Following our fantastic trip to Australia the Co-pilot and I are forming plans and dreams to jack it all in and take a sabatical to go travelling around Australai. Now with that now almost cliche of phrase - "the current econominomic crisis" it doesn't seem the best time to be quitting a job if you have one still so we are staying put for the time being. However, sanity dictates that can't just put a dream that big on hold indefinatly therefore we have decided to "invest" a few of the comforts we plan to take on the big trip, the main one being a South African Sarafi style roof top tent:
After reading around the subject and checking out what is available here in the UAE we decided to go in the end for the Forerunner Featherlite which was sourced through Icon in Dubai. Other options available were either on the second hand market (but sold before we coudl get it) or the Opensky tent from ACE.
In the end we selected the Forerunner for two principle reasons - the Featherlite is, as the name suggests, much lighter (about 38kg vs over 60kg). Secondly the guys at Icon actually knew about what they were selling and therefore able to talk to me about it thus giving me some confidence in the product. The guys at ACE almost seemed suprised to find they sold the tents, let alone talk to me about how to erect the tent etc.
So we selected the tent and took it out for its inaugral trip for the 2008 New Years Eve Camp Out (more about that later). Now, not being a great writer or journalist, I'm sure I'm not doing full justic to the tent by trying to give a review, but here goes. I'll split the review into five heading; ease of installation, ease of errection, space and comfort inside, ease of packing away and finally quality of construction.
Ease of Installation - This is probably the only place I would say the tent REALLY got on my tits, but then on reflection (and discussion with others) I don't believe it is anything of a crisim that could be layed at the Frontrunners door specifically, but instead to all tents of this type. In fact if anything it is made inherrantly easier with the Forerunner because it is lighter.
Basically, you have two aluminum rails on the bottom of the tent base which are then bolted using the supplied brackets to your roof rack. Now this sounds easy in principle except that you have to try and get your arm between the roof fack and the roof to bolt the damn things on. Now I have the ARB Expidition roof rack which due to the nature of the roof rails that attach the rack to the roof only give access to the underside of the tent at the front and back (not at the sides) as such the only way I could get to bolt the tent rails to the rack was to unbolt the entire roof rack, lift it up on blocks on the roof, bolt the tent rack, and then rinstall the roof rack. This was a very cumbersome and time consuming process, and before the end of the camping season here I shall be devising a quick release system so I don't have to repeat the process. But anyway, after lots of spit and cursing it is now installed and looks grand.
Ease of Erection - Now this is where the well designed roof tents aces the alternatives. To test the ease of installation we challenged the other new year campers to the first Dubai International Speed Tent Erection Competition.
The contenders - The Featherlite, a Carfour 80chip Dome Tent and a Go Sport Six Man Double Dome. And the conclusion - It has jsut taken you longer to read this paragraph that it took to erect the featherlite!! You unzip the tarpauling and pull out the ladder. The operation pulling out the ladder also unfoldes the tender and it all clicks itself together in a sweeping stretching arc like a cat waking from its sleep and having a good stretch. Genious. Total time, about 15 seconds.
The 80Chip tent took about 10 minutes, and the Super Six Man Double Dome, as far as I know, is still being assembled now. In order to maintain impartiality the whole event was presided over by our own tent errection expert - Jameria James:
Space and Comfort inside - Well, what can I say, the tent comes with a built in foam matress which, compared to the comfort levels offered by airbeds or roll mats this was a palacial luxury only otherwise experienced by visiting princes I am sure. Also, I am well over the six foot mark and usually expect to spend most of a night in a tent with my head or feet against the canvas. However, at well over 2m in length the Featherlite afforded me ample room to toss and turn and not once did I wake up stuck to canvas.
The proof being in the pudding I can vouch that we went to bed some time after midnight (ish) and slept through to 8.30am and awoke refreshed and cherpy without the vaguest hint of stifness or lost sleep. Even the Co-pilot was unable to find anything to complain about. The tent was even checked out by our aforementioned expert judge who concluded it was "wow!!" and awarded it the full green rating
Ease of Packing Away - well, once you have removed the sleepers, the inspectors and the general passers by who want a nosy inside the great temple canvas campingness the tent becomes just as easy to pack away as it was to erect. Fold away ladder and the action of folding away folds the tent away. I really couldn't be easier.
Quality of Construction - Now I don't know that much about the design or construction of tents so I'll have to keep the comments brief. The tent fabric was lighter than I was expecting, but then it is the featherlite so to be expected. The rest of the contruction is very strong and heavy weight, the seems are welll constructed and the corners are stengthened. The Copilot liked the colour - an important comment for a girl. As far as longlevity and build quality go only time can really tell, so we'll let it tell.
