A Weekend Camping & Gadgeting

So last weekend I was attending the Annual Gathering of Widows Sons Solomons Guard.

It was a weekend of camping so it was a great chance to try out some new kit and get more acquainted with recently purchased kit.

What I took with was the following but I wont talk about all this kit a or we will be here all day:

• Vango Talas 300 - 3 person tent.

• LYMIN roll up, folding camping table.

• Chamast 20000maAH Fast Charging Power Bank

• Flextail Max Pump 3 - high speed 2 in 1 rechargeable air pump

• HiiPeak Inflatable Seeping Pad / Bed.

• Rock Cloud Folding Chair

• One Tigris Featherlite Ultralite Sleeping Quilt

• Flextail Inflatable Pillow

So lets start at the beginning, I bought ther Talas 300 because I wanted an easy to assemble tent but one with plent of space that I could at least kneel in. I have a one man tunnel tent but that’s like being in a cocoon with no roof space at all.

What I have learnt is that despite the cracking summer we had, and public decency laws, you need to be able to change in and out of your biking gear in privacy and shelter. That and being able to put up and take down a tent quickly in all weathers, the two pole system helps you do that (less faffing about).

That leads me to my first issue with the tent I picked. You need to assemble the inner body of the tent first and then the fly sheet goes on top. That works well if you are in great dry weather, but if it’s chucking it down with rain, then your tent is gonna get soaked.

Once up its roomy inside, with a couple of side pockets and being a tunnel tent it narrows at the end but not a lot.

They say it’s a three person tent and yes if it was only three people in there sleeping side by side with no kit.

Also space wise, once the HiiPeak Bed id fully inflated, it just fits into the tent and its 195cm in length (I’m 178cm).

All in all the tent is a great piece of kit with a blackout mesh forming part of the interior which is great for light nights and it takes minutes to take down and put away (provided it’s not raining).

A good investment and this is the second time I’ve used it, first being at ABR Festival earlier in the year.

Next we come to one of my favourite pieces of kit because it has so many uses.

The Flextail Max Pump 3 - high speed 2 in 1 rechargeable air pump (with light).

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This handy piece of kit was something I felt I really needed for camping and even at home or going on holiday so it was well worth the bit extra that I paid for it. Remember that sometimes you have to spend a little to get a good piece of equipment.

Obviously the main use for this is to inflate, the Flextail pillow, the HiiPeak Bed etc and if you are an old duffer like me, you need to conserve your oxygen. This pump comes with a number of different nozzles for all types of holes or air intakes (sounds better). It inflates stuff in seconds and is fantastic.

However, when I found it most useful was in packing the Wee Radge’s panniers for the trip. I bought a couple of reusable vacuum bags from our good friends at TEMU, popped my clothes, towel, trousers etc into them and then sucked the air right out of them.

This allowed me to get more stuff packed into my panniers as the clothes etc were not taking up as much space.

How does that work with a pump that has no reverse or “suck” button on it. Well whilst the clear plastic end is for inflating, if you flip it over and put the other end on the air inlet (aka the hole), it sucks all the air out.

On top of all of that there’s a handy camping light that can be hung up in the tent and its full rechargeable .

The last item I’m going to talk about today is the Charmast Fast Charging Powerbank, not as light as some power banks but I like to try out the concept first and if I like it I might invest a few more pennies in a light, but just as effective model.

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I charged this up on the Friday morning and over the space of the weekend I charged my iPhone 15 from 10% to 100% twice and my mates iPhone from 0% to 100% twice. I also topped up the Flextail Pump (not that I had to but hey better safe than sorry), topped up my Cardo Pactalk before Saturdays ride and the Powerbank still had over 40% left in it when I came home on the sun day.

As its also a fast charging power bank it did all this in fairly quick time which was handy when it came to the Cardo. On top of all that it comes with four built in cable connectors, old iPhone, USC, USB and the funny wee one that nobody can eve remember the name for, the Micro thingy.

It also has three input sockets for connecting independent cables to USB, USC, Micro, so you can charge multiple devices at the same time (handy if your camping or travelling with kids).

It’s fairly compact but does carry some weight with it but for what it can do, and for the price, I’m willing to put up with that.

As I said at the start, I’m not going to cover everything in the post but these were a few of the key items that really stood out for me.

Sometimes you can pay a low price and get a decent piece of kit and other times you pay that little bit more for a really good piece.

The same can also be said if you spend a lot on a piece of rubbish because the hype has been what has sold it.

Make sure you when buying that you check out all the details, compare it to others if you can. Decide what your needs are and does that mean paying less or do you need to pay a little bit more.

At the end of the day its about getting value for money from your purchase and that means it does what it needs to do, ideally on a regular basis.

Just for transparency all of my kit was purchased by me with no discounts or special offers apart from the usual “sign up to our newsletter and get a small discount” - why not, I am Scottish after all.

This article contains affiliate links. If you buy through one of these links, I may receive a small commission at no additional cost to you. This does not influence my honest opinion of the product.