Oztent RV-3 Questions & Answers

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Same thing has happened to mine. I've used it 8 nights total

My the same and the fabric is leaking badly. I,ve used it for 6 nights always packed away dry. The waterproofing membrane has failed.

Same issue with my 2 years old lite - only used it twice - not happy. Has anyone had any feedback from company about possible cause ? or replacement ?

Australia

Made in China says the tag on my side panel.

It's a great product but we've learned no one set up covers every contingency. You know the main room in the Oz Tent is tapered down yeah so you'll lose some standing space? It's very eclosed and well sealed though so no bugs. We've had basically a river flowing under us some nights and not got wet. I guess you could use that for tapered area for storage. Durability isnt the issue as long as you order the fly with it. They are incredibly well made and very durable. Once you've attached the fly, just leave it on. You can roll it up if you want but no need to take it off each time. The front awning area you can also attach side panels of you wish, which when fitted will give you two rooms (No sewn in floor in second Oz Tent room then though so bugs will get under). The oz tent second awning rooms are great for a longer stay but not an option for overnighters as they are a bit fiddly to zip the panels on and off. The downside of your Oz Tent is rocky ground as its tough to peg your Oz tent down but tough for any tent. Have you considered gettign an awning fitted and buying an awning room to hang under it? That's unless your car is a standard sedan. We decided if we did a similar trip we would need different options for different conditions so would have a roof top tent, awning and fully enclosed mesh awning room (and panel covers for rain/low sun) awning room must have a sewn in floor for when mossies and flies bad and we would strap our oz tent on as well for times we don't want to camp by the car (sometimes you have to park on gravel and walk to the grass to camp but cant drive there or camp by a river but your car is blocked from getting there). The reason for all these options is sometimes you also want to set up your camp spot but then take your vehicle on a drive. Roof top tent you have to take down and set up each time. When camping in the desert for example, we'd set our Oz tent up then use our 4WD to go on exploration drives, if camping in the wet and mud, roof top tent is way best, cooking you need shelter and protection from flies and mossies so thats when we;d use the mesh awning room with sewn in floor. Hope that helps and hasnt confused you further. The basic premise is Australia is so varied you need more than one option.

forget oz tents . made in china. overpriced. buy an aldi tent.

Thanks Bass Yabbie! We really appreciate your detailed response! We will be sleeping in a roof top tent on a jack off canopy and were looking at having the oztent for a cooking/ leisure area. We looked at awnings but haven't been convinced with the quality of some of the awnings and their side wall enclosures (which is when we came across the oztent :)). If we stayed at one place for a few weeks we wanted to make sure this would do the withstand whatever conditions Aus has to throw at us. But maybe we should consider it for a back up in case we can't pitch it at a rocky site. We're seriously considering it with all of the great reviews we've read (unless someone can recommend some other set up/brands we might not have thought about) and maybe replace the poles for more heavy duty ones?

Gotta love some of the answers you get. Just by an Aldi tent for your 5 year holiday...………. To answer your questions I've been through torrential rain, driving rain and strong winds and never got any water inside the tent. Just like Bass Yabbie, we've woken up in a small lake about 3 inches deep and no water even came in then. In the wind it the tent needs to be pegged down including it's guy ropes. When we have gotten wet inside the tent is cold weather camping (winter in the desert) and the warm air inside the tent freezes on the inside roof then in the morning when the sun hits it, then you get a lot of drips. Some folks buy the fly to fix this, I don't bother.

Now for my opinion on your use case, I'm not sure it's the right choice. The oztent excels at what it's made for, super fast up and down. Most night (when it's calm obviously) I don't even peg in the four corners of the tent, just pop it up, sleep in it and put it down again. It is an awesome 4WD touring tent when you are having quick stays. It's also fine for longer stays with the add on front sides and can enclose them to a room (without an attached floor so storage/cooking room etc) however doing this takes as long as putting up a normal tent and removes the whole 30 second thing, it adds versatility though so you can do quick up / down on the road and then do longer stays with same tent. The tent itself would not be a good cooking area, not enough headroom plus the whole internal moisture thing, plus it's very bulky to meet the primary purpose of quick up and down. I'd be more inclined to look at a fold up gazebo for your cooking purpose, it would weigh about the same as the oztent and be a bit less bulky. I've never found a hard need to fully enclose a cooking area, if bugs are really bad I'd probably look to a screen room inside the gazebo that wouldn't get used often but get pulled out at those bad spots. I'd recommend you go with an Oztrail gazebo and an accessory Oztrail screen room for the bug spots.

I only have the canopy rolled up,then pack as described, as tight as possible. Gets easier with practice.

Sounds like they still have the tight bags. I did the zipper on mine after a couple of years of tight zip ups and bought a RV4 bag as replacement. The RV4 bag is perfect size for the RV3 tent. Also from memory I think i often packed the peg bag and the awning poles separate when i had the original bag.

Excellent advice everyone,thanks for the help

Herb

Totally agree, why on earth don't they provide a bag 5-10% bigger? It would make pack up so much easier, have had ours 5 years and I reckon the bag almost gone, will take the tip in here and order the RV-4 bigger bag.

I only set up tent, then hose it with water and let it dry, and repeat over a couple of days. Good luck

First time it rained while i was camping was how mine got seasoned. I've been through plenty of rain and never a drop leaked.

we got condensation the very first time we used it but ordered the fly and no probs since. We were camping in South Gippsland though, cold and wet.