Slightly off the topic, but where in South Africa can one find replacement aluminium tent poles? I can’t seem to find any, which is strange.
Any leads are welcome.
Poles are tent specific based on size and shape, so your best bet is to contact the manufacturer of your tent for a replacement.
11mm OD Al tent poles are generic actually. I’m talking about replacement sections, not the whole setup. That is definitely tent specific.
Anyone using a tarp system?
Hey man, I know a friend of mine have ordered pole sections straight from DAC in the past. Not sure what the correct channels to follow are though but I’d also just check on ebay.com and search for 11mm DAC or 11mm tent pole sections. I’m sure you’ll get loads of hits and most of them include free postage. You might just wait a bit… and deal with our wonderful postal service…
Thanks Gerhard 
Hi guys
I am brand new here and hoping to learn from you all. My wife and I do some car camping and since I put a tent on my Landy’s roof our dome tents see less action…that being said, I am unashamedly a hoarder and a gear whore. I am very keen to get the Nerolite 3 and Kilimanjaro. My Nerolite 2 is quite small but IF the hiking thing takes off with the wife we will have to carry heavy (Basecamp 3) or squeeze in tight in a 2 person😂
Hi guys, also new on this forum. I use a Nallo 3 tunnel tent from Hilleberg. Super durable, can handle very high winds (tested it properly in the Drakensberg, literally got blown off my feet at Injasuthi but the tent easily survived the night), fairly lightweight at 2,6kg for a 3 person tent. Only real gripe I have is that I can’t sit up straight in it, but this is probably more due to my length (1,97m) than the tent begin too low.
Recently started using my Rab Ascent bivvy bag and tarp combo a bit more, just need to get the wife to be more comfy with the bivvy in the open (she is ok with it in caves) then I can carry a bit lighter.
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Correction - Rab Alpine bivvy bag with E-Vent upper, not Rab Ascent bivvy bag.
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That is one fancy tent at a fancy price! One day when I’m big 
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Anyone on here who can report first hand experience of the Mountain Hardwear Trango 3?
Hi
I have a MSR HubbaHubba NX and previously I had a North Face Roadrunner 22. Both these tents has two doors and vestibules (one on each side) which make it easy to get in and out. The MSR is quite light and packs small but the payoff seems to be that the materials is a bit fragile. I haven’t had any problems yet but I use it with a footprint just to be safe. The HubbaHubba is quite expensive but I bought it on a sale in the USA.
The Roadrunner served me well through the years and I used it quite a bit. Unfortunately it had plastic “windows” that degraded and the seam tape came loose after about 10 years. But the little Roadrunner lives on as my brother is using it.
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The footprint concept seems to be lost on the local tent market. Can’t be too difficult to make one if the right lightweight ripstop sheet can be sourced, surely?
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I use a material called Tyvek from Marshall-hinds as a footprint for my tent, but also as groundsheet under my bivvy and in caves. Pretty cheap and a very good insulator, quite tough as well.
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Hi
We’re moving overseas, so selling my K-Way Annapurna 3 Man tent (Expedition Series) for R2400. Please DM if you’re interested.
Fantastic tent, excellent for harsh & windy conditions. Haven’t used it much.
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Hi,
Is your tent still available?
Thanks
STephan
The suggestions in this post is very helpful, but the OCD naturalist that I am…I compiled a list of all SA tent manufacturers that supply 2 person and/or hiking tents and compaired all the properties i.e. Dimensions, Fabric quality: denier/threadcount, waterproofing, construction: singlewall vs double wall, structure: dome vs tunnel vs geodesic, weight and pole material: fibreglass vs aluminium vs yunan.gold alloy.
So according to this the brands include Vango, Black diamon, MSR, Northface, Bushtec, Oztrail, First ascent, K-way and Naturehike. I did not include natural instinct, campmor, tentco coleman, cadac, totai and meerkat because the tents weigh in excess of 4kg or they dont import the 2 person tent.
