We’ve had a 4m Soul Pad (SP) bell tent for around 7 years, camping in France and at festivals, spreading the cost over use it’s now at less than 30p a night; it’s been well used. Now that the kids have left home, we’ve started to take longer holidays and really wanted more space, as well as ducking in and out of the tent was causing backaches. After some discussions with Lee at Bell Tent Village about door heights he recommended the 5m XL.
It arrived yesterday and we took it to the local rec to put up. The first thing that struck us, is that it is heavy, really heavy, at 33kg, the SP was 10kg lighter.
It arrived in a canvas bag, a bag for the poles, and a peg bag with pegs and a mallet. The pegs are really tough, I don’t think we’re going to be bending any of these soon.
Opening it up, the construction, finish and attention to detail of the XL is way beyond the SP. The canvas is much heavier, and all the seams are taped, in the SP most were left rough cut and of variable size. There are loops and duffle coat style pegs for all the doors and windows, whereas in the SP some were missing and others were double sewn into the seam.
Putting it up is straightforward, a one person job in about 15 mins. Once up, the XL is palatial. Whereas in our SP the bed just fitted between the centre pole and the wall, in the XL I can hardly touch them with my arms stretched. The best bit for us is that door is over 6 foot high making it easy to get through without bending.
Looking forward to the holidays.
