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Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

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Kathmandu Tent

8-May-2009
12:15:04 PM

I'm looking at getting a light 2 person tent that I can use for bushwalking, MAYBE above the Oz snowline once in a blue moon. I currently use a Macpac microlight which is great except doesn't really work with 2 people. I'm hoping to get a good review of the NEWEST range of kathmandu tents, in particular the lansan (2.25kg) or the northstar v3 (2.9kg, the orange one, not the older blue or yellow ones). I get staff discount so want to avoid buying other brands at full price if I don't have to. I'm aware that Kathmandu's gear gets a bad rap, but the tents look alot better than the older models, so has anyone used these tents?


evanbb

8-May-2009
12:19:07 PM

Here's one I prepared earlier

If you go a Lansan, get the Plus. The vestibule it brilliant! Haven't used it in snow, but find it a generally warm tent. Went like a champ in Tassie over Christmas, down to probably 0, maybe less?


..::- Chris -::..

8-May-2009
12:45:41 PM

I have the exact tent your talking about (obviously older model) for 10 years now and it had served me well though it's almost at the end of it's days...

In the last year (so 10th year) one of the zips occasionally gets dislodged when i go a certain direction.

My tent has never ever leaked, ripped or let me down.

The worst thing i did with my tent requiring it's replacement was taking it to a few raves and lets just say at 3am when your getting into the tent and a little bit bent your not so fussed about how you get in or even the fact that its a tent and the walls are there to protect you from the elements not to lean on ; ) As a result i now have a few poles that have cracks up at the joins and bent...

Not to mention (same night around the same time) spilling a plastic container of dry coffee powder in the tent and whilst trying to clean it up knocked over the bottle of water which i'd decided to leave open beside me in the tent on uneven ground whilst i cleaned up the coffee.... The result was a coffee flavoured tent..... ; )

Another tip don't use any chemicals when cleaning unless you want your tent smelling like 'huggies' for the next 20 trips ; )

Replacing the poles (apart from the one zip on one side) and my tent would still be in the same condition as i bought it....

When it comes time to buy a new one i'll most likely go with the kat again mine's bin with me everyone and held up to all sorts of crap.....


Cranky

8-May-2009
8:57:48 PM

On 8/05/2009 ..::- Chris -::.. wrote:
>I have the exact tent your talking about (obviously older model) for 10
>years now and it had served me well though it's almost at the end of it's
>days...
>
>In the last year (so 10th year) one of the zips occasionally gets dislodged
>when i go a certain direction.
>
>My tent has never ever leaked, ripped or let me down.
>
>The worst thing i did with my tent requiring it's replacement was taking
>it to a few raves and lets just say at 3am when your getting into the tent
>and a little bit bent your not so fussed about how you get in or even the
>fact that its a tent and the walls are there to protect you from the elements
>not to lean on ; ) As a result i now have a few poles that have cracks
>up at the joins and bent...
>
>Not to mention (same night around the same time) spilling a plastic container
>of dry coffee powder in the tent and whilst trying to clean it up knocked
>over the bottle of water which i'd decided to leave open beside me in the
>tent on uneven ground whilst i cleaned up the coffee.... The result was
>a coffee flavoured tent..... ; )
>
>Another tip don't use any chemicals when cleaning unless you want your
>tent smelling like 'huggies' for the next 20 trips ; )
>
>Replacing the poles (apart from the one zip on one side) and my tent would
>still be in the same condition as i bought it....
>
>When it comes time to buy a new one i'll most likely go with the kat again
>mine's bin with me everyone and held up to all sorts of crap.....

Sounds like this tent would last 20 years if it wasn't taken to rave parties.


evanbb

9-May-2009
6:32:39 AM

On 8/05/2009 Cranky wrote:

>Sounds like this tent would last 20 years if it wasn't taken to rave parties.
>

I'm pretty sure I'd live 10 years longer if I didn't go to any raves too.


foreverabumbly

9-May-2009
10:09:59 AM

if you work for kathmandu then you would be aware that they own macpac now, which also means they own fairydown. So when they start stocking them you can get those brands.

