91 Reviews of the Bear Lake 6Showing 81 to 90Page:12345678910
By: NikjwoodReason:I own(ed) oneMade in:2008Rating:
The Bear Lake 6 is quite simply a remarkable tent and has many benefits from being constructed in polycotton. I chose the tent simply due to the fact that when I was looking at my local camping store, on a hot day and following a sudden extensive downpour the BL6 was not only perfectly dry, but also remarkably cool. All the other tents were very hot, and with 3 young kids in tow, it made sense to make life as comfortable for them as possible when camping. Obviously the choice of tent makes the difference for successful camping journeys. I also purchased the side extension, wind-break and carpet. I was forced to erect the tent by myself at the campsite and managed to complete the task; although it obviously would have been easier with 2 people! I think the easiest way to do this, is that when all the poles are in place, pull the whole tent up by the front pole and secure the guy rope. I tied mine to the trailer, which kept everything in place until I pegged the tent down. The internal ground sheet is fantastic and easy to zip into place. The carpet made a great difference, especially using the Outwell Heater that kept everything nice and snug. The only downside was that during a long downpour a small amount of water came in through the bottom window seam. It appears that this would have been simply resolved if Outwell had made the fabric around the plastic window cover slightly longer, it is only held by a small piece of velcro. The second point is that the front canopy could have done with being made down to the floor on both sides. This is the obvious place for cooking, but you are forced to cook next to the front door if it is raining.
However, this was our first family camping expedition, and although the weather was atrocious, the children all enjoyed the tent and were able to play inside without getting under our feet. I came away from the campsite a day early, due to the forecast being so bad and took advantage of the fact that the tent was completely dry during a sunny period. I could not imagine having to pack the BL6 away for the journey home still wet! Unless you are fortunate enough to have a very large garage at home to dry it out thoroughly. An excellent tent, and well worth the money. I would suggest shopping around for a good price. I didn't use the side extension and therefore can only imagine that it would have made the living area even more spacious.
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This is a great tent! When the wind and rain hit, continuously for 24 hours, the heavier polycotton came into it's own. The noise and movement were minimal.Easy to put up, took 2 of us 1 hour{first time} will pack into 3 bags though in future to make it easier to carry.Bedrooms really spacious,kids loved the low windows for stargazing in bed.In fact, my son wants to sell the house and live in the tent! Overall this is a great tent that is ideal for a family wanting room to move, even when the weather keeps you indoors. Wouldn't change it for anything!
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We have had our 2008 BL6 for 2 months now and have used it twice, both in awful rainy weather. The tent is so stable, secure and warm. The only problems I have are that the canopy isn't a full size one (down to the floor)which means that in heavy rain you get a stream of water falling down the front 2 windows which, in our tent caused a leakage by the bottom seam of the windows. This shouldn't happen in a £600 tent.
Other than that the tent is brill. The living area is huge and there are lots of options for the windows/doors.
If Outwell could solve the leaky windows, they would have a 10/10 tent.
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Bear Lake 6 an Excellent Tent??
Ive travelled to France a lot and also camped in the Uk over the last 3 years. My previous tent was a 4-6 birth dome tent costing about £100, in comparison the Bear lake 6 (BL) £799 rrp, though I think you should easily be able to source it at £629. The BL is a big heavy tent (a criticism?) although I still manage to pack this into my trusted Renault Clio, with a small fridge and all other equipment for a weeks camping with 2 adults.
Erecting this tent is not the easiest; it comes in two separate bags each weighing about the same as a large 55lb bag of potatoes. It comes with instructions though in summary insert all 5 domed poles into the tents canvas, peg the rear guy ropes and with 1 person on either side lift the rear domed pole, the guys ropes help keep this erect and then keeping the canvas taught make your way to the 2nd dome pole, eventually youll get to the 5th and then peg out the front guy ropes, this is enough to keep the tent erect. At a local camping store the guy said he managed to do this himself, though I think this is possible I would suggest at 2 people. Then zip in the very heavy duty ground sheet, which has a real feel of quality, and complete the pegging out of the tent; by doing it this way I found that it reduce the taught areas that makes it feel impossible to complete the zipping in of the ground sheet after you have pegged the tent out.
I have used this tent in Dawlish Warren on the long bank holiday weekend, the weather was great except for the Monday when we had heavy rain the tent was taken down in a rush and was very wet. In these conditions I would suggest leaving it out large canvas bag and buying a large plastic bag, I got a plastic sheet box shaped boot liner, which folds up flat. When I got home the tent needed erecting to let it dry out, forget about trying to hang the BL on the washing line, so youll need a large garden too. The second time I used it was at the Whitsun in Normandy and the weather at times, made the trip to Dawlish seem like a shower. Torrential rain at night did manage to penetrate the tent (see note below) however considering the rainfall I was very pleased. Firstly with the BLs canvas cover the noise factor was considerably reduced, I managed to sleep through it. Secondly my previous tent would have definitely let in considerably more, as did many of the other tents at the site.
The canopy at the front could benefit with sides, as with the Wolf Lake. However I have just bought a windbreak and I feel this may work better as it offers more versatility. The zips on this tent are in a class of there own and the windows to the tent have so many options: - curtains, clear plastic windows, which zip down to expose black mesh windows which can also unzip for maxim ventilation, I think all the windows on the tent offer this. The guy ropes are of high visibility. Outwell also do a footprint for this tent, Ive used 2 large tarpaulins which help keep the ground sheet clean and dry which helps when putting the tent down. The tent also takes a little longer erecting, there is a lot of pegs, guys ropes and the physical weight all take their toll; on my second time of erecting the BL it took 1hour 20mins, this compares to about 40mins of my previous tent. However saying this I know this tent is far stronger and has and would stand up to the elements better.
