History Of Evolution

It took a while to get to owning a Karsten tent. I was aware of them some years ago back in 2015, but
I looked at them and thought they looked odd, outdated and quite on the costly side.

Website for the Dutch home of Karsten Tents

The sole UK sales & service for Karsten tents is undertaken by James & Suzie via Camping Travelstore They have a "roving" display of tents visiting many parts of the UK.

James and Suzie are very enthusiastic about the Karsten brand and if/when you get the chance to see/feel them (the tents that is) you can see why. They have a great understanding of what the customer "wants" and often go that bit further to both make a sale and make the customer feel satisfied.

Whilst in my early days of being in the Cubs and Scouts, I always slept under canvas tents, namely Niger (or patrol tents as now referred to) they have always been heavy and very draughty, having no sewn in ground sheet. They were however, bomb proof, quick to put up and naturally waterproof.

When Mandy and I decided to try to spend more time on holiday, it seemed natural to go back to my youth, fortunately Mandy was more keen than I anticipated.

We set off with the usual nylon type tent made by Outwell. Our first camp together was in 2015, we soon realised we loved camping even though it was damp and cold on the trip.

The first trip was a campsite called "Creake Meadows" in Norfolk. It was windy, cold and wet at times but it was a great campsite and we were hooked.

Karsten 3m Pod-Comfort Awning-Extention Awning-Flat Front Wall-Rain Awning

This seems to be the tent we are happy with. It is inflatable (56psi) 100% cotton and it's really big bonus is its modular design. The pictures below give more of an idea of this.

Karsten 3m Pod-Comfort Awning-Rain Awning

You can specify lot's on this tent including colour ways, extra windows, size of pod, which awnings and extras you want. It truly is a joy to own. It is handmade in Holland and the finish and detail is wonderful. The difference between a family tent that has inflatable tubes and the Karsten tubes are worlds apart. A branded family tent has a pressure of approx 8psi a Karsten tent is 56psi. Rather than using thin plastic type tubes Karsten use fire hose for the tubes. Truly different and extremely solid.

Karsten 3m Pod-Comfort Awning-Flat Front Wall

The fact that it is modular allows us to choose our setups using different awnings and combinations dependant on the size of the pitch and how long we are staying, The awnings just zip on. The flat front wall is also just zipped on.

Outwell Niagra Falls

Our Outwell Niagara Falls is 100% cotton with aluminium poles, this tent was a great upgrade from anything we had had before. It is very heavy over several bags though.

Outwell Newgate 3

This is another Outwell tent, the "Newgate 3". It was a learning curve regarding materials used, polycotton 65/35 and boy what a difference. Very little condensation and a unexpected bonus of being quite quiet when windy as opposed to a polyester (think carrier bag in the wind) tent. It has steel poles and a flat front wall with a good covered porch area for cooking or shelter from any rain. It is compact but not really light. We can now state we would not, given a choice, use polyester tents!

Outwell Corvette L

In the meantime I was distracted by a new kid on the block. An inflatable tube tent by Outwell named "Corvette L" This again was polyester but the thought of a quick setup via the air tubes had us ignoring the materials.

Corvette L

This was taken in Suffolk, it performed well with only one issue found. One of the seams had not been taped so when it rained it seeped in. A bit of seam sealant and the problem was fixed. It was quicker to pitch but it did also make it larger and heavier. The 8psi air pressure left the tubes OK but heavy wind could fold them!

Corvette L

This was our first camp with the tent at "Canada Fields". It stood up to some very poor weather including very strong wind. It did not fill me with 100% confidence though as whilst it did stand up the tent moved around a lot making the contents inside vulnerable or worse coming into contact with the tent nylon possibly causing damage to the tent material. In my mind was should we not be present to move the internal gear away from the walls of the tent....?

Outwell Rockwell 3

Another Outwell tent the "Rockwell 3". It became clear that for smaller campsites and short trips a smaller tent was needed.  This also was polyester and had fibreglass poles. A good tent that had a flat front which made better use of the space inside.

Outwell Rockwell 3

We used this on a site we loved and often later in the season, in October. We soon saw the short comings of polyester tents, cooler outside temperatures with warm air inside the tent meant the tent became a swimming pool inside due to condensation. We began reading about other tents with differing materials to polyester. 

Outwell Nevada MP

This is the Outwell polyester Nevada MP with optional front extension. It was our first tent bought together in 2015.

Outwell Nevada MP

We had no issues at all with it, the poles were made from fibre glass with a wrapping to help stop splitting, Outwell named these durawrap.