I have experience with Kway, bushtec, black diamond, vango, coleman and campmor so here is my 2 cents…
Between all of the 2person tents, none are longer than 225cm, width ranges from 95-175cm, height between 60-110 (except kway solitude 2-145cm). Most prefer alluminium poles. Fibreglass poles for the cheaper tents and DAC featherlite poles for tents R7-10k. A few have alloys, a common occurance with vango. On average Vango tents to have the best waterproofing (3-5k mm) with most opting for 1-2k mm. All prefer polyester fabrics with the exception of black diamond (nanoshield), kway and naturehike (nylon). Note the denier on the latter is pretty low (20D) where most have higher threadcounts and a denier of 65-70. Ultralightweight (1.42-1.9) tents fall in two categories: expensive R7-10k (MSR, black diamond) or cheap R1.5-3k ( naturehike). Most reviews lament that naturehikes cloud up2, mongar and cirrus suffer from two problems 1) lower threadcount means the sheets will tear easier with time 2) stitching. I think if your looking for a tent you wont be putting on rocks/sticks or camping often then it would be an adequate choice. I opted to pay R495 extra and get the vango helvellyn 200. Not only did my husband and I fit comfortably inside ( we are 1.65/1.78m) with our packs. It held up in a massive cold front and temp of -2C. The inner wall and tent was bone dry. Also note it states the tent weighs 2.46 trail weight, but we got it down to 2.2kg by removing the bag, some pens etc. Not to mention i have set up in the rain and because the poles make a frame through the flysheet you have a structure you can pick up and move without tentpens. Your inner wall therefore never gets wet
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Hey all,
Thought I would give some feedback on the Naturehike tents since you can pick them up locally now. Nobody seems to really talk about the tents that are not the Cloud Up, but I have been using a Star-River 2 (In sil-nylon) for about 3 years.
Ordered through Aliexpress at the time, which is always a pleasure until things arrive in SA and you have to deal with customs here. Side note, anybody have an idea what import category camping gear should go under? It seems to get taxed randomly based on whims, anywhere from nothing for sporting goods to staggering amounts as textiles.
Reasoning - I was looking for a 2 person, double wall (Open to trying a single these days) that was both as light and small packing as I could get. Also not costing a fortune. Tents made out of sil-nylon seemed the best way to go, and everything made in the US or Europe costs a small fortune here. Naturehike started to stand out as the best options and had some pretty good reviews on the Cloud Up.
Naturehike tent comparison table
I ended up making this slightly indecipherable table to compare their products. Yeah. Because that’s how my mind works I guess. Thought it might be useful to someone else. Please don’t take any of it too seriously or assume accuracy, it is my back of the box scribbling.
The Star-River 2 ticked a bunch of boxes for me.
- Sil-Nylon and alloy poles (Weight vs strength ratio, 2.1kg all in)
- 2 doors (Hate scrambling over people to go pee at night)
- Dual vestibules (Like being able to get packs out of the way but accessible)
- Free standing (Often end up camping in rocky enough areas that it matters)
- Ground mat (Can put up the flysheet first in the rain, protects the floor of the tent when I need it and gives me a decently sized ground sheet to lounge on when the tent isn’t up)
- Size (Decent length, sleep on a large airmat as an awful stomach sleeper who puts their arms above their head. 215X131X110)
Experience - Overall very impressed. Outside of some slightly rough stuff sacks the tent is well stitched, put together and seam-sealed. I have had very few problems with it outside of slightly finicky zips and a pull tabs on one of the pegs tearing. The zips have never actually caused a problem, I think it is that the tent is made of fairly light material and everything feels a bit more fragile than it is actually turning out to be in reality.
It is a remarkably liveable volume, comfy for two properly sized adults. Vestibules are great for storing gear, wouldn’t really want to try cook under one though. Three decently sized internal pockets and a hook for a light. And the light grey colour works well, lets light in but also private.
Has stood up with no trouble to some solid Cederberg winds, haven’t had any problem with condensation or it wetting out in the rain yet. But to be honest it has been rained on a fair bit but never put through a really solid storm.
It pitches fairly quickly, and the guys are easy to use and reflective. My only issue has been if you can’t get tension on the vestibules due to the site setup, they can be flappy. But that also feels inherent to the design. The ground mat the tent comes with is designed to fully support the poles and clip onto the fly itself, which has been great as if bugs and weather are not too much of an issue you can just throw the shell of the tent up freestanding very quickly.
So far have been happy with the purchase and the quality, particularly for what I paid. If that changes at any point I’ll update this.
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