So for the Oztent RV-3, it's only going to be a quick review as we only had the use of our borrowed unit a for a quick one-nighter. I'll break it down into pros and cons.
The positives first, the Oztent claims to be a thirty-second tent and for all intents and purposes it is that, once it's on the ground and out of the bag. On our weekend away I'd pegged out the optional floor saver where we wanted to set-up and placed the tent on it and went to the car grab my phone and when I got back, the tent was up. My wife had done it on her own and we'd never even used one before now. Yeah sure we still had to peg it out and set-up the front awning but if we were in a hurry and the weather was on our side it was effectively, sleep ready. We opted to put the fly on more just to see how it worked than any real need for it. It was easy to use, attach the quality YKK zip and a few pegs and the job was done, the downside is that it needs a spreader pole to run along the rear edge which isn't supplied with the tent and the owner of our tent had added one to his kit. I think for a tent of this quality and price it should be included.
We also decided to set up the awning and optional sidewalls, more just to see how hard or easy it was to set up. We were considering an RX-5 at the time of testing, so using the RV-3 for the weekend was an excellent opportunity to make sure the Oztent path was the right one for us. The awning could be set-up by one person, but it is more comfortable with two, or maybe if you had that third arm attached to improve your ski boxing (credit to Douglas Adams for the concept) you'd be fine.
Once the Oztent RV-3 was set-up, we had a great little compact set-up that gave ample sleeping room as well as an area that offered us some protection from the elements. The sleeping component of the tent reminds me of an oversized swag in its feel. For two people it's enough room to sleep and maybe a bag or two of clothes, adequate but far from spacious and at 6 foot tall I had to stoop a little once inside making getting changes possible but not the most comfortable of arrangements. The side windows are located close to the front wall and can be opened from the inside, which is excellent for when the weather turns halfway through the night. The same can't be said for the rear window which you have to open and close from the outside. For us and way over the top camping set-up we would still need to utilize our vehicle awning where we would set-up our camp kitchen, but for those that travel a little lighter, there is more than enough room under the awning for a basic kitchen and a couple of chairs.
The real negative of the RV-3 is it's packed dimensions. At 2020mm long by 270mm wide by 210mm high means that for most of us the RV-3 will need to be carried on the roof and the RV-3's weight of 23 kgs means getting it up and down can be tiresome, especially after a long day behind the wheel. With the carrying limitations not being enough to outweigh the positives I think the Oztent RV-3 is an excellent and easy to use touring tent and looking at the construction quality I can't help but feel that it would outlast many of it's cheaper contemporaries.
The Oztent RV-3 has an R.R.P of $1149.00 on the Oztent website where it also claims you could sleep three or four people; my thoughts are that you would need to be really close friends to achieve this. The optional peaked side walls are listed for $399.95 on the same website, and there is also an optional front panel listed at $249.95. The optional Floor Saver is $119.95 and the fly another $159.95, taking the total price of the set up we tested to $2078.80. For sure there are cheaper tents out there, but we have found over time that a poor man tends to pay twice and a well looked after Oztent RV-3 is a tent that will save you money in the long run.
