As the owner of a vango rivendale 800xl when the sunbeam lighting system came on the market it went to the top of my wish list. The only thing holding me back was the rrp of €130 for something that just lit a tent when my current "lighting system" which consisted of a bulb, bulb holder, flex and a plug costing €5 did an adequate job. In the end I made the purchase.

It comes in a nice soft carry case and the kit included is fairly extensive. It contains four led light bars, various sizes of attachment straps, two different lengths of connecting cables, four in line switches, a three way splitter and best of all a remote control.

If your tent doesn't have the built in attachments for hanging the lightening system it can be a bit tricky. Luckily I had electrical tape with me so I basically taped the lights and cables to the inside of the tent, mainly to the beams. If you are going to have all the lights come on and go off at the same time you don't need to wire the switches into the setup, you only need to connect the remote receiver into the circuit, this means a quicker and tidier setup. It took me about 10 minutes to set it all up.

My second concern with buying the system was, is it going to be bright enough to light the inside of the tent ?. The main living area in the rivendale is 140sq feet and 7 foot high, and that doesn't include the bedroom space. On turning the lights on when the inside was pitch black I was amazed at how well it lit the tent. There was a nice even light with no dark spots in the corners etc. On opening the bedrooms there was even adequate light to light them. So no complaints at all about light levels. The remote allows you to select three levels of light output, 25%, 50% and 100%. There is also a strobe function, for what reason I've yet to figure out.

I would rate this 7 out 10. 1 point deducted because without the attachments build into the tent it can be a little messy to install, the second point deducted because at €130 I think it's a premium price to pay, €100 would be more realistic in my opinion. The third point deducted because in my opinion it is only good for lighting one area, it would be very awkward and messy to try light separate areas like the main living area and then individual bedrooms.

To sum up if you want a modern, functional, stylish looking and bright lighting system for your tent I would highly recommend it.

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