For those amongst you who have a B&M Store locally, they have what seems like a very nice deal on a pop-up tent. £14.99 gets you a 2/3 man tent that folds down into a cricle about 18 inches in diameter. The tent bag/holder even has some pretty basic straps. The claim to be a 3 man tent may be a tad optimistic, however, at a weight of what I would estimate under 2 Kilos, it looks like a snip.
is the store locator. Perhaps a call to your nearest store to check stock levels, before embarking on a journey (especially with the cost of fuel) may well be prudent.
We recently bought a PUP for beach use for £15 or so. Ours is meant to fold down into an 18" circle to fit back in the bag, but I can normally only get it to a 3’ long figure of eight before it gets thrown and pops back up into a tent again! Also some of the cheaper ones tend to bend a fair bit in strong breezes.
We recently bought a PUP for beach use for £15 or so. Ours is meant to
fold down into an 18" circle to fit back in the bag, but I can
normally only get it to a 3’ long figure of eight before it gets
thrown and pops back up into a tent again! Also some of the cheaper
ones tend to bend a fair bit in strong breezes.
Dunno who the manufacturer was, Jonathan. I was on foot and just too loaded up with other junk to buy one. I’ll probably pick one up tomorrow and report back here.
A better bet might be a 2 man cheap (single skin) tent from Tesco - about £8 to £10. Mine lasted over 2 years and plenty of activations, including a few overnighters. Now upgraded to a Karrimor Ultralite backpackng tunnel tent. A few more £s, but a very good piece of kit.
This does look a bargain: Hi Gear Pitch and Go SS two man tents are £20.97 in the Go Outdoors sale, they weigh 2.1 kg. They are an awkward size to backpack, if you don’t watch it they go hang-gliding if you are careless pitching them in windy conditions, and as indicated above they can be a right s*d to repack but you can’t beat them for speed!
In reply to M1EYP:
Just had a look at the B&M website and the only tent on there is this one:-
We have a similar one (bought years ago) and its not bad for a general shelter to be honest. only takes a couple of minutes to put up too. Actually, we used this one the beach in Cornwall last week - Far better than the PUP and just managed to squeeze 2 kids and 2 adults in there sat up. Hydrostatic Head rating would only be around 1000-1500mm I guess.
Now is the time to start looking out for deals though, Go Outdoors are usually pretty good if you have one near you?
Jonathan
M6HBS
p.s - Glad I only took the hand held down there. VHF is a complete dead-duck around St.Ives!
In reply to 2E0YYY:
In ASDA yesterday and noticed that they have their cheap 2 man dome tents reduced to £5. 1500mm Hydrostatic head on these. Not brilliant, but it should withstand the odd shower or two.
It’s not a pop up tent I needed yesterday but a pop up canoe for crossing rivers (seemed like I was try to cross the Ganges Delta) and a pop up hovercraft to cross the vast expanse of bog and wetlands. And finally a pop up ionosphere so that after walking, wading, fording, and climbing what felt like half way around the world I would have worked more than 4 contacts!
Andy, I thought you were close enough to the summits to determine whether an activation was viable or not… or have you suddenly put your trust in the good old Met Office?
Well MWIS was spot on with the WX forecast. I knew the bridges were long gone on the two burns I had to cross so I was expecting some fun there. I didn’t realise how much rain there must have been as the Falls of Dochart & Falls of Leny were both very full. The result was huge amounts of the ground was sodden. Certainly webbed feet would have been an advantage!
Well Brian, I bagged 4 summits in June in the SS’s and didn’t see a midge all day despite it being sun and cloud - obviously too far south. Didn’t have time to deploy a pop-up tent either… such an item would be of limited value to me as I don’t hang around on summits… or street corners!
In my experience the midges everywhere south of Lomondside are relatively innoccuous: further north I can go out with a party of friends and come back the only one with my face covered in itchy lumps - I often wondered what they ate when I wasn’t there!
On the higher summits I reckon a pop-up or conventional tent is an invitation to the hang-gliding experience!