So, in summary, as you might be able to guess I am impressed and "chuffed to bits" with the new tent.
After reading around the subject and checking out what is available here in the UAE we decided to go in the end for the Forerunner Featherlite which was sourced through Icon in Dubai. Other options available were either on the second hand market (but sold before we coudl get it) or the Opensky tent from ACE.
In the end we selected the Forerunner for two principle reasons - the Featherlite is, as the name suggests, much lighter (about 38kg vs over 60kg). Secondly the guys at Icon actually knew about what they were selling and therefore able to talk to me about it thus giving me some confidence in the product. The guys at ACE almost seemed suprised to find they sold the tents, let alone talk to me about how to erect the tent etc.
So we selected the tent and took it out for its inaugral trip for the 2008 New Years Eve Camp Out (more about that later). Now, not being a great writer or journalist, I'm sure I'm not doing full justic to the tent by trying to give a review, but here goes. I'll split the review into five heading; ease of installation, ease of errection, space and comfort inside, ease of packing away and finally quality of construction.
Ease of Installation - This is probably the only place I would say the tent REALLY got on my tits, but then on reflection (and discussion with others) I don't believe it is anything of a crisim that could be layed at the Frontrunners door specifically, but instead to all tents of this type. In fact if anything it is made inherrantly easier with the Forerunner because it is lighter.
Basically, you have two aluminum rails on the bottom of the tent base which are then bolted using the supplied brackets to your roof rack. Now this sounds easy in principle except that you have to try and get your arm between the roof fack and the roof to bolt the damn things on. Now I have the ARB Expidition roof rack which due to the nature of the roof rails that attach the rack to the roof only give access to the underside of the tent at the front and back (not at the sides) as such the only way I could get to bolt the tent rails to the rack was to unbolt the entire roof rack, lift it up on blocks on the roof, bolt the tent rack, and then rinstall the roof rack. This was a very cumbersome and time consuming process, and before the end of the camping season here I shall be devising a quick release system so I don't have to repeat the process. But anyway, after lots of spit and cursing it is now installed and looks grand.
Ease of Erection - Now this is where the well designed roof tents aces the alternatives. To test the ease of installation we challenged the other new year campers to the first Dubai International Speed Tent Erection Competition.
The contenders - The Featherlite, a Carfour 80chip Dome Tent and a Go Sport Six Man Double Dome. And the conclusion - It has jsut taken you longer to read this paragraph that it took to erect the featherlite!! You unzip the tarpauling and pull out the ladder. The operation pulling out the ladder also unfoldes the tender and it all clicks itself together in a sweeping stretching arc like a cat waking from its sleep and having a good stretch. Genious. Total time, about 15 seconds.
The 80Chip tent took about 10 minutes, and the Super Six Man Double Dome, as far as I know, is still being assembled now. In order to maintain impartiality the whole event was presided over by our own tent errection expert - Jameria James:
Space and Comfort inside - Well, what can I say, the tent comes with a built in foam matress which, compared to the comfort levels offered by airbeds or roll mats this was a palacial luxury only otherwise experienced by visiting princes I am sure. Also, I am well over the six foot mark and usually expect to spend most of a night in a tent with my head or feet against the canvas. However, at well over 2m in length the Featherlite afforded me ample room to toss and turn and not once did I wake up stuck to canvas.
The proof being in the pudding I can vouch that we went to bed some time after midnight (ish) and slept through to 8.30am and awoke refreshed and cherpy without the vaguest hint of stifness or lost sleep. Even the Co-pilot was unable to find anything to complain about. The tent was even checked out by our aforementioned expert judge who concluded it was "wow!!" and awarded it the full green rating
Ease of Packing Away - well, once you have removed the sleepers, the inspectors and the general passers by who want a nosy inside the great temple canvas campingness the tent becomes just as easy to pack away as it was to erect. Fold away ladder and the action of folding away folds the tent away. I really couldn't be easier.
Quality of Construction - Now I don't know that much about the design or construction of tents so I'll have to keep the comments brief. The tent fabric was lighter than I was expecting, but then it is the featherlite so to be expected. The rest of the contruction is very strong and heavy weight, the seems are welll constructed and the corners are stengthened. The Copilot liked the colour - an important comment for a girl. As far as longlevity and build quality go only time can really tell, so we'll let it tell.
So, in summary, as you might be able to guess I am impressed and "chuffed to bits" with the new tent.
No comments:
Post a Comment