UKC

Now I'm the first to admit that I'm not very experienced at this whole camping malarkey (ahem), but I want to buy a tent, and I'm wondering what effect on mood (if any) the colour of a tent has?

Obviously different colours let in different amounts of light/heat, but what if you are stuck in a tent for hours or days trying to pass the time? Will a red tent drive you to murder??! Will a bright yellow tent make the world seem a better place?

Thanks

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

Most campers use a night mask to avoid being woken too early (and ear plugs for those pesky birds!) so the colour of the tent makes little difference. Green outer and yellow inner makes sense if you're wild camping.

http://www.headcovers.com/11311/soft-padded-night-mask-for-sleeping/

In reply to winhill:

REALLY?

I don't know anyone who uses such a thing. Thought you just stuck your head in your sleeping bag

In reply to toad:

likewise. My tent is reddish (Terra Nova Voyager) and the way the inner works means that one panel glows pink like a fairy princess's bedroom. Ahem.

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

When it's gloomy outside, a nice, bright tent is good for the mood. However.... Do you want to be subtle with where you're camping? Not just from the point of view of camping somewhere where you might not be allowed, but also, do you want your tent to be an eyesore for other people? Maybe not a concern for you on the North Lees campsite, but if you take it wild camping, it might be.

Alternatively, if you want to take it somewhere really serious (himilayas, for example) then bright red or orange might be good from a safety point of view.

Apart from that, a light tent can mean that you wake up earlier - I once slept in a yellow tent, and it was really bright inside from about 5am onwards. No good for a lie-in/hangover!

Bright tents also attract more bugs. Again, this might not be a problem, depending on where you plan on camping, but it might also mean you have a thicker cloud of midges in some places.

For what it's worth, my current one is olive on the outside, with a bright orange inner tent. It seems like a fairly reasonable compromise. I actually heard somewhere that the first force 10 tents were designed orange, so it gave a more amorous hue on the inside.... oo-er!

Tim

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

I find external colour seems to make surprisingly little difference from the inside. However, if you are concerned about longevity, I have been told by a materials scientist that red might not be a good colour when it comes to resisting UV. Also worth looking for tent outers made of fabric whose individual threads are coated with UV resistant polymers.

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC: mmmm orange ....

In reply to toad:

I take earplugs, but I never a mask they feel baaaaad!

Tim

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

Surely if you are stuck in a tent for days on end the colour is going to be the least of your worries?

In reply to toad:

No, of course not fecking really!

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:
I've never had an issue with the tent colour adversely affecting my mood, although last time i was stuck in a red tent for ages due to crap weather i was almost driven to murder but that was probably due to cabin fever and running out of tea bags.

The bigger issues i'm concerned with are 1)how badly your tent stands out when wild camping (not an issue if you're in a massive tent on a proper campsite), and 2)how hot the tent gets early in the morning when it's sunny, obviously lighter colours are better for this.

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

I still have an old orange Vango force ten that gets pulled out from time to time. I can't recommend enough that joyful disorientating sense of stumbling out of an orange tent and seeing the world in a disturbing off-green shade for the first few minutes of a day.

In reply to gribble:

one of my duvet sets is Vango Force 10 Orange in homage to that experience as a child. Life's better when it starts off orange.

In reply to winhill:

I swear by eye patches during BST...

In reply to Removed User:

You made that sound like something rude.

>Ahem.

Quite.

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

the troube I find with my bright yellow tent... is that it always feels like a bright sunny day outside... which makes unzipping and seeing the low cloud and drizzle even more of an arse!

although I've a suspision I may be fairly unique in that.

I've often wished it was a more subtle colour for wild camping in though.

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

I have a red Akto, as it was £100 cheaper than a green one. So far it has not driven me to murder. I also have a couple of green tents. I have yet to discern any difference the various colour combos make on my mood, although a Nallo3GT is better for morning yoga and reading the sunday papers than an Akto; two of many factors affecting mood.

Seemingly yellow tents are a bugger for attracting annoying insects.

For ultimate mood creation, get a tent with a lot of headroom and hang an LED chandelier from the middle and a few strategically placed Petzl torches with dimmer switches.

In reply to Removed User: From the needlesports site:

Once upon a time Hamish [Hamilton] worked for Vango and in the mid-sixties gave tent design a quantum boot up the bell-end with the invention of the Force Ten. Generations of scouts, girl guides, outdoors groups and other innocent parties who have survived torrential storms, gales and blizzards in one of these orange wonders may be surprised to learn that the colour was chosen because it gave a much more romantic light for seducing members of the opposite sex than conservationally sound green!

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:

Doesn't make much difference when you're in it.

Outside there is an argument depending on where you're using it. In the wilds it's nice to be green and so less of an eyesore for others (although personally I don't mind backpacking tents in landscapes). If you're going into snow/mountains/expedition-type areas then something visible is good - red being common.

Maybe Swatch should do tents and you could have panels in rainbow colours (but perhaps not the see-through one)?

J

In reply to winhill: argh, irony fail. Blame David Cameron making me shout at the television

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:
Mine are mainly drab greys, blacks and blues. I do have the famed pro-action one man jobbie though. Its bright orange and when you wake up with the sun on it its like being on acid :-/

In reply to winhill:

"Night Mask"? Viz top-tip "Instead of using a night mask and carrying all that extra weight, I just use my eyelids - in the down position they work really well at blocking light!"

In reply to PeterM:

...although I do use earplugs now and again.....

In reply to Green Porridge:


I've read that midges are more attracted to darker colours. Possibly it doesn't really make any difference, but when it comes to midges every little helps...

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC: we have a yellow tent, it tricks you into thinking the world outside is nice and invariably you end up disappointed when you look outside

In reply to Nick Smith - UKC:
green for the outside, though it's great to see an orange tent at the end of the day when you're knackered (or pissed on the way back from the pub, i suppose! ).
yellow or orange for the inside is nice & cheery. maybe there's more light as well, like light colours for the inside of rucsacks?