If you stock any sea to summit gear it means you also have access to black diamond gear and wilderness equipment gear, and more importantly bibler tents which make some of the best snow tents around imo. The WE arrow range of tents are wicked, and I currently use a BD MegaMid.

If you want better than a crapmandu brand - then start flipping through the order catalogues.

DISCLAIMER - this advice is wholely provided on the assumption you can get a staff discount because you work directly for Kathmandu, and that their store policy allows for individual staff orders.


JamesMc

9-May-2009
10:20:32 AM

On 9/05/2009 foreverabumbly wrote:
>if you work for kathmandu then you would be aware that they own macpac
>now, which also means they own fairydown. So when they start stocking them
>you can get those brands.

Are you sure about that foreverbumbly? I thought that Jan Cameron sold Kathmandu before she bought Macpac & Fairydown.

I have an OLD Kathmandu tent, and it's the worst tent I've ever owned since my first one that cost $5 thirty years ago becuase it was damaged when the ship bringing it over from wherever it came from had its hold flooded. The problem with the Kathmandu tent was the super easy to tear polyester material it was made from. Great for toilet paper, not good for a tent. If you're buying a new one, ask for a sample of the fly material and some scissors, and do a tear propagation test.

I'm not totaly against Kathmandu as I have some OK gear from them. I just don't like tents that split in half if they get poked by a sharp stick.

JamesMc


foreverabumbly

9-May-2009
10:36:41 AM

On 9/05/2009 JamesMc wrote:

>Are you sure about that foreverbumbly? I thought that Jan Cameron sold
>Kathmandu before she bought Macpac & Fairydown.
>
thats given me a moments pause, not sure on that, at any rate you should still be able to order sea to summit and co.

9-May-2009
1:48:02 PM

I'll have a look into it, but at this stage we only stock Kathmandu branded stuff. Could be a matter of same parent company, different branches, but I'll see if the option's there.


foreverabumbly

9-May-2009
2:15:13 PM

do you sell drybags? tech towels? steri pens? if yes to any of these and more then your store has the ability to order in any of S2S products, so if you stock sea to summit towels or drybags then you will be able to order in WE backpacks, BD cams, Bibler tents etc.

If you also stock MSR stoves (ive seen pocket rockets in some kathmandu's) then you would also be able to order in MSR tents as well.

All this is, of course, dependent on your stores pro-deal/staff order policy


foreverabumbly

9-May-2009
2:59:07 PM

wow, I just had a serious look at the kathmandu web site and they flog everything off as their own. I know they make thier stuff using offcuts form other stores.

their lanson tent looks suspiciously similar to macpacs minaret and the new fairydown thingy. both of which I rate highly.


Icarus

9-May-2009
4:09:28 PM

On 9/05/2009 foreverabumbly wrote:
>do you sell drybags? tech towels? steri pens? if yes to any of these and
>more then your store has the ability to order in any of S2S products, so
>if you stock sea to summit towels or drybags then you will be able to order
>in WE backpacks, BD cams, Bibler tents etc.
>
>If you also stock MSR stoves (ive seen pocket rockets in some kathmandu's)
>then you would also be able to order in MSR tents as well.
>
>All this is, of course, dependent on your stores pro-deal/staff order
>policy

As far as I know, (I stopped working in the du about christmas) Kathmandu only sells kathmandu
branded things. Sometimes they are made by other people and rebranded, and some times their made
just for us. If the company owns Macpac, (who have their own stores btw) then the two branches are
very seperate. The only exclusion to this rule is shoes. Kat tried to make shoes a few times, decided
they sucked, and now gets other companies shoes. They currently have Salomon, Teva, Five.Ten,
etc. However, these are bought straight from the manufacturer. Eg. if someone asked for Five.Ten
climbing shoes, we couldn't ring up Spelean and order some, because we didn't get the five.tens from
them in the first place. (sidenote: Guide tennies are available though).


evanbb

9-May-2009
9:45:21 PM

On 9/05/2009 foreverabumbly wrote:
>wow, I just had a serious look at the kathmandu web site and they flog
>everything off as their own. I know they make thier stuff using offcuts
>form other stores.
>
>their lanson tent looks suspiciously similar to macpacs minaret and the
>new fairydown thingy. both of which I rate highly.
>

Cameron sold out of the Du about 18 months before the rellaunched Macpac brand. She's not officially the owner, which I suspect means she's part of a consortium.

