Can Inflatable Tents Puncture?
Short answer, yes. Don’t worry though, a quality tents air-beams will be made from a tough plastic designed to withstand a wide range of tough outdoor conditions. Its pretty rare to encounter a leaking Vango Airbeam tube in your tent or awning, but in the event that you do, here are some tips on how to check its definitely leaking and how to replace it if necessary.
In essence an airbeam is like an inner tube for a tyre and can be punctured by sharp objects or weakened over time through wear and tear, overinflation or accidents while pitching and packing away your tent.
It is always advisable to carry a spare air tube in case the wrost happens on a camping trip, contact your retailer to find out which Airbeam tube you need. Remember all your tubes are covered by Vango’s 2 year warranty, which can be extended to 3 years if you go and extend the warranty at Vango’s website after your purchase. You should contact the retailer to request a new one if the beam is letting air out. However, it is always good to have a spare for any trip.
Top Tip: Once you fit your new beam into the sleeve - make sure the sleeve is zipped up before you inflate the tube - or you risk damaging the Air tube.
Firstly, is your beam defective?
I have had a few instances, where a beam has gone down in our tent showroom, but sometimes there can be pressure on the valve, which can make it let air out.
- Check that the cap covering the valve is closed properly.
- Check there’s not a kink in the beam forcing pressure on the beam.
Replacing the Airbeam
If you do need to change the beam, follow these simple steps:
- Unzip the sleeve of the defective tube.
- Take the inner beam out of the sleeve, be sure not to pull too hard, as the older models, the beams are clipped into the groundsheet.
- In the newer models, they should be Velcro attached to the groundsheet.
- Once you have the beam out, cut the zip ties, and unzip the beam. Remove the defective tube.
- Open your new beam, and place it inside the plastic cover, be sure to put the valve in first.
- Then line up the beam nicely, be sure it is not twisted.
- Fold the end of the beam under the sleeve at the far end of the sleeve.
- Zip up the beam, and try to inflate it to make sure it goes up ok.
- Then use the zip tie to close the zips back together.
- Let the air back out of the tube.
- Place the tube back inside the sleeve inside the tent.
- Zip up, and inflate.
This should solve the issue, but see this handy video explaining how to change your beam.