The Wild Angle

Before I started to write this post I wrote the review of the Hilleberg Saivo tent to calm down and remember that there are companies out there who know their trade, build things that are extremely well thought out and work like they should.

(don’t skip the update at the bottom)

Some months ago we bought a LA Sports Pro Tent Series II for the roof of our bakkie (this is what South Africans call their pick-ups). I do not want to talk about the first tent we got, because it was more like a prototype rather than a final product. But without hesitation they took the tent back and sent us a new one…(okok….there was this small incident in the meantime, where the VW Dealer crashed the tent into their low hanging garage entrance without telling us about it….but that is a different story.)

So we got a brand new tent and went on our first trip to the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park. But every single day we got more and more annoyed by the little shortcomings we found.

Missing ropes, bent poles, torn straps, a hole in the fly sheet, the little round mounts to stick the rods into to tense the top cover of the tent, slipped into the main frame which makes it difficult to fixate them and last but not least the inner metal frame is „corroding“ and stains the canvas black. But the biggest problem of all is the moisture. Every morning the mattress is completely wet from bottom up. The moisture percolates through the gap between the two base plates. We now put our Therm-a-Rest mats under the mattress as a shield (they both now look like as we suffer from nocturia) and dried them every morning in the sun.  But this can’t be the solution…the mattress will be rotten in 2 months….

Again we sent in the tent for repair.  We will know how it looks when we get it back, and I really wonder how they want to fix the problem with the moisture.

I really don’t know what they are doing. Roof top tents are not a 21st century invention.  We found so many things on that tent that need improvement.  Small things like tingling zippers, complicated and unstable awning attachments or a protection for the mattress sheet, that gets ripped with every opening and closing by the hinges of the inner poles…I don’t know if they don’t get feedback or if their costumers don’t mind. We always ask ourselves if we are the only people with these problems, are the other manufacturers better, or are we just ruthless?

I think the LA Sports Pro Tent Series II could be a great tent, but at this stage there are too many small issues, that need to be improved to make it worth the price.

UPDATE:

Tent NR 3 was delivered and tested on a couple of trips so far…No moisture coming through anymore,the poles are straight and everything is working as it should. 

It is a good and solid tent, easy to pitch, even with only on person, waterproof and stands quite strong in the wind.  Of course there are a couple of things that needs improvement, but I also had a look at other tents in the meantime…and they are all have the same problems.

I think the most important thing to remember is: Complain if it’s not working as it should be!

Details:

Model		Series I 1.4
Rec. Price		11000 R
Length		2.40 m
Width		1.40 m
Hight		1.20 m
Weight		64 kg
Packed Dimensions		1150 x 130 x 36 cm
Material		280 gms/sqm Polyester/cotton ripstop
Ladder		2 piece aluminium ladder
Mattress		75mm thick high density mattress
Annex tent		Optional