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The Tent
The Vango Icarus range is a new tent range
in their Weekend collection for the 2009
season and is a 5 berth tent based on the
classic Tunnel style. Using Vango’s proven
Protex polyster flysheet the tent has a HH
rating of 2000mm which should be ample for
this weekend tent, coupled with fiberglass
poles ensures a very quick and easy to pitch
tent. The tent has ample space for a weekend
tent with a two bedroom pod layout which has
been nicely thought out, plenty of storage
pockets, both the bedroom doors fold back
into a side pockets stopping them getting
dirty as well as a privacy divider that can
be removed if only a single pod is required.
The tent also features Vango’s Tension Band
System (TBS), if the wind picks up and the
tent starts to flex in the wind by
connecting the TBS bands inside the tent,
this reduces this flex by connecting the
sides to the top of the tent by the bands
where the poles are located and indeed does
vastly reduce flex. The tent has the benefit
of two large windows either side at the
front to ensure the tent is nice and light,
two doors also ensure good access and the
front door doubles up as a canopy with the
supplied porch poles. The tent would be
ideal for a couple or a family with smaller
children and is made to a very high
specification (see below) and is designed to
ensure comfort and durability and in our
opinion is a very impressive weekend tent.
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Features
Flysheet:
Protex Polyester
Powerflex
Fibreglass poles
Sewn in
Groundsheet
Tension Band
System (TBS) |
Good Ventilation
Packs into a
single carry bag
Repair kit
Colour: Blue Or
Sage |
Pitch Footprint, Size
And Weight
Width: 315 cm, Length: 465 cm, Height:
200 cm
Packed Size : Tent 76 cm x 26 cm x 26 cm
Weight : Tent 13.2 kg
Erection / Pitching
One of the key advantages of this tent
is that it is pitched all in one, ensuring
that the inner tent will stay nice and dry
if pitching in wet weather conditions. All
the tent poles are identical which makes the
pitching very easy. Once the tent is out of
the bag we found it easier to loosely peg
the four corners out first. Once this is
done, snap the poles together and insert
into the pole sleeves, locate one side of
the pole on the ring and pin system then
bend the pole into shape and locate the
other side. Repeat this with the other two
poles, although this is entirely possible
with a single person we pitched with two
people and this would reduce the total
pitching time. Once all the poles are in
shape we started pegging the guy ropes out
and securing the remainder of the tent
pegging points.
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Pros and Cons |
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Pros |
Cons:
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All in one
pitching
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Easy to erect
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Spacious
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Well
ventilated
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Well priced
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The Cost
Expect to pay around £130 for this new 500
model, there is also a footprint, carpet,
extension and canopy available for the 500
model as reviewed here, these are not
available for the 400 model at the time of
the review..
The Verdict
We found the tent would be as suggested
a very good all round weekend tent, being a
three pole tunnel tent and without any
practice the tent was up and pitched in
under 20 minutes, with practice this could
easily be reduced to just other 10 minutes.
The tent is lovely and airy and affords
plenty of space to retreat to if the weather
takes a turn for the worse. What more can be
said this tent has been well thought out
made to a very good quality and features,
would in our opinion make this a tent of
choice to fulfill the role of a weekend
tent.
Information and Links
For further information on Vango Tents
check out our
Vango Pages
Or visit Vango at their website
Vango
Reviewed by Rickit
(03/2009)
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. |
