Member Since: 10 Jul 2011
Location: lancashire
Posts: 91
Quick review of our oztent rv5
Just returned from our camping holiday in Cornwall....12 nights at Gwithian Farm St ives Bay and 6 nights at Wooda Bude.
Weather was sometimes pleasant and sunny but we had a few days of strong winds and rain, perfect conditions to test out our new oztent Rv 5 purchased from Leeds this summer.
Our set up was our much used and trusted Dandy folding camper , oztent Rv 5 with side and front panel and tuff trek awning...
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Initial thoughts on the oztent is that it is as many say, very good quality.
One thing to note however, is that although ours is the biggest size ( rv5) the rating of a 5 person tent is based on sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags. I.e you can't sleep 5 in this on camp beds....you may squeeze 3 oztent camp beds in or 4 smaller beds but no more.
That said our intentions were to sleep in our Dandy and the kids to sleep in the oztent on camp beds...this afforded acres of room for all of us.
The initial set up of the oztent , with a bit of practice is very quick and without the sides looks pretty cool and for quick stops is brilliant.
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Putting the sides up however is a bit of a struggle particularly in strong winds and needs a few extra hands.
That said once the structure was up it withstood some pretty strong winds and was worth the effort.
If you want the convenience of quick pitching and can use the tent as a standalone you can do this very quickly but the pegging out and putting up side panels takes a lot longer....about 20 minutes in our experience though I'm sure with practice this will be vastly reduced.
We got some pretty prolonged periods of driving rain and the fabric beaded very well throughout.
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Our only concern over quality was with the poles...Brendan gave some good advice about drilling the bottom of the rubber feet to allow water to escape and prevent the hydraulic effect of water build up.
The poles have a black plastics surround/ grip which cracked and broke on 3 of the poles...this doesn't stop use of the poles but would be better if it was made of rubber ?
Next year we plan on escaping to France via the Bilbao ferry and then travelling over a couple of weeks back through France using the speed of the oztent set up to pitch at several sites.
We intend the leave the Dandy at home and use the money saved on the ferry crossing by not towing a unit and buy a second oztent. In other words we are so pleased with the tent, we are going to buy another !!!!
So Brendan if you let me build up my Tesco club card points I'll have another one off you before next summer
How about an " oztent tips" thread , there must be hundreds of us using these tents now ?
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