Vango Carpet

Vango Illusion 800XL Carpet 2018 Review

Last year we bought our dream tent, the Vango Illusion TC 800XL, and we absolutely love it. Along with the tent we also bought the foot print and the carpet for the main living area. We are very pleased with both extras. The only slight niggle, that effects many who like me enjoy a touch of luxury while camping, was that the carpet did the dreaded “creeping carpet” thing. We placed furniture around the edge of the living room but we still seemed to be pulling the carpet back into place on a daily basis. When Vango released its 2018 brochure lo and behold the carpet had been upgraded to have added straps to hold it in place. This was an upgrade I definitely wanted for our 2017 tent and a quick enquiry emailed off to Daragh soon confirmed that the 2018 carpet would fit in our tent.

I was keen to check out our new carpet as soon as possible but our test run was delayed courtesy of The Beast From The East! When the weather finally cooperated we were ready. The tent was pitched and the new carpet pulled from its conveniently roomy storage bag.

Fitting the Carpet

With the tent pitched, we unfolded the new carpet and laid it out in the living area with the Vango Logo corner of the carpet in the front left-hand corner (looking from the front of the tent to the back). We then fitted the front two corner straps around the base of the airbeams and fastened the Velcro. Then smoothing out the carpet we fitted the straps to the other beams as we moved back – easy to do if a little tough on a bad back bending down to the base of the beams.

Our Verdict

The carpet looked lovely and smooth and even walking across it, and having our dogs “helping” us as we set the tent up, the carpet stayed put. No Creeping Carpet even without the furniture in place to hold it down. It is simple to fit and the large storage bag makes it easy to fit it back in when packing up. The only downside I can think of is that it is a little bulky if you have limited packing space but as our ever growing collection of “must have” gear has led us to trailer ownership it isn’t an issue for us and I love my new Non Creeping carpet.