Kathmandu have always sold a lot of stuff as their own. They do still sell some other brands, but the balance has shifted back to shiity own brand gear.

They don't do S2S.

The tent probably looks like the fairydown because one of the designers from Fairy Down moved over to the Du about 4 years ago. Add time for prototyping and retooling and his/her first tents came out about 2-3 years ago. I think they represent a serious improvement in design, but some questionable materials selection, like Dutch said. I am extremely impressed with the design of my Lansan, up to a point, which I guess is the key to all their (all anyway?) gear. It'd be hopeless on really boggy ground, as the entry zip into the sleeping chamber is quite low cut, I suspect to allow sitting in the tent and cooking in the vestibule.

At staff prices they're really good value. There'd be a cold day in hell before I paid full price for any of their gear though.


tmarsh

10-May-2009
12:13:13 PM

If Kathmandu tents look suspiciously like other manufacturers gear it's not because it's re-branded. The designes are simply copied. Kathmandu got sued about 10-15 years ago by Wild Country when they ripped off the WC tent design. The irony was that the copy was at least as good as the original and a hell of a lot cheaper. Over the years, Kathmandu have got into quite a lot of trouble for their 'sharp practices'. Most recently was the ACCC pulling them up on advertising stuff as 'was $xx, now $yy - massive 70% reduction!!!!' when in fact the produce has never sold as price xx.

Shonky company.

racingtadpole

10-May-2009
10:32:19 PM

On 9/05/2009 evanbb wrote:
There'd be a cold day in hell before I paid full price for any of their gear though.

It'd be blizzarding and a total whiteout before I bought anything from there regardless of the price...


Zebedee

10-May-2009
10:43:04 PM

On 10/05/2009 racingtadpole wrote:
>On 9/05/2009 evanbb wrote:
>There'd be a cold day in hell before I paid full price for any of their
>gear though.
>It'd be blizzarding and a total whiteout before I bought anything from
>there regardless of the price...
I bought a shirt from Katmandu 20 years ago and it is still going strong though it was stiff as a board for the first ten years.


evanbb

11-May-2009
7:28:00 AM

On 10/05/2009 racingtadpole wrote:

>It'd be blizzarding and a total whiteout before I bought anything from
>there regardless of the price...

Really? You're probably a bit mad then. I think the notion that there are 'good companies' and bad is totally flawed, ditto the notion that "chinese goods" are always shiit, or other such nonsense. The truth is that even good companies stuff up every now and then (read Subaru SVX), and on the flip side, bad companies fluke it some times. You might be better off assessing indivitual items on their merit than writing off a whole brand.

I threw a pair of Du socks in the bin this morning, after about 7 wears; another style they do has been going strong for a couple of years, worn on every hike I've done.

TonyB

11-May-2009
8:53:48 AM

On 10/05/2009 tmarsh wrote:
> The designes are simply copied. Kathmandu
>got sued about 10-15 years ago by Wild Country when they ripped off the
>WC tent design.

Did WC win ? Was it a patent or copyright case ?


tmarsh

11-May-2009
10:35:33 PM

>Did WC win ? Was it a patent or copyright case ?

I don't know that it ever went as far as a judgement, but Kathmandu stopped doing it. I doubt that there was anything patentable about the tent. It would be more likely to be a design infringement, but I'm just talking out of my arse here - intellectual property law isn't my thing.


evanbb

12-May-2009
8:38:38 AM

On 11/05/2009 tmarsh wrote:
>I'm just talking
>out of my arse here

And good on you for identifying it. I've been trying to figure out a way to make that my email signature.

There are 21 messages in this topic.