Pro Action Hike Lite Vs. Vango Ultralite 100

I just read the review of the Vango Ultralite 100 Tent by @OUTDOORSmagic

The article describes the tent as "The Ultralite 100 is Vango's affordable, lightweight, single-skin one-person tent aimed at ultra-lightweight backpackers on a bit of a budget.".

It is a great article and I thought an excellent review, but I do a large portion of my camping with Duke of Edinburgh groups (almost solely with the Durham/Newton Aycliffe group), and I think I must have a slightly different perspective on 'budget'. But what really caught my eye, was the similarities between the Vando Ultralite 100 and the Pro Action Hike Lite from Argos.

The Vango weighs in at a impressive 1.1kg and is a single shell. It is also made of the popular rip-stop material and uses Vango's TBS (tension band system) to make sure that this puppy is going to stay up.

The Pro Action weighs in at a [still impressive] 2kg and has a separate inner/outer. It doesn't boast the same advanced material make up, but then it doesn't carry Vango's price tag either.

The Vango will set you back a fairly reasonable £140GBP (RRP) whereas Argos will only require £17.99GBP (on sale) for their version.

The Pro Action does come with an awning/porch (albeit a small one), something the Vango is lacking. Popular (according to Argos' customer review system) opinion seems to be the only thing not to love about the Pro Action is the color; though I have to say, I actually like the bright orange (you can't please everyone it seems).

Their aesthetic similarities are obvious, as are the functional designs. I do love both tents, and have had a long love affair with Vango equipment, but I use a Pro Action at the moment (yes, I actually go out at this time of year), and the price wins it over for me. I appreciate people will have different needs, and if money isn't an issue, I may well think differently; but for who isn't money an issue these days, eh?

I don't think it's fair to say that you're "just paying for a name", Vango undoubtedly has an angle on quality and construction, from the 7001-T6 alloy poles to the Protex 3000 fabric, the Argos offering may feel, in contrast, like a trash bag held up by some twigs (if you look close enough); but for the back packer/camper keen to save some pennies, I think the Pro Action Hike Lite deserves a close look too.

It seems we have two tents here separated largely by price. Weight and pole construction are the two main points that pulled me toward the Vango whereas the price and functionality was on the Pro Action's side.

Why I, personally, can NEVER support #Freegle

So this is a rewrite of the previous blog by the same name after it was strangely deleted. I don't subscribe to conspiracy theories, so I'm assuming this is probably something I did. Still, I've changed my password to be on the safe side :)

Imagine you're an office manager for a law firm (for the sake of this example, 'Freecycle Associates'), your duties include organising the filing, opening and closing the office, answering phones, speaking to new clients, managing existing clients. You know, the usual stuff.

Now, imagine you become unhappy with your employer, you start to look around for new work, you find a startup company (for the sake of this example, 'Freegle Associates').

However, you like your office, your chair, you have your name on one of those little plaque things on your desk and your name is so very eloquently etched onto the frosted glass door to your office.

So, you speak to your new employer, make all the arrangements, and one Friday night, you decide that over the weekend, you're going to make that move.

Now, all seems fair enough so far, right?

Well, instead of actually moving to 'Freegle Associates', you instead change the locks on all the office doors, all of the 'Freegle Associates' staff are invited into what used to be the 'Freecycle Associates' office and all of the clients files are kept inside the same building.

So, Monday morning comes along and the 'Freecycle Associates' CEO says "Hold on just a cotton pickin' minute, you can leave the company, that's your decision, but you've kept all of our stuff, including our client files!".

"Well..." you reply, "...the way I see it is that I handle the client when they call, I'm the one who gets their coffee when they come in for an appointment and I'm the one who spends all that time filing their paperwork".

Well now, call me crazy, but as lovely as I'm sure you may be as an office manager, I'm going to go ahead and assume that the reputation and name of the law firm is the reason clients give business to the company. They don't arbitrarily choose a law firm because it's the first one they flipped to in the phone book (although, that's a possibility, I don't think it represents the majority).

So, if you, as an office manager want to go work for 'Freegle Associates', good for you. You'll be performing the same job, but to take something that doesn't belong to you isn't right, it just isn't.

So...you still with me?

When Freegle moderators decided they didn't want to stay within The Freecycle Network, I for one wish them all the success in the world. Go off, create a group, if you do well, people will join; if you don't, so be it.

But, to do so by simply renaming the group, disabling any Freecycle accounts and moving on (thus keeping all the members that had joined a Freecycle group) isn't fair to the members that joined that Freecycle group, it isn't fair to The Freecycle Network and it isn't fair to those of us who continue to volunteer our time to Freecycle.

Freegle, in my opinion, conducts itself inappropriately in this manner. And because they continue to do so, I, personally, can NEVER support Freegle.

The Freecycle Network™ is made up of 4,836 groups with 6,577,000 members across the globe. It's a grassroots and entirely nonprofit movement of people who are giving (& getting) stuff for free in their own towns. It's all about reuse and keeping good stuff out of landfills. Each local group is moderated by a local volunteer (them's good people). Membership is free. To sign up, find your community by going to freecycle.org and entering it into the search box. Have fun!