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Topic Date User

Alpine Tents - Advice please 17-Feb-2008 At 7:42:52 PM JamesMc

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On 17/02/2008 Sabu wrote:
>On 16/02/2008 JamesMc wrote:
>>I have a Kathmandu tent. It's one of the worst tents I have ever owned
>>- now only used for car camping.
>How come?

It's a Mountain, four hoop Wildcountry Quasar copy.

The things I don't like about it are:
1. The fly is polyester. This means that any tears in it run incredibly easily. It has had three substantial (ie half metre long) tears. Now these may be due to rough handling, but they are the only significant tent tears I have had in over 30 years of bushwalking etc. (Note the they may have changed the materials since I bought it about 6 years or so ago.)

2. The floor is too thin, so you need an additional ground sheet underneath to avoid destroying it. Now that's common with many tents, especially American tents designed for camping on lawns, but not Macpac. If you have a Macpac tent, you don't need to carry the weight of an extra floor.

3. In spite of the inadequate floor it's incredibly heavy. This is due both to the heavy fly, and large size of the tent. The large size is nice, but it doesn't justify the weight.

I now have a Macpac Minaret, which is a much better tent. I use it as a one person tent on easy trips where weight doesn't matter, and as a tight two person tent on big / hard trips where weight is critical. It's four years old, has been looked after well, and looks like new. The Kathmandu Mountain is just used for car camping.

JamesMc