Heimplanet’s The Cave Tent: Is Pitching A Tent That Difficult?
Heimplanet, a German company, has decided to solve a problem that didn’t really need solving with their new tent, The Cave. It’s an inflatable tent, which supposedly sets up in less than a minute.
Here is a video about it:
This video shows the actual inflation:
Considering all the problems I’ve had with inflatables over the years, the thought of an inflatable tent just makes me shake my head. An inflatable tent in the heat of Southern Utah would become a floppy mess within a few hours. The more air you add, the more likely you’ll pop it rather than get any structural integrity. Just like my kayak, the 110 degree heat would just melt that poor tent.
What about the slow leak problem? Every camper who has had an inflatable mattress knows about the irritating slow leak problem when you can’t find the stupid leak and you end up sleeping on the hard ground within a few hours. Sure, the individual tent “beams” are replaceable, but which one is leaking?
Don’t even get me started on the 499 Euro price tag ($634 US) for a three man tent. For that price, you can get THREE Coleman Instant Eight Person Tents on Amazon. That’s a tent that can be put up in about two minutes by two people who have absolutely NO idea what they’re doing, as demonstrated by these guys:
Of course, that poor tent won’t survive the wind and rain storms I’ve seen in the mountains of Utah, but neither will a balloon tent. The Cave is trying to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist. Pitching a tent isn’t all that hard, even if you go with a canvas beast like my Springbar. Mike and I can get that thing up in fifteen minutes. In fact, when I did it all by myself with tons of interruptions, I did it in 30 minutes.
I know that pitching a tent in the rain and wind is difficult and unpleasant, but an inflatable tent won’t solve that problem. In the end, The Cave doesn’t solve any problems and introduces more ways in which your tent can fall (or slowly sink) on you in the middle of the night.
Via: There I Fixed It – WIN: Say Goodbye to Impossible Tents