Tent Dilemma - Buy or Borrow?

[phunkpunk]

Seeing as i have little or no experience with tents, i guess i was just hoping for a bit of useful advice.

Basically there is 2 of us goin to Glastonbury this year for the first time and i dont actually own a tent so had been lookin to buy one.

I came across a 'Gelert Rocky' 4 man tent which i quite liked the look of but it turns out that my girfriends dad already has a 4 man tent which he can lend us.

It is a 'Lichfield Commando' 4 man tent. I had never heard of this make of tent but her Dad reckons the tent has been reliable the couple of times he has had to use it but I cant seem to find any information about it online. Apparantely he bought it 2 years and is in good working order.

It would certainly save me some money if i could borrow a tent but what im worried about is whether this tent would keep the rain out if we where to have torrential downpour??

Do these tents become less waterproof over time, even when they have hardly been used?? Would i need to buy some kind of spray to waterproof the tent and how affective are these sprays?? Which is the best one???

or would it be best to jus go out and buy a new tent?? The Rocky 4 tent i was originally looking to buy had a HH rating of 1500.

Any advice would be much appreciated :-)

[meesh]

buy fabsil, spray the seems

you'll be fine

[travelling mr pastry]

just borrow the tent, dont bother with the spray its a waste of time, it shouldnt leak much if at all, dealing with shite while you're there is part of it

[gingergeorge]

The second time I went to Glasto I borrowed a tent from my Dad's mate that he used for the TA. It was a big four man tent.

It was 1998 and it was a total washout.

All of my mates had new or newish smaller tents that were probably quite cheap and half of them sprung leaks.

My tent sprung a leak too but it was so big we just moved away from it into the middle and were snug and dry.

Bigger tent = more room to put your stuff if it is wet and muddy too.

Reseal the seams and get a sheet of tarpaulin to put underneath it to stop floodwater from rising up and you will be fine.

[jimmie]

Borrow it this weekend, get your father in law to show you how to put the tent up etc, leave it up until it rains, check it out!

Warn him it might not come back in the same condition

[davidd]

son's just had the vango alpha 300 delivered this morning for 37 quid,not sure where from but i know the tent team have the same for £34.99 ,not sure about delivery.

[janah]

Lichfield tents are much better than Gelert - so definitely go for the borrowed one!

[phunkpunk]

Excellent...cheers for the advice.

I might go and put it up this weekend and leave it for a few days to see how it fares if we get any bad weather. It would certainly save me £40

[travelling mr pastry]

Lichfield tents are much better than Gelert - so definitely go for the borrowed one!

[stevieg72]

what do you reckon about easy-camp as a brand? got one of their tents new for glasto but im curious about others opinions

[sifi]

Excellent...cheers for the advice.

I might go and put it up this weekend and leave it for a few days to see how it fares if we get any bad weather. It would certainly save me £40

[travelling mr pastry]

Decent tents, made by outwell i think, who are one of the best tent brands going. Easycamp are the budget range.

[bbawden]

Definately worth re-waterproofing it though, especially as there's a risk of a monsoon this year. I bought a tin of fabsil for £5.50 from my local camping store, (should have got the bigger tin for £8 cos I needed a bit more). It just sprays on like hairspray and dries very quickly. Piece of mind for £8. Can't beat it. It's worth paying the money to do it, cos theres nothing worse than waking up at 3am with a wet sleeping bag/clothes, I've been there and it's not very nice (no I didn't pee myself Hee he).

[phunkpunk]

I went round to my girlfriends dads house on the weekend and put his tent up. It is very spacious but apparantely it is 8 years old. It is the old style tenting with a long metal pole down the middle and an outer sheet that fits over the top of the inside one.

From looking at pictures of the modern style ones, it would seem that the one im gonna borrow looks a little bit outdated. Do people actually still use these kinds of tents?? Will it be reliable enough?? There is two layers. Apparantely it has only been used a couple of times. Do you think this will be ok or am i best buying a modern style one??

[londonlady]

I went round to my girlfriends dads house on the weekend and put his tent up. It is very spacious but apparantely it is 8 years old. It is the old style tenting with a long metal pole down the middle and an outer sheet that fits over the top of the inside one.

From looking at pictures of the modern style ones, it would seem that the one im gonna borrow looks a little bit outdated. Do people actually still use these kinds of tents?? Will it be reliable enough?? There is two layers. Apparantely it has only been used a couple of times. Do you think this will be ok or am i best buying a modern style one??