Khyam XXl Classic QE Ridgidome

I bought one of these KHYAM XXL Rigidome tents for a family holiday ( just 3 of us) but I wanted plenty of space. It really is simple to put up. I set mine up, at night, in high wind and rain and was zipping up the door 15 minutes later to brew a cuppa.

Its also simple to put down and easily goes in the zip up bag.

Any tent needs to be pegged down properly and guy ropes are designed to be used, not left dangling . If you get pools of water on the top, you havent put the tent up properly.

Go buy an non quick erect 8 berth tent and set it up on a windy day. Then try a Khyam. Youll never want to buy another tent.

I used to sell tents, I would never consider another make now!

Khyam XXI Rigidome is an excellent tent with very spacious accommodation, in my case for 5 but could easily accommodate 8 - 10. With practice, it became easier to erect but could benefit from a taller erecter (I'm 5'7"!). Once up, it becomers a very rigid and stable structure, remaining in position during many gales! My wife and I liked the 'central' open area which could act as a dining area during rainy weather. I would have liked a more complete tuition spell,with tips in erecting the tent. Being a practical sort, I 'muddled through' and adopted my own solutions to some of the few problems I encountered.

Our last tent blew down in a gale this tent survived a gale 40+mph however only because I added ropes to every pole and staked them out as storm guys. If you don't spend your time pegging out the tent and using all the guys the rain pools in the top of the tent and in the morning you have a paddling pool. Takes up to much time to setup/packup on a short weekend break. Nice big family tent even better if you buy the annex, good for long holidays where the weather may be wet.

Note that the new version of the Khyam Ridgedome is effectively the Harewood (but without sewn-in groundsheet). Khyam sell these tents on the quick erect 'ridgi-dome' system, claiming that the tent can be erected in minutes by one person, but it seems to me that they have scrimped on the rest of the design. In fact, even this claim is misleading, because this particular model requires a 2nd person to support the central hub during erection, and because the complete job of pitching takes much longer - at least as long as our old Sunncamp Profile we were replacing - because of all the unnecessarily complex guy and pegging system.

The nature of the ridgi-dome system means that the tent walls are never taut and end up flapping in the wind; and I cannot believe that bringing 3 guys together onto one peg is secure as pegging 3 seperate guys. We have had our Sunncamp Profile in 40mph gales in Scotland without mishap - a taut tent is an aerodynamic tent. In contrast, I would barely trust the Khyam in 20mph gales.

The bedroom attacchment design are a disgrace. There is nothing in the written or video instructions to help you fit the bedrooms; and you quickly find that there is no provision in the groundsheet or main tent design to secure the front floors of the bedrooms. Furthermore there is no advice about what to do with the skirts. After the 1st night of rain in Wales, we found that water had laked between the bedrooms and grounsheet. I then spent an hour repegging the groundsheet and skirts - this time could be added on to the total pitching time.