It’s only an op about a tent……honestly! Who’s that fella Vango anyway………….?!
I consider myself a hardened camper. My experiences range from a bivvy bag above the Boulder Ruckle in Swanage, to a budget Millets 2-pole tent on the Orkneys, from family holidays in Harlech under a vast canvas and steel construction to New Years Eve in a Vango Force Ten Mk5 in Langdale, as well as several seasons in the Swiss Alps, plus many, many other trips. I have camped in rain, wind, sleet, snow, sun and thunderstorms. I have pitched a tent halfway up a mountain, in tropical jungle, in a lay-by and on the beach. I have had my tents blown away, been soaked to the skin, eaten by midges, infested by ants (and once a hedgehog) and still come back for more.
Right, we thought, it’s time to introduce the children to this fabulous pastime. Besides it’s cheaper than hotels. But the good old Vango Force Ten was looking a bit the worse for wear so we decided to invest in a new luxurious but compact model large enough to accommodate 3 young children and 2 middle aged adults.
Tent design changed a great deal about 10 years ago with the advent of dome tents and tunnel tents. These incorporate flexible jointed poles, made either of metal or glass fibre. They increase the usable space inside the tent, having a curved ceiling, take up less room when packing and are lighter. Tent material has also improved greatly; you are no longer restricted to heavy weight canvas and you can choose from a range of polyurethane coated materials in a variety of grades. Inner chambers are made with breathable cotton, or nylon with sewn in groundsheets. You can still buy traditional ‘A’ Frame tents, which have the advantage of being easier to put up and are very durable and weather resistant.
Without further hesitation we all piled into the MPV and headed off to Sheffield to explore ‘CCC Outdoor Centre’s’ display of tents. They have a wide range of tents set up on the 1st floor ranging from the Khyam self erecting tent to tiny one pole bivvy tents and quite a few in between. We browsed around checking for features that would suit our requirements; we looked at weight, quality of construction and sleeping arrangements. Eventually we settled on the Vango TBS Equinox 600, a hoop or tunnel design 3/4-season tent that sleeps 6 people (in theory). We figured that we might as well stick to Vango as we knew that their tents were reliable and the customer support is also good.
Vango is actually an anagram of Govan, a Scottish tent making company that was acquired in 1963 by the parent company Andrew Mitchell & Co Ltd. Their history goes back a lot further and details can be found on the Vango website amg-outdoor.co.uk/vango/index.html . Anyway, their ‘signature’ tent, the Vango Force Ten was first manufactured in 1967 in that distinctive bright orange colour. It is still a best selling model favoured by expeditions due to its stability and strength. Incidentally the Andrew Mitchell Group also owns another well-known tent brand – Lichfield.
The TBS Equinox 600 is a new design for 2002. It is a tunnel tent that is 180cm high at its highest point, 320cm wide at its widest point and 560cm long. It has a sleeping compartment that is about 2m x 3.5m in area and a good-sized living space roughly 3.5m x 3.5m. The sleeping area is large enough to get two double inflatable mattresses inside. There are two very useful doors, one at the front of the tent which opens out like a canopy with 2 more supporting poles, and another canopy at the side which includes a mesh liner that can be left closed to keep out the midges but let in the daylight. With the doors closed the living area could comfortably accommodate a largish camping table, two folding ‘armchairs’, two children’s camping chairs, a food storage box and a small box of toys.
The ‘TBS’ in the name stands for Tension Band System. Basically these are a series of elasticised straps and buckles on the inside of the tent that add internal bracing to the poles, thus providing a more stable structure. It is well known that tunnel tents, whilst being the most space efficient, do not cope well with side winds, hence the need for some other form of support. In practise these tension bands were a pain in the neck. You wouldn’t want to have them fastened unless you were going out for the day or sleeping because they seriously cut down the headroom and living space, essentially turning the tunnel into an ‘A’ frame. Mind you, I think they would only be needed in exceptionally windy conditions because we didn’t use them at all and the tent survived several stormy nights without being flattened. If these bands are not in use they can be stored in the dinky little pockets next to the poles.
The flysheet of the Equinox is made of Hytex SPU Nylon, this is a close woven form of ripstop nylon, and the seams are sealed so that water can’t penetrate the stitching. The green dye used to colour the flysheet contains UV inhibitors so the material is not weakened by continued exposure to the sunlight. There is a single ‘bedroom’ made from breathable nylon with plenty of pockets for bits and pieces and a rather thin sewn in groundsheet. All of the materials used have been treated with a fire retardant.
The tent is held up by a series of 4 parallel poles. These are made from flexible aluminium alloy, the joints are fastened with shock cord and they slot together. These poles are very light and take up very little space. There are colour-coded sleeves in the flysheet for the poles so you can’t get them muddled up. Like all tents with bendy poles or a curved design it is a bit of a struggle to get them in and out of the sleeves. If you pull the pole, then it pops out of it’s socket and snags up in the sleeve, if you push then it just crinkles up all the fabric and gets stuck. It was best to lay the tent flat and inside out when putting the poles in. I was very impressed at how flexible these metal poles were.
Included with the tent is a nylon taffeta groundsheet, plenty of aluminium pegs and lots of guy ropes. It all comes packed in one bag that weighs a total of 9.6kg and measures 64cm x 25cm, this is very light for a tent of this size. A good feature of the bag is that instructions for erecting the tent are printed on a large cloth label fastened to the inside top edge!!
OK, so we got the tent home, practised putting it up in the garden and then took it with us to the south of France for 2 weeks.
The tent performed very well throughout. We were all very snug and warm inside the sleeping compartment, although I’d hate to imagine sleeping with the recommended 6 adults. There was a comfortable amount of extra space with 2 adults and 3 young children. The Equinox lived through some dreadfully unseasonal thunderstorms, monsoon like rain and strong winds that thoroughly tested its design. One design fault that we did find was that the groundsheet protruded below the front door (when shut) hence any rain falling on the tent ran off onto the groundsheet and was funnelled into the living area and we ended up one morning with quite a large puddle in the living space.
The Equinox was not that easy to put up, at least not as easy as an ‘A’ frame but easier than some dome tents I’ve used. Once the poles were in place it was quite straightforward to slot the ends into the brass rings that secured the flysheet, pull the tent out and peg it down. The bedroom was fastened to the flysheet/poles with a series of circular ‘snap’ fasteners that were very quick and easy to use, you can put the tent up flysheet first or fasten the ‘bedroom’ in before adding the poles. We found it easiest to do the flysheet first. Likewise the groundsheet also ‘snapped’ to the base of the poles.
Vango assert that you can move the whole tent to face the prevailing wind – not on your nelly! Not unless you fancy a bit of paragliding! With more than 2 adults maybe this would be possible but it seems unlikely. We were also a bit concerned about the thinness of the ‘bedroom’ groundsheet, this lies directly on the earth so would be susceptible to any sharp stones or twigs. Only time will tell.
You can buy a Vango TBS Equinox for about 400GBP from any good tent stockist or outdoor shop.
It looks good enough so that you can use it in the mountains without feeling like a complete anorak, and it’s small enough that it doesn’t take up all your pitch in the continental camp sites. As a 3/4 season tent it should be able to withstand most weather conditions and as we now have 3 more enthusiastic camping converts in the family, I can see the Equinox getting lots of use.
Husbands view – wish I could have found a traditional frame tent that was as well made and light weight as this. Whatever the sales personnel may say, dome tents are difficult and slow to put up.
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