Vango Faros - anyone used one yet? are they any good?

[jepotherepo]

Im looking for a small, lightweight driveway awning for weekends away and short trips. The Kela series look great but are outside my current budget as I already own a decent large tent for longer trips. I saw the Faros on vango's website but can't (so far) find anyone with any practical experience of it. Any info greatly appreciated. Ta.

 

[Chilmark]

We bought a Galli III low at the Camping and Caravan show for £550 with Carpet and love it


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[Elly Swanson]

Well, I took my new Faros away for a week on the Pembrokeshire coast in August. There's lots I liked about it but I think it would be best as a fair weather awning.

Things I loved about it:

• small when packed and lightweight
• for a small awning it actually has a lot of internal space
• great for narrower pitches as it's longer than it's wide
• it's very light and airy
• almost straight sides allow you to stand &/or put things close to the sides
• the tunnel has 2 zipped doors for easy access
• the internal storm straps help keep the structure in bad weather
• being pole & sleeve it can be easily dried at home if space is limited
• the clip in groundsheet: you can leave it out on warm/dry grass or gravel

Things I didn't like or we had a problem with:

• the brass eyelets at the top (on one side) ripped out of position by about 2 cm (seemed to me to be too high so couldn't take the tension of the guy ropes)
• there was a kink/miss tooth connection in the main door zip (top left) and the zip undid itself by about 18 cm - then the zip wouldn't self heal when the tab was run over it (infact the zip just jammed at that point)
• one of the bottom pitching elastics, where you peg, separated at the join
• not a fault, but the sides could do with more bottom pegging points, not just either side of the doors

I felt really diappointed as without the faults it would have been the perfect awning for us. If Vango did this size/design at a higher quality and made it more robust I would be happy to pay a lot more for it.

I bought it from the club shop and as usual the customer service was exceptional. I sent a couple of pics with an email. They arranged a courier pick up and within a couple of days it had been collected and my money refunded.