Chris Naylor said:Just spent some pennies on a new tent for myself as my stop-gap measure
of a tent decided to pop it's cloggs last time I used it (see TR: Ever
have one of those trips for details!!!). Bought myself a Laserlite as I
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Having just bought and briefly used one of these myself, I thought I'd
give my 2p worth.
Pegs:
First of all, the brass-tipped carbon fibre pegs - I didn't take them,
so I can't really comment except to say they are very very light. (I was
walking part of the GR10 and not having been there before took some
proper pegs in case the ground was hard and stony). I expect they'd
work well on firm grassy soil, but the lack of hook on top makes me
think that guys would easily pop off with enough peg movement.
Material:
Groundsheet tougher than I was expecting - I was expecting this to have
been somewhere they would have gotten their weight loss from but it
seems ok. Flysheet was like tissue paper on my first touch though, but
it too seems to do the job fine. There is no separate flyscreen for the
door - the bottom half is made of normal tent inner material, top half
mesh. There are mesh vents low down at head and foot ends with velcro'd
on covers. I'd have liked it if there was some kind of vent on the fly
near the top of the door (like I think the Atko has) but there ain't.
Pitching:
First twice I used it, there were no problems pitching (inner + fly
together, as it was when I got it) - peg it out, guy it out, tweak the
tweakable bits and the outer was as taut as it looks in Terra Nova's
pictures. This was on good flat ground.
Second two times I pitched it were not so easy as I'd detached the inner
so I could dry the fly separately. The bit that got me was the riser
poles at either end - one end fits into the bottom of the inner, the
other part a little way up the inside of the fly. I found these
particularly fiddly to sort out, what with the cord that fastens to
either end (presumably to prevent these poles popping out) and the
guying of these little poles. Maybe it was just because I was a bit
tired and irritable when doing this. You definitely have to get these
right to get the fly nice and taut, and so away from the inner. Managed
one end well, other a little saggy on third and fourth pitches (roughish
ground). I'd hate to have done this part in adverse conditions, though
I expect this will come a lot easier with practice.
The way these poles fit also means you can't pitch properly with the fly
only, which I thought would be a nice feature. You could still pitch
it, but lose the height at both ends from the little poles, and have a
saggy fly. (Maybe, if not too windy, the bottom of the riser poles
could be jammed into the ground a little?).
I was annoyed also by the lack of something to fasten back the opened
door, until on my third pitching when I spotted it - a small loop on the
inner. I was more used to rolling it outside somewhere.
Stability:
Felt solid, but then I didn't have any wind to put up with (other than
my own ;-).
De-pitching:
Easy, but I got a wet back from the condensation dripping as I undid the
fasteners holding the inner. Also, as the door was unfastened during
depitching this flapped onto my back a few times.
Packing the tent away:
The fly tends to pop out like a bubblegum bubble when rolling the tent
up. And though the tent squishes easy once in it's bag it relaxes to
the size of a bigger tent - some compression straps on the bag would
have been nice (but maybe not worth the extra few grammes for
lightweight afficionados?)
Condensation:
Yes, there was some but I couldn't really say for sure if it was more
than any other tent.
Room:
Plenty. Porch big enough for my sack, boots and stuff, plus room on the
inside for some stuff at your side. Some room at head/foot end but not
loads (I'm 5'10''😉. Tall enough for me to sit up in the middle. Not
sure yet if I'd be happy cooking in the porch, but the inner can be
unattached from the under-tent tensioning band and probably rolled back
a little to give more room.
Overall:
If I can get the pitching of the ends down pat then I think I'm going to
like this tent. I'll not get rid of my Pro Action Tiger Paws just yet,
but stick to using it for back-of-the-motorbike solo camping.
