Hi Scott, I did a personal review on a few tents which i've included below. In the end we have gone for the BOAB tent as we felt that the few pounds more give us a better quality tent (we will see how it fairs in the desert soon). pick it up next week. Second hand ones dont come around very often so you may have to buy new, would recommend to try before you buy tho even if its just a display one. Try and open and close it, check its zips, straps, ties, hinges etc.
Hopes this all helps
Mark
The girlfriend and myself are going to morocco
next march and a roof tent is what we have decided to go for.
I'm fitting the tent on some rhino roof bars as the full rack option
wouldn't work for me, they are generally something you tend to leave on once
fitted which would mean I couldn't get into any of the carparks or the local
tip. If I was pushed I would have gone for the patriot, extremely well/over
engineered (British too) so you can strip each section off i.e. side rails,
then floor sections then finally the roof bars.
We recently had the opportunity to use a Hannibal 1.2 roof tent for 2 weeks
in France, once we were back I went and had a look at my mates 1.4 ezi awn
to compare. I'll list the good and bad points of each below:
Hannibal:
Good bits:
Protective cover very easy to remove and refit, zipped along lower edge then
strapped.
Fly sheet has side panels by exit thus shielding entry points from rain
better.
Base seems thicker and more stable!?
Has porthole entry meaning totally sealed panel once zipped up.
Side windows zip all the way round
Thick mattress, split in the middle which helps opening and closing
Bad bits:
Lower half of ladder is stored separately in side landy
Top support pole for fly sheet falls out of pockets everytime its folded
down thus you have to re fit this everytime you erect the tent.
no air vents, need to leave windows or doors slightly open to allow air flow
through tent
fly sheet is very thin nylon type material and prone to damage
Internal support bars need repositioning once tent is fully open
Stitching of seems and zips are poor.
When opening zip of protective cover tends to get pinched between the mating
parts of the base board.
Ezi awn:
Good Points:
Ladder is light weight aluminium and both section are part of the tent
Stitching of zips and seems are better quality but still no where near what
I would expect +£700 worth of tent to be.
Has continuous air vents to allow air flow through tent
Tent opens out well and internal support bars are in correct positions
Fly sheet is of a rip stop material and very hard wearing
Bad Points:
Door has vertical side zips but nothing attaches the bottom of the door
panel to the tent base: thus fly's (mozi's) can enter, gather the fix for
this is to add Velcro along the bottom.
Side windows only zip up on sides this means that in windy conditions the
sides balloon out/flap around.
Protective cover is completely removable and very difficult to resecure
around tent when packing up! There is a strap around the base of the cover
which has a ratchet on one side, this is tends not to pull the cover tight
all the way round.
Mattress is one piece which means that when opening the tent the joint of
the base board pinches the mattress meaning it wont interlock to gether
properly.
No side panels on fly sheet by entrances
Protective cover a tad thin and corners of the tent base tend to damage it
when it being secure up
Well I think thats it!
Both tents are canvas made which means that even on the brightest days the
tent stays very dark inside! The ezi awn has alu section rails along the
bottom which makes fitting easier, Hannibal is bolt through the floor type
but I would bolt the ezi-awn through the floor I think if rough offroading
was to be encountered.
For a Tent costing + £700 you are not getting a very good quality built tent
but instead I believe you are paying to the concept, as I was told these
tents are made in south Africa and quality is very poor even when they sack
the workers and re-employ the quality soon drops down again.
The ezi awn is better made but has poor design for something that is to be
used in Africa (door/window sealing is very bad), all the issues on the ezi
awn can be fixed fairly easy but if you want a tent that works straight out
the box then Hannibal is in my opinion better.
I would recommend going to the land rover shows and having a look at
them in great detail, also check the difference between the 1.2 and 1.4. We
were going to go for a 1.2 but after seeing the difference in the 1.4 I
think we shall be going for that instead after all we will be spending over
4 weeks in this tent and the 1.2 can get a little tight at times.
We had a look at a AUTOHOME overland at billing, there made in Italy and
have a good mattress, good ladder and the quality as I remember is very
high, only bad point that I saw was that i think the material is not canvas so not as
hard wearing or as dark when inside. see BOAB.biz, chaps name was Chris I
think. we are going to the LRO show to have another look at these first
before we decide.
The only other make that I know of is Howling moon but seen or heard much
about these.
