Outwell Maryland XL
(Sleeping Capacity 10 persons)

The Tent - Erection / Pitching

Having just received this tent via the courier my son and I set to work unpacking it from the familiar boxes with blue strapping , the first thing that really came to light was the weight , I am no small bloke by any stretch of the imagination and I did struggle a little bit with the blue nylon bag that the poles are in , the plush brown bag that the tent came in was fine as that has wheels and is not really a problem. I do think for the money you are paying for this poly hotel that the poles should have come in a bag with wheels also , not a major gripe but a gripe none the less.

My son and I took our new pride and joy out onto our garden and set about putting it up , I have to admit when we put the footprint down for this tent and then laid the tent on top of it I did not think it looked that big, but that was defiantly about to change. Working off the instructions which I must say are rather pitiful and if you have never put up a tent before you are going to struggle with, come on Outwell you can do better than that, we laid all the colour coded poles on the floor. Red for the main dome area blue for the bedroom pods and black for the porch. There are 8 poles all together 2 for the main living area 4 for the bedroom pods and 2 for the porch. The poles are easy to put together with the metal spring (internally) and slide together system and do feel pretty robust when together, the only thing I would suggest if you buy this tent is to invest in some electrical coloured tape to re-do the poles

The tents sleeves are all colour coded for their relative poles and we had no problems putting the poles through the sleeves. We then made sure the canvas was even on the poles and I then went inside through the rear door and lifted the tent and centre poles up while my boy from the rear of the tent (and that is impotent you work from the rear to start with) put the poles onto their pins .Once he had done this I was able to go to the front of the tent and put the poles onto the pins there and pull the tightening straps which are only located at the front. We then worked our way along the bedroom pods using the same system and again with the front porch area .The next part was to peg and guy the whole tent out, the whole thing took us roughly an hour to do and we feel we could probably get that down to about 45 minutes with a bit of practice. The footprint of this tent with the guy ropes, a massive 12 x 10meters.

We then ventured inside for the first time and I've got to admit my first impression was WOW , this tent is massive inside to say the least , looking around from front to back the porch area has a front and side door along with a hanging rail for your damp clothes and a detachable sig, which is a little bit fiddly to attach but not to much of a problem. There are 4 large windows (if I remember correctly) with roll down curtains all the curtains roll down on the Maryland. The floor space inside the porch will hold loads of equipment therefore keeping the main living room clear of clutter. You are then meet with a very large inner door which has two windows in it both have fly screens on them, this then takes you into the main living room area which is just simply superb we put a 5 foot by 2and half foot table inside it and four chairs and still had absolutely loads of room to still move around inside . This is further enhanced with the Outwell carpet which matches the colour scheme which is of course the new moccha colour for the Avantgarde range form Outwell this year. The living room area has a number of windows 9 all together including the back door which once opened not only give you a tremendous amount of light and airiness feel about the tent but also gives you a fantastic 360 view of the campsite you are staying on , and if that wasn't enough there are a further two skylights which if you didn't want to open the window curtains for privacy reasons the skylights would give you ample light in the tent in the day time. As mentioned there is a much needed rear door with a fly screen on it which will help keep a cross breeze in the hot summer months.

This brings us on to the Bedroom pods which are a little bit lacking in my opinion but that's because I would have preferred to see separate pods rather than dividers in them ,the front of the pods are nicely designed with matching coloured strips and both have storage pockets on the front and inside the bedroom pods which is a nice touch, both the pods either side are three + 2 set up with the said zip in dividers. Outwell call it a ten man tent but anyone who has been tenting for a while knows that in reality you could sleep eight adults comfortably, if you are considering buying this tent and have children I would recommended buying double airbeds for the double pods as 2 singles would not fit inside them. The bedroom pod on the right is detachable (you can separate the 2 from 3) so that Outwells new children's room can be attached, a nice touch if you have young children but a bit on the pricey side.

Taking the tent down like any tent is pretty easy and as long as you follow Outwells video on folding it up and keep the doors open to let out any trapped air out the tent goes back in the back quite easy , the only thing I would say is on the last bit roll it twice to get the maximum amount of air out of it .

Features

Pitch Footprint, Size And Weight

Width:  910cm, Length:  640cm, Height:  225cm
Weight : 30.1kg Tent, 31.3kg Poles
Poles: Steel 19/22 mm, 2 upright steel poles
Pack Size: 78 x 40 x 42cm (Tent), 20 x 20 x 80cm (Poles)

The Cost
Expect to pay around £599 - £750  for this model, it's a lot of tent for the money, there is also a footprint front awning and carpet available at extra cost.

Information and Links
For further information on Outwell Tents check out our Tents By Brand Page
Or visit Outwell at their website Outwell
For Outwell Tents for Sale Check Out The Classified Ads

Reviewed by Woody (10/05/09)
Note We recommend with all tents that you see them fully erected and satisfy yourself that the product is right for you prior to making a purchase.