During my trip to France and when the BL dried out, I noticed light green patches on the roof were the bear lake 6 had leaked, on my return to the UK I reported this to Somerset Camping were after contacting Outwell agreed to replace the tent. I sincerely hope that this was a 1 off; the service from Somerset camping was excellent. I look forward to returning to France in August with my Bear Lake 6, hopefully the weather will be hot and Ill be able to enjoy the cooler interior compared to the more popular polyester tents which from experience the interiors can feel like a sauna, on these hot days that you get in France, honest!
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I replaced our leaking Nebraska XL with this tent in early 2007. At first I was worried as there had been a couple of negative reviews on this forum about the weight of the unit, waterproofing of the material around the windows and issues with a taut front door zip.
Our first impression were extremly positive. It feels well designed and appears to be warmer at night and cooler in the heat of the day. The canopy is an excellent idea - although it would have been more practicable if it reached down to the ground - as the Wolf Lake 7.
Criticisms are the weight and size of the tent has cause us some transportation problems. Price - it seems to have risen in price over the last 12 months to a ludicrous cost.
Apart from the minor criticisms I would certainly not trade this tent for anything else on the market today.
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This tent is fantastic. We used ours for the first time on the Spring Bank Holiday, it was a little breezy to say the least but the tent held firm and only moved very slightly in the gusts. The size of it is great overall, the living area space is large enough to store all the things you take with you. Bedroom pods are a great size too. Tent bags are large enough to leave pods in and the groundsheet zipped up when packing away.
Pitching and taking down is no problem. The only down side I would say is the pack sizes are large and you definitely need 2 people to handle this tent.
A great buy though and definitely worth the money, it is a very well made tent.
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We bought the bear lake tent last year as we travelled around Europe as a family. I can't fault this tent, we gave it its first airing in Woolacombe in May 2007, the weekend we had gale force winds! We worried about the pegs staying put as you do but we needn't have bothered as we were fine.
We were the only people with this tent on the campsite and quite a few people asked us about it and got 'tent envy!' it was a great way to meet people and chat.
Our next trip was Europe in August 2007 we went all over from Germany to France, Belguim and Holland. The tent was put up and taken down many times and apart from gaining a few muscles it was great, easy and usually took two of us an hour to pack away everything, probably quicker if hadn't kept stopping for a swig of beer!
We also have the utility tent that we put all the cooking stuff in and thats great too, not that you need the extra space we just prefer it.
We purchased the carpet that goes in the living area which makes the whole tent feel snug and warm, theres plenty of space and with the windows, plenty of light too.
I think anyone looking to buy a family tent can't go wrong with the Bear Lake, it certainly makes you feel home from home.
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This is is a fantastic tent!
Easy to put up, there are only 4 poles to thread through, (5 if you put the porch up) nice and spacious inside, with a large living area. The tent holds up really well in bad weather, I have even camped in snow with no problems. Roomy living space, good sized sleeping area, really good design details with the two extra doors and a window on either side, velcro tabs for electric lighting cable, so no hanging wire from the top of the tent, and a little clip on organiser to put stuff in.
I have only had a few very minor problems with this tent, but ours was one of the first ones made, so the problems I had may have just been teething troubles. The most annoying one is that you have put the tent up and have it all correctly pegged down,guyed out and everything, open the front door for an hour or so to get all our stuff inside and set up, and two of us have to wrestle the door zip closed again!
(as for the robustness of the zippers I have managed to snap one of the zip pullers and am currently using a tie wrap) this is only a temporary problem and seems to right its self after a day or so!
We mentioned this to a one of the yeomans guys at one of their shows, and he advised totally unpegging the tent down one side to ease the tension in the fabric, but we find it easier to just only half unzip the door and wait!
Other minor problems include, organiser had the tabs in the wrong place, if you put it up it was back to front and you could not put anything in the pockets!
One of the guying points at the back came unstitched.
But even inspite of these minor niggles I think that is possibly one of the best and the most innovative tents on the market today.
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Excellent tent all round. Strong (proper) canvas, loads of space, very heavy duty groundsheet. Takes a bit of getting used to putting it up (really needs two people minimum) but we worked out that if you start with the back and pull it out forwards it works well. Should last for years!
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Wow, what a fantastic tent! We had a good look at a number of tents before buying and really went for this because of the robustness and feeling of quality with everything that you touch. The zips are almost industrial in feel, the groundsheet is heavy duty and feels like it would withstand real flooding. While we have only just started using it on a relatively nice bank holiday, I would feel confident that it would withstand some serious weather conditions and you'd feel very warm and snug inside.
There are plenty of guy ropes (luminous so you don't trip over them at night), the ventilation is good and can be closed in colder weather (useful on the first night which dropped to 5 degrees!), the poles are easy to fit and strong. Given the canopy doesn't come all the way down on each side, is good for cooking in poor weather (we had a table just to the side allowing us to stand in cover with cooking smoke not coming in to the tent). Finally, both sides can be opened up which in hot weather would be good for additional ventilation.
On the downside, given the robustness of the tent (Polycotton, aluminium poles) it is both big and heavy to transport. However, doesn't distract from the tent itself.
Can't wait for my next trip!
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