" about 75cm should be added onto the entire perimeter to allow adequate space for guy ropes - this is not written in stone as the guys are adjustable to around 15cm. There are two "entrances" on either side of the tent, the opening is 100cm high so a fair amount of ducking is required to get in (or out). The tent has ten sides and on four of the panels there are small PVC windows so you do not feel completely cut off from the rest of the world once you are zipped up - the windows have roll up covers on the inside so can easily be obscured if wanted. There are also vents covered by mesh so as not to let bugs in on four panels which can be guyed out for extra ventilation if needed but if not wanted they can be neatly zipped and velcroed down, but I do not see why these vents are necessary as there is a gaping hole all of the way round which links me nicely to my next point....

Bring on the Elements!

As there is no inner tent, just the outer shell, the groundsheet is not actually attached to the sides apart from ten clips so all of the way around there is a huge gap which lets in all sorts - wind, rain, bugs and anything else that dares to enter and this is a monumental reason why I could never recommend this as an actual camping-going-on-holiday tent. I find this really disappointing as the rest of the tent is so well made, real attention to detail has been made to the stitching and each individual component appears to be of a high quality - there is even a reinforced square on the groundsheet where the central pole rests for extra strength which I think is well thought about.

We have had the teepee up in the garden several times now and we have made several attempts to spend the night out there but come midnight we simply can't take anymore and scurry back to the comfort of the house! It withstands heavy winds very well structurally, but the wind blows the rain up and under which of course is not ideal and if you are camped on an uneven surface, water gathers in small pools on the floor. Condensation gathers quickly on the inside on the teepee so you cannot get too close to the edges and although the fabric itself does not appear to leak in heavy rain, the taped seams do a little bit but this is the same with all new tents and even though you are not advised to with this one - it is best to put seam sealant (available from camping shops) on all new tents and it should be reapplied annually.

Happy Camper?

This is supposed to be a four man tent, but I simply cannot see how this would work - you definitely cannot fit four single airbeds inside, or even two doubles, and even if you all slept on the floor, you would not be able to fit anything else in there whatsoever and you would be pushed to the edges and therefore get wet with condensation! I would say that this would be a comfortable two man with possibly a child also but any more than that is a definite no. It would also be quite good as a social tent if a group of you went camping - this one could be used for get togethers in the evenings!

If I had bought this tent and taken it on holiday without putting it up previously I would have been horrified - firstly by the immense ventilation underneath and also by the small size, however having said that, it does make an ideal childs play den but it is probably a bit more expensive than you would like to pay for such an item at its full RRP of £79.99 (although it is currently half price at £39.99 - 24/05/2011). This teepee is specifically made for Argos, but after having a quick look through the rest of their camping range, there are a lot better tents at better prices available. If you want to rough it at a festival with a funky looking design, then this might well be the product for you and you will definitely stand out from the crowd, but as a proper camping tent I would give this a wide berth.

Also posted on Dooyoo under my username emmachilcott