Wynnster Peregrine 8 Tent

With a family of four this style of tent looked ideal with its three bedrooms giving my son and daughter separate quarters and my husband and I the roomier 4 man bedroom. After having searched the net and whittled down our choice between this and the slightly more expensive Vango Colorado we opted for the Wynnster Peregrine on the basis of a) price b) larger dimensions and c) the company we bought it from promised delivery within 48 hours, a big factor as we needed the tent for that weekend. There was some uncertainty in the decision, however. The Vango Colorado is 3000ml which means a greater protection against rain. Superficially, I also preferred the colour. I would have liked to put these two side by side and compare them more fully because, despite the convenience of buying online I really feel that you you need to see the tent up close before making a decision or at least read a good review! This weekend it had its maiden voyage. It took about two hours to put up and another two to take down and put back in the bag. I'm optimistic that next time when we know what we are doing we can halve that. But we will probably only take it for longer holidays when all that work seems more worth while. Having moved from a canvass frame tent I was excited at the prospect of something that goes up more quickly. The real problem with this tent is that it has some steel poles in addition to the fibreglass poles and these are not as flexible, making the whole thing very awkward to fit. Not being familiar with the difference, I read these details on the specification before buying but didn't give any thought to what it might mean. We had been in camp sites and seen these types of tents going up comparatively quickly and assumed they were all the same. For the uninitiated amongst you, the fibreglass poles are about 1cm in diameter and about 40cm long. They are linked so that you simply slot together and they are extemely flexible and strong, although the elastic inside which links them has a tendency to snap if not looked after. They are also very light in weight. The steel poles are similar to those used for frame tents with metel sprung links. These are much heavier and hence stirdier than their fibreglass cousins so my assumption is that the manufacturer has included them to provide strength to the structure. The instructions refer to colour coding on both sets of poles but we really couldn't find any such thing on the steel poles and in fact they looked identical in every way. With this in mind we started trying to assemble and just could get them to fit so we swapped them around and with two children supporting the poles and strong husband we managed to get them to fit. The rest of the tent then went up fairly easily given that it was our first time and the instructions are well written and clear except for being in very small print. The whole thing fits into a large bag with handles. Being quiet experienced at folding away tents we knew how important it was to get all the air out but I think even for the novice the bag is nice and big so you shoudn't find yourself trying to squeeze this one in. The poles, which have a bag also fit into the main holdall. They are very heavy and proably account for over half the overall weight. We decided to pack them separately and put them away in the holdall when we got home, making the whole thing easier to carry and pack in the car. The shape and style of this model makes it necessary to have a lot of guy ropes and unlike the more square shaped tents which can stand up on their own, this really does need the ropes to hold it up. This adds to the time, particularly when taking it down as all the ropes need to be tied away. Once up it really is quite spectacular and extremely roomy both in the bedrooms and communal area although this is partly due to us only having it for four people. However, the 4 man room would definately accommodate 4 adults comfortably. The 2 man rooms were also amply sized but as one person would sleep on the outside where the tent side slopes accross it will probably feel less roomy. A real positive about this tent is that you can stand up in the communal area and also in the large bedroom. It is also very light. However, be aware that the bedroom fabric is fairly sheer and you can see though into the bedrooms in daylight so privacy is not 100%. I don't particularly like the way the porch/front door is designed although we did not actually use it as a porch as it seemed a real pallaver to get it all pegged down then to have to put all away when you want to shut the door. You may feel differently. I also found the tent incredibly hot which meant we couldn't sleep past 7am once the sun was on us. And going into the tent during the day while it was sunny was out of the question even though we had the door open all day. I suspect this tent will come into its own it bad weather. Despite being a 2000ml I suspect it will stand up to the rain well and the wind. In fact it was bad weather we had in mind when we bought this so that we could escape inside and play games, cook etc withought tripping over each other and I think even with eight people this will still be comfortable in such circumstances. I have my suspicions that the front entrance may leak under the door if it rains heavily. This is in spite of the bathtup groud sheet. The floor scoops up to about 10 cmc and fastens to the door with one button rather than a zip which I think would be preferable. It is somewhat of a paradox that this tent is probably suited more to bad weather than good weather when what campers really want is good weather. I hope, at least for this summer, we don't get to test that theory.