Air Tents use air tubes instead of fibreglass/steel/aluminium poles for the majority of the tents pitching. This design allows for faster, simpler pitching with strong, upright walls. These tents are easy to setup, even solo. Which for some of these very large tents, would be unheard of with a different pole system. For these reasons, we are seeing air tents grow in popularity with every season.
Inflatable Air tents have been popular now for decades in Europe. There are a few reasons for their popularly.
The biggest reason is that they offer a large space suitable for families. The air tent design allows for a large spacious tent design that is quick and simple to pitch - just inflate it! The fly is usually left on the tent so that you don't even have to throw a fly over your tent when setting up!
Perfect for weekenders, or for when you simply want to spend more time relaxing than setting up camp. Less time setting up camp means more time for the greater things in life, like swimming and beer!
Most air tent models we've run across have an inner tube. When removed from the fabric external sleeve and inflated it can grow to many times the thickness of the sleeve. This means that when you inflate your bladder, there is next to no chance that you can destroy the inner tube. The fabric sleeve then makes the pole stiff giving you the rigidity that you need for a great tent.
Air tents are also popular due to being more flexible in their packed size. Generally a large tent has large poles, which dictates the size of the bag. This can often be problematic when packing for your adventure, and lots of consideration needs to be made as to whether a particular tent will fit in the space you would like it to.
This is less of a concern with air tents. Whilst air tents come with a particular sized bag, the main body of the tent can be packed short but fat, or long & skinny. Allowing it to fit into more places. Most models of air tents, such as the Darche and Outdoor Connection Air tents still come with some traditional straight poles. These are usually used for the awning, but they can be stored seperately or in some cases if you're happy to do without the awning they can be left at home.
Whilst it is still unusual to see an air tent in the typical Australian camp ground right now, we are seeing huge increases in sales volume each month and we expect that in a few years time air tents will be the new normal.
