OK it's a £25 tent and currentlly that's all I need - my son borrowed the slightly better one some time back and now the groundsheet leaks, and I need a base level tent for a fortnight's time.
I've just pitched this one in the back garden - it's not a mountain tent ! The groundsheet only pegs down at the four corners and the flysheet should be deeper, but otherwise it's a bargain (so far!). The inner tent hangs off the poles with neat clips I haven't seen before and the poles plug into what they call aglets in the grounsheet corner rings - not seen this before either and how neat too. Found it very quick to put up. I can't say as yet how good it is to camp in but the 'garden' run shows plenty of room for two (210cm x 175cm x 120cm high), and no cutting of corners for storage etc, even down to two toggles at the back I couldn't figure out and later realised are for the tent bag to be used as a store bag. Even the storm guys come in velcroed pockets in the flysheet. Lets hope all these extra bits haven't been paid for in it's performance - but at £25 ......
Out of curiosity I weighed the Sopu cotton igloo tent I bought in the late 60's and carried everywhere - at least always 2 of us did, and it weighs 11 kg and doesn't have a porch, shown by the patches on the groundsheet where the cross piece of the primus used to do a Chinese Syndrome when someone kicked out with cramp - the resulting hole did at least allow the soup to drain away ! On the other hand the Sopu would survive a storm half way up Ben Nevis which the Aldi wouldn't look at. Don't really know why I've kept the Sopu ... nostalgia ?
The message <[email hidden]> from "Rob G" <[email hidden]> contains these words:
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All packed up it's weighing 4.6 kg.
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Out of curiosity I weighed the Sopu cotton igloo tent I bought in the late 60's and carried everywhere - at least always 2 of us did, and it weighs 11 kg and doesn't have a porch, shown by the patches on the groundsheet where the cross piece of the primus used to do a Chinese Syndrome when someone kicked out with cramp - the resulting hole did at least allow the soup to drain away ! On the other hand the Sopu would survive a storm half way up Ben Nevis which the Aldi wouldn't look at. Don't really know why I've kept the Sopu ... nostalgia ?
I had a Lichfield in the 60s which had several primus stars but its replacement, a Black Mountain tent bought in 1970 has none, although the groundsheet has a dozen or more insulation tape repairs. The Mountain tent is still in regular (if somewhat limited) use unlike the lightweight tent (Ultimate U1 BX) I bought a year or 2 later.
I carried the Mountain Tent in from Linn of Dee to Luibeg Bridge Easter 1972 which might have been what prompted me to buy the Ultimate. The MT weighs in at some 15lb while the U1 BX a mere 4lb 12oz. I haven't used the lightweight tent since the early 80s and am not sure if I would dare now. How safe is ripstop nylon after 35 years?
Incidentally the catalogue price for the U1 B is given as £36 which would be over £300 in todays money so it wasn't cheap. OTOH it is not particularly heavy even by todays lightweight standards.
At 175cm wide inner tent size that seems to be the standard measurement for a "3 man tent"; in days of old I'm sure we got 3 of us into smaller tents than this, and cooked in there too. It seems to have an acceptable amount of room.
<I carried the Mountain Tent in from Linn of Dee to Luibeg Bridge Easter 1972 which might have been what prompted me to buy the Ultimate.>
Woose - there weren't such things as light weight tents in the mid 60's when we did a weekend right up Glen Derry with one and it was so cold that we had to thaw out our boots before putting them on and had to carry the polythene water bottle back full of ice. You had to be a man in those days !!
Woose - there weren't such things as light weight tents in the mid 60's when we did a weekend right up Glen Derry with one and it was so cold that we had to thaw out our boots before putting them on and had to carry the polythene water bottle back full of ice. You had to be a man in those days !!
Boots! When I were a lad, we used to dream about boots.
In article <[email hidden]>, Rob G <[email hidden]> writes
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<I carried the Mountain Tent in from Linn of Dee to Luibeg Bridge Easter 1972 which might have been what prompted me to buy the Ultimate.>
Woose - there weren't such things as light weight tents in the mid 60's when we did a weekend right up Glen Derry with one and it was so cold that we had to thaw out our boots before putting them on and had to carry the polythene water bottle back full of ice. You had to be a man in those days !!
Rob
Blimey - min 60's! that's after Lonnie Donegon was skiffling! and Chris Barber was playing Trad. -- Bill Grey http://www.billboy.co.uk
The message <[email hidden]> from "W. D. Grey" <[email hidden]> contains these words:
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Quoted message said:
<I carried the Mountain Tent in from Linn of Dee to Luibeg Bridge Easter 1972 which might have been what prompted me to buy the Ultimate.>
Woose - there weren't such things as light weight tents in the mid 60's when we did a weekend right up Glen Derry with one and it was so cold that we had to thaw out our boots before putting them on and had to carry the polythene water bottle back full of ice. You had to be a man in those days !!
Rob
Blimey - min 60's! that's after Lonnie Donegon was skiffling! and Chris Barber was playing Trad.
I am not sure how far back lightweight tents go but my Ultimate U1 was reviewed in the August 1971 edition of the Climber & Rambler. The first paragraph of the review includes the observation "Lightweight tents are really lightweight at last" and the only other tent mentioned in the review was the Vango Force Ten Featherweight which they had reviewed the previous month. The Vango weighed in at 5lb. The various flavours of Ultimate U1 ranged from 3lb 8 oz to 5lb 12oz.
Curiously the the first thing that met my eye when I opened the magazine was an advert for Blacks New Mountain Tent, the version I have (mentioned above). A tent redesigned by a committee and all but ruined in the process. List price was then £33.50, 50p more than the most expensive of the U1 range.
