Inflatable Tents

[Junglist1981]

On reading back through the thread I see that I was well warned that it would be a nightmare to carry in.

I just wanna say that you were all completely right, and I should of listened 

2017 is definitely the year of the trolley.

[Crazyfool01]

19 minutes ago, Junglist1981 said:

Sorry for the very late response, haven't checked here for a while!

The tent is absolutely brilliant, very well put together, piece of piss to put up (you could do it on your own), and nice and spacious. It's big, but wasn't the biggest in the field so I didn't feel at all bad about using it. It's tall more than anything. Also if the 4 of us had used individual 2 man tents we would have taken much more ground space.

It didn't get too hot in the mornings, and the lounge bit was nice to chill about in at 4am before bed. Plus our mates camping alongside in their pokey little one man'ers could easily store all their stuff inside without getting in our way. Enough room for a dedicated welly zone leaving plenty of space to chill mud free. Took it out again at the end of summer for a week in Croyde with the family and again it was brilliant.

So all in all a massive win. 

Except...

The one major negative, it weighs a tonne and carrying it in very nearly broke us. Due to the weather the car park we usually end up in right next to Gate A wasn't in use and unfortunately we ended up miles away about 4 fields deep over the main road. Shocker. We'd left the sack truck at home as it wouldn't easily fit, and in my infinite wisdom I had thought that 2 men carrying it would be ok with occasional breaks. But noooooo. We were managing maybe 20 metres at a time before we literally had to stop and recover. It took us 90 minutes to reach the gate, and it was a truly awful experience. In retrospect it didn't help at all that we were carrying our packs at the same time. Once we'd got it in and up we were completely fucked for the rest of the day, we just about managed to drag ourselves up to the pub up above the Park where we sat, drank, took in the view and gently wept.

It was so tough that I actually moved the car out to the Bath and West showground on Sunday morning and got the bus back in to the festival, as it was far shorter to walk from the campsite to the bus stop with the tent. By the time I'd done all that I missed Casetteboy and DJ Rubbish, and I was most annoyed.

For 2017 gonna rent a van and buy something like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trailer-Bicycle-Carrier-Utility-Transport/dp/B01ISLBF8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483638767&sr=8-1&keywords=bike+trolley

HTH 

 

Bike trailers have done us proud over quite a few years , but this year was very hard work , the bike brakes  just seemed to clog endlessly with mud and wood chips but using it like a cart would be ok I guess  . it has been lovely cycling past people on the way in in previous years 

[Crazyfool01]

[Junglist1981]

5 minutes ago, crazyfool1 said:

That looks brilliant. I'll have many questions about trailers in the coming months so I may come back to you!

Slightly concerned that the weight would make it hard to pull in mud, and was considering swapping the wheels off for bigger ones maybe? Dunno if there'd even be an advantage to doing that.  Hmmmm...

Has to be said, even though I don't really miss it, our 3 man pop up disc tent was far less hassle lol

[Crazyfool01]

Just now, Junglist1981 said:

That looks brilliant. I'll have many questions about trailers in the coming months so I may come back to you!

Slightly concerned that the weight would make it hard to pull in mud, and was considering swapping the wheels off for bigger ones maybe? Dunno if there'd even be an advantage to doing that.  Hmmmm...

Has to be said, even though I don't really miss it, our 3 man pop up disc tent was far less hassle lol

has been the easiest method we have tried and the lockups are ideal for storage too , this year was the only year that we have struggled , they are made by erde I think ! They have a 100kg max load but we don't go anywhere near this , couple of crates of beer , tent , and main rucksack , food rucksack , have done it in 1 trip on drier years , but this year was definitely a 2 trip job with the wood chip already down !! kept a tent peg handy to clean the brake blocks off this year and no cycling in , pushing only , but previously cycling in was no problem , although dismounting when we hit the queues and taking the zig zags a bit more difficult without chopping people up !!

[iamthegr81]

1 hour ago, Junglist1981 said:

Sorry for the very late response, haven't checked here for a while!

The tent is absolutely brilliant, very well put together, piece of piss to put up (you could do it on your own), and nice and spacious. It's big, but wasn't the biggest in the field so I didn't feel at all bad about using it. It's tall more than anything. Also if the 4 of us had used individual 2 man tents we would have taken much more ground space.

It didn't get too hot in the mornings, and the lounge bit was nice to chill about in at 4am before bed. Plus our mates camping alongside in their pokey little one man'ers could easily store all their stuff inside without getting in our way. Enough room for a dedicated welly zone leaving plenty of space to chill mud free. Took it out again at the end of summer for a week in Croyde with the family and again it was brilliant.

So all in all a massive win. 

Except...

The one major negative, it weighs a tonne and carrying it in very nearly broke us. Due to the weather the car park we usually end up in right next to Gate A wasn't in use and unfortunately we ended up miles away about 4 fields deep over the main road. Shocker. We'd left the sack truck at home as it wouldn't easily fit, and in my infinite wisdom I had thought that 2 men carrying it would be ok with occasional breaks. But noooooo. We were managing maybe 20 metres at a time before we literally had to stop and recover. It took us 90 minutes to reach the gate, and it was a truly awful experience. In retrospect it didn't help at all that we were carrying our packs at the same time. Once we'd got it in and up we were completely fucked for the rest of the day, we just about managed to drag ourselves up to the pub up above the Park where we sat, drank, took in the view and gently wept.

It was so tough that I actually moved the car out to the Bath and West showground on Sunday morning and got the bus back in to the festival, as it was far shorter to walk from the campsite to the bus stop with the tent. By the time I'd done all that I missed Casetteboy and DJ Rubbish, and I was most annoyed.

For 2017 gonna rent a van and buy something like this: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Trailer-Bicycle-Carrier-Utility-Transport/dp/B01ISLBF8I/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1483638767&sr=8-1&keywords=bike+trolley

HTH 

 

@jungalist1981

 

Ha ha ha! I am going to be just as hard-headed and stubborn as you. Carrying it sounds like a total nightmare and having been at Glastonbury 2016 also I totally understand how bad that mud was.....10 times worse when you have to carry stuff through it!

 

But the tent itself looks pure class so I'm going to get it regardless of everyone telling me "no".....ha ha ha.

 

I have a pretty good trolley with pneumatic tires so that should help.....especially with the 50 cans I'll be dragging along.....I wouldn't mind but I'm probably only about 11 stone soaking wet! Ha ha ha! The trolley you posted looks great also!

 

Thanks for taking the time to reply.....I can't wait to get my hands on a beautiful Berghaus Air 8, the sexy blow-up bitch!

[Smeble]

Got to say I feel for you having to carry that thing in, me and the wife made the same mistake, but with a slightly smaller tent, at IOW in '15, we eneded up buying a Motorhome after that experience, slight over reaction but we had been talking about getting one for years.

[Charm]

On 05/01/2017 at 6:34 PM, Junglist1981 said:

On reading back through the thread I see that I was well warned that it would be a nightmare to carry in.

I just wanna say that you were all completely right, and I should of listened 

2017 is definitely the year of the trolley.

I did admire your optimism, sorry you had such a tough time bringing it in, sounds like you are going to be better prepared next time. 
Charm x