Kit review: Vango Hurricane 200 tent
Robust, roomy and practical. Three words that sum up the two-man Vango Hurricane 200 tent. And also quite light at 4.2kg. The website said that this tent would take 15 minutes to pitch and even coming cold to the instructions Little Miss and I managed to have the tent up and in good working condition in that time
The shape is geodesic, which means it’s kind of round and because of the five crossover points, it’s very sturdy. The shape is good if you like a little bit of head height and space to move around in the tent. The fabric of the outer is, to use their technical terms, Protex® 5000mm Siliconised PU ripstop polyester 70D. To my eye and feel it is good and tough. The inner is breathable ripstop inner tent, which means that it lets all your hot air escape during a night of breathing. The groundsheet has sealed seams and is good quality. A lot about this tent is high on quality.
Putting up the Vango Hurricane
If you put up one modern tent then you’ll know the drill. Put the poles together, slot them through the colour coded sleeves, see how the tent suddenly pings into approximate shape, then peg down and tighten the guy ropes. They mostly are as easy as that.
To start with, Little Miss and I weren’t sure the Hurricane would prove to be as straightforward but once we’d wrestled a little bit with the poles and their sleeves the tent started to take shape and we easily finished off the process with the amazingly light tent pegs.
When erected the tent is really sturdy. I think the clue is in the name, Hurricane, but I was more than impressed by how tough the tent looked and felt when I pushed it about. The geodesic deign makes it a strong and robust tent. Even in strong winds the tent hardly moves.
There are two openings, front and back, which is always useful and a small porch area at each end. I prefer a bigger porch area normally but if you’re looking for a lighter weight tent that is perfect for backpacking you can’t have everything.
The tent only weighs 4.2kg, which for such a robust and roomy version seems pretty light to me. The pegs are incredibly light (have I said that?). Both Little Miss and I stopped to check out these pegs because they felt so, so light yet are still so strong. “Weird,” she said!
Other features include:
- Multiple reflective points.
- Flysheet vents with mesh covering.
- Inner tent pockets.
The tent also has another plus-point because it is actually quite easy to pack away. Many tents are a struggle to stuff back into their bags but the Vango Hurricane went back in with little difficulty.
Where to use the Vango Hurricane 200 tent
The tent is perfect for weekends away in fickle weather, especially for car to campsite or car to wild camping trips. If there are two of you and can split the weight of the tent this would also make a robust backpacking tent that would cope with all the weathers that Scotland can sometimes (or often!) throw at you.
The Vango Hurricane 200 is priced at £300.