Camping Equipment recommendations

I thought I would update the thread again ith another good price I've found, this time for a 2 season sleeping bag this time. I've found a Fjallraven Skule 2 season sleeping bag for £57 reduced from £95, and it includes free delivery too.

http://www.aboveandbeyond.co.uk/sle...g-bags/skule-two-seasons-sleeping-bag-regular

It's probably not as light at 1.2kg as I would have liked but seems to be a good value two season option from a manufacturer I've heard about, and it looks like a good option spec v price for the spring/summer camping I'm likely to be doing. So far the two savings add up to around £50 which sounds great, and potentially could allow funds for a nice nemo fillo pillow ive read good reviews about.

I've still not made up my mind on a tent yet, I'm swaying towards either a Vango Mirage 2 or Vango Halo 2. Im thinking a semi geodesic design will probably be useful and god for internal height. I'm happy waiting on a tent as it's not needed until next year, and I'm happy to wait to buy when the price seems right.
 
mrgubby said:
I've got the halo 300, excellent tent ( if a bit heavy)
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Do you get on well with it? the halo 2 is on my list though I'm now swaying towards the wild country helm 2 (a little like the halo, around 1kg lighter but its not got semi geodesic pole design of the halo) or the wild country trisar 2 (semi geodesic design but inner pitch first). I can see me going back and forth, until I finally buy one!

Does anyone know if there is a good time of year to buy camping gear, are there likely to be any autumn sales selling off this years models before new ones come out next year?
 
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It depends on what your after, yes there are normally sales towards the end of the season, but most deals tend to be around the bigger tents. Places like Go Outdoors or Ultimate Outdoors are quite good for deals on equipment too.
 
If you're backpacking I can recommend a Robens Fortress tent....
It packs fairly small, is reasonably light, very waterproof and more spacious than most backpacking tents.
It goes up very quickly and is very stable.
I've had my Robens Fortress for about 15 years now and it's been used every year and still going strong!
 
Well, I've narrowed the choice down to two wild country tents. I was looking at the vango halo and mirage tents but the wild country tents seem to be similar designs but lighter which is beneficial.

I thought I would ask opinions on these:

Wild Country Helm 2

http://www.uttings.co.uk/p126239-wild-country-helm-2-tent-green-44he200/#.Wb2SHbHTWf0

Wild Country Trisar 2

http://www.uttings.co.uk/p120017-wild-country-trisar-2-tent-green-44tr200/#.Wb2W57HTWf0

I'm swaying toward the Helm as its lighter at 2.3kg and outer first pitch. The Trisar looks a more stable design but is inner first which was something I was trying to avoid. Both have more head room than the Vango Banshee that I first looked at which I found a little low inside. Though I've not seen either I've seen some similar sized OEX tents at go outdoors that seemed to have plenty of space inside and good head room.
 
Personally I wouldn't worry too much about inner vs outer pitching first.

If the tent is quick & easy to pitch then it'll be up before the rain causes a problem (it takes very few minutes to pitch a well designed tent and the inner should have moderate water repellent properties anyway). Alternatively lay the outer over the inner before inserting the poles and raising the dome.

FWIW a Wild Country Trisar was my home for 6 months while I bimbled around New Zealand and I never found the inner first design to be a problem - NZ has more rainfall than the UK.
(This was 20 years ago, so a modern Trisar will probably be very different to the Trisar I used.)
 
I don't know about the Wild Country tents but I found one of the best bits with the Halo's are that all three poles are the same, no faffing about in the rain/dark looking for colour codes etc :)
 
TonyHall said:
Personally I wouldn't worry too much about inner vs outer pitching first.

If the tent is quick & easy to pitch then it'll be up before the rain causes a problem (it takes very few minutes to pitch a well designed tent and the inner should have moderate water repellent properties anyway). Alternatively lay the outer over the inner before inserting the poles and raising the dome.

FWIW a Wild Country Trisar was my home for 6 months while I bimbled around New Zealand and I never found the inner first design to be a problem - NZ has more rainfall than the UK.
(This was 20 years ago, so a modern Trisar will probably be very different to the Trisar I used.)
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Donnie said:
Out of the two i would go for the helm, its lighter, cheaper and outer and inner together is an advantage. Plus porches and doors both sides is very convenient.
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I'm pretty much changing my mind back and forth between the two, I can see the benefits of both. I don't think I can really go wrong with either of them.

mrgubby said:
I don't know about the Wild Country tents but I found one of the best bits with the Halo's are that all three poles are the same, no faffing about in the rain/dark looking for colour codes etc :)
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That's a great benefit, really useful to put it up quickly.

I've got a few months to make a decision as I'm not going to be using it until spring. It's the last item I'm going to need as I'm sorted on the sleeping front. I've gone with the Nemo Fillo pillow recommended by Thomas Heaton in one of his videos. I'm seeing possible uses beyond camping for the air mat and pillow, being so small and light they can easily be taken any where.
 
mrgubby said:
I don't know about the Wild Country tents but I found one of the best bits with the Halo's are that all three poles are the same, no faffing about in the rain/dark looking for colour codes etc :)
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It's not exactly complicated with the two long poles on a trisar and the one short one to get it wrong.

An advantage of the trisar and similar geodesic tents is you can pick the inner up and move it around to fine tune your chosen site.
Also if you are buying it mainly for photography if the weather forecast is pants you aren't that likely to be planning to go take pics anyway. ;)
 
rob-nikon said:
I've gone with the Nemo Fillo pillow recommended by Thomas Heaton in one of his videos. I'm seeing possible uses beyond camping for the air mat and pillow, being so small and light they can easily be taken any where.
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250g is quite a bit of weight in the grand scheme of things. And £45!! I'll keep on using a stuff sack with my spare clothes/fleece in. :)
 
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