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Outwell Michigan L (2009)
My newest baby - tested for the first time last weekend in June at Spittal Farm (Staxton, nr Scarborough). Wt and foggy weekend!!
We bought this as an easy up weekend tent so were not expecting it to be huge in size but just comfortable for 4 (2 adults, 11 and 12 yr old). Well OH bought it as a birthday present for me.
Pitched the Michigan in the drizzle and fog - didn't quite get the sleeves in the right places over the bedroom poles and as it was damp the pole (even after drying off) were quite slippy. Would have redone if not for the weather.
It's quite simple to pitch for 2 people as there are basically 3 steel poles to fit. Each comes in 3 sections - 2 legs and the arch piece. They are threaded sections so there is no mistaking the poles. After you get them in then there is just the bedroom carbon fiber poles to insert and they slot into cups on the legs of the main poles - one each side. Peg out, guy down and voila!
Inside you then fix the two carbon fibre cross poles in the central living area and velcro them in place - easy. I'm 5'5' and managed to do this no problem.
The tent is very light and airy and the 'sky light' is a good idea as are the two window panels each side of the 'back door' and 2 triangular windows either side of the front porch. All have curtains that can be rolled up or down and fasten with the usual toggles. The Mocha colour (better in real life than in pictures) makes everything seem lighter too but is not a problem at night time.
The tent is vis-a-vis style - meaning sleeping areas at either end facing each other.
This is supposed to be a 6 man tent but is definitely NOT. Even as Outwell say - comfortable 4 I would take a little issue with it as the bedroom pods only just fit the double air bed (Aero bed Active Explorer double. Not the biggest double I've seen by any means).
The girls have Aero bed weekender singles and thank goodness one likes to have hers deflated as they wouldn't both have fit in if they had both been inflated. The deflated one was under the inflated one by about 3 inches.
There was plenty of standing height in the central living area. We used out kitchen unit up against the 'backdoor' (you can see in the pictures I posted) but that didn't leave all that much room and we put our little Alu roll up table out in the porch for cooking. We managed to get all 4 chairs in and sit down so there is enough room to stay comfortably (over a weekend). WE spent all our time outside though - even with the rain.
The porch - this is where it gets disappointing.
For the money you pay for the tent you would expect to get porch poles - well you DON'T so remember to take or buy some - we realised before so took ours.
The 'front door' slopes and once again with an Outwell tent you have to crawl on all fours to get to the zips to zip it up at night and undo it in the morning.
This is no good if it is raining as you tend to find some rain has crept in under the door and you get wet knees.
I have no idea why they don't put double zips on here as it would be so much easier - especially for night time visits.
We struggled with fastening down the door completely too.
I don't know if it was the way we pitched or the design of the tent but the rain seemed to roll off the roof and straight down the sides and got inside the porch area through the gaps at the bottom (going to pay more attention when pitching next time to try and get this bit perfectly right) meaning we had to be constantly mopping up. After being out for the day when it rained all day we had to take everything out of the porch area and dry it up as it was swimming.
This could have been due to the field as it was far from flat and level and there were lots of pools of water between the tent and footprint when we decamped (large pools)
This is also the reason that it sat very high at the front- we think and hope)
This said, not a single drop of water actually came in the tent at all. Everything was dry and snug.
It was very warm in the tent the whole weekend.
The fabric and manufacture is up to the usual good Outwell standard.
The footprint fits perfect and is well worth buying as it saves cleaning the bottom of the tent (thought we had to dry ours because of aforementioned rain).
The carpet too is a great fit and just makes for a softer warmer underfoot experience (not completely necessary but good to have if you want to spend the extra)
I'm going to give it another weekend away before I decide if it's a keeper or not.
I would recommend the tent to families for 4 only if the children are younger than mine or for weekend use only but that depends on how much space you like.
I would also say it is the perfect tent for a couple for weekends, weeks or longer stays.
We have decided to buy the front canopy extension and see if that helps - fingers crossed
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