karrimor x Lite 300 thoughts for the price?

[Willdess]

So,

I was wondering around Sports Direct and saw a Karrimor x Lite 300 (three man hike tent) reduced from £250 to £65. They only had one left and it was hidden under a load of crap under some sleeping bags that no one had bothered to pack away.

I dont really need a new tent, but with a reduction like that I cant help myself.

Has anyone used one of these before? Is it a load of rubbish? (for the price!)

 

[decorum]

... Sports Direct and saw a Karrimor x Lite 300 (three man hike tent) reduced from £250 to £65.

Field and Trek (owned by Sports Direct) also have it marked down ~ but don't click the link if you've already bought it from Sports Direct.

 

[Willdess]

Nope not got it yet, the link send me to the one man, for £45. x Lite 100

 

[decorum]

... link send me to the one man, for £45. x Lite 100

you're correct, my fault ~ my search showed the info link as being to the 300 and I didn't make sure of it accuracy

 

[Nonsuch]

Remember Karrimor is absolutely not what it was in terms of quality. Long gone are the Accrington glory days. Now it's just a fascia brand owned by Sports Direct themselves

 

[_Wolfie_]

Hi, I'm also tempted by the space of this tent. I dropped in to a SportsDirect today to inspect the Karrimor X Lite 3 Tent. I've been searching the net for a review or someone sharing their experience of this tent, but the best I could find are a YouTube of some guy making a footprint for the 1 man design [1], and the Karrimor Beta, 2 man tent review, which gives you some idea of what Karrimor build quality is like these days [2]. I didn't see the tent put up. I only unrolled it on the table.

Summary
In summary, you'll get what you pay for. This is a tent made from low cost materials, except the poles.
Its of comparable build and materials to the low cost dome tents we'd buy for Scouts camping in a field. Similar to the 2 man dome tent I use from Tesco for the the bulk of my non-challenging weekends - except the ground sheet is thinner.

That doesn't mean I'm writing it off. Its probably going to be fit for purpose for most low level camping situations on nice soft grass. It might just be suitable for a wet weekend D_of_E light weight hike. But as yet its untested. Its certainly not as good as a Vango for mountain use. And don't get carried away by the apparent price reduction.

The package weight of 3.7Kg is reasonable to split between 3, and after replacing the heavy steel pegs with something lighter, that should get better.


The exceptional features are:
1) alu poles [great for 4 season/cold]
2) the huge porch area, great for foul weather,


Good features are:
- Alloy poles, light + durable,
- fly first pitching,
- huge space,
- good shape to shed wind on a mountain or exposed conditions,
- cheap fabrics are lighter,
- inner tent clips to adjustable webbing pull straps at bottom of poles,

Bad features are:
- Heavy steel wire pegs, [could change for alu or whittle something]
- Non ripstop materials,
- Inner tent is suspended from para cord and hooks, rather than elastic,
- Floor feels thin [benefit from a footprint tarp],

The cord suspension from the hoops explains why people comment on the inner being a bit saggy. And the fabric shows a lot of loose threads at the wall-to-groundsheet seam. Lots of untrimmed stitching on the inner side walls and doors made it look a bit cheap. So a bit of work here should help things.

Biggest Concerns
I'm concerned about how the fabric stands up to some punishment, and the separation between the inner + outer, particularly in the foot area of the tent, by the shortest hoop. If you put that into the wind, and the separation is poor, when the tent gets pushed + wobbled by the winds, you'll probably end up with some wet feet. If the tent is used on rough ground; sharp stones or spikey growth, I'd expect the groundsheet to get some holes. In the past I've put my sleeping mat under my tent to give some protection to the groundsheet. A second layer of tougher fabric would be useful, but adds to the weight.

I'd love to hear comments from anyone that has used one of these.

Cheers Wolfie

[1] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fs460mto6CU&feature=results_main&playnext=1&list=PL0F463C4D2F39BFE0
[2] http://alanrayneroutdoors.blogspot.com/2011/06/karrimor-beta-2-man-tent-review.html

 

[Jaymzflood]

if you look at EVERYTHING in sports direct, its always a reduction. Its just a way to attract customers by it looking like theres a sale on, there's no reduction really. The tent is probably worth £65 rather than the fake rrp of £250.

Karrimor isnt a bad product don't get me wrong,(sports direct owned) but the joking price marks you just need to ignore.

 

[_Wolfie_]

Don't blink, it's gone.

Someone has done a 'slight of hand' trick on this. It's gone, withdrawn from sale, and superseded by the next version in the 'revised X Lite tent range', the Xlite X3t Tent. Today at £119.99 and RRP £199.99.

The main difference appears to be a change in the selection of materials; Ripstop on the fly and inner, and Aluminium pegs. Otherwise its the same design and size. Good improvements you'd expect, but somehow that managed to increase the weight by 650g to 4.35kg from the spec of the previous version at 3.7Kg. Oh, and there's also a couple of Lantern hook's, maybe that explains it ;-) From the library pictures, it looks like the suspension of the inner tent has been sorted. It looks pretty taut in these pic's, and you have the option to tension the groundsheet forward, to pull the inner away from the foot-end hoop, and increase the separation gap all round. Nice.

These spec's and weight put it in range of competing with the likes of the Vango Omega 350 at 5.2kg or the Vango Equinox 350 at 5.3kg, which are still a notch better than the Xlite X3t, with a little more room and the extra stabilising webbing feature on the hooped poles - TBS® III – Tension Band System.

http://store.karrimor.com/karrimor-xlite-x3t-tent-20-783066

I wonder if we are witnessing the development process from prototype to production model? Or is it just an end-of-line sell through.

There is also a very similar version with a less rigorous spec with Fibreglass poles, steel pegs and a thicker groundsheet that covers the bell-end - mmm, ideal for car-camping.
http://store.karrimor.com/karrimor-discovery-3-tunnel-tent-783038