- G'day campers, Ben from Snowys here today,
taking you for a walkthrough
of this Oztent DS-2 Pitch Black Dome Swag.
♪ Hit it. ♪ (inspirational music)
The DS-2 Swag from Oztent
is a twist on the traditional swag.
It's a really weatherproof, dual skin swag for couples.
So this is the DS-2 double swag set up behind me here.
And this is gonna be bit of a talking point for people
because it's a double skin swag,
so it's got a fly sheet and an inner
that pack up separately.
But it's got a mat that packs up in there as well.
So, kinda got the features of a tent
but looks like a swag,
and made of the materials of a swag.
But it has some real benefits
and I reckon there's certainly something different
that offers something a lot of other products
on the market don't.
Now, the boring bits first.
It weighs about 11.5 kilos.
Set up like this, including all the skirts around the edge,
about 3.5, 3.6 metres in length.
We'll talk about internal space shortly,
but height-wise, about 105 centimetres
at the highest point on the outside here,
and that tapers down to about 90 centimetres there.
Inside, it's 120 centimetres, sort of, inside,
but then it is wider than that
when you take all this into account.
I haven't actually measured that,
but you're probably looking at,
probably almost close to two metres in total width there.
So, it does come out a fair way
but it's got this skirt, that we'll talk about shortly,
that offers really good weather protection.
Firstly to the materials,
now it's made predominantly of
the same eight ounce polycotton canvas
that Oztent's RV range were made of.
The details, they don't state a waterhead
for the DS swag range,
but previously the waterhead's been around about 1500,
but I can certainly vouch that that material has kept me dry
in particularly heavy tropical downpours.
Not a drip of water inside the tent.
So it is a really waterproof tent.
So, eight ounce polycotton canvas,
but the main difference is
that they've used this Pitch Black tech.
You see the little logo they've got here.
Now what that means is the underside of the fabric
has this black coating on it.
This blocks out about 95% of the light
which means inside the tent, it's really dark.
So this allows you to sleep in longer.
Makes it darker inside the tent for longer.
If the sun comes up early,
or if it is a really bright, moonlit night,
you're not gonna be affected by as much moonlight.
So if you do have trouble sleeping in a bright environment,
this is gonna help you go to sleep.
Other materials in the tent inside,
65 GSM mesh in the doors and windows
and 350 GSM PVC on the base here.
It's a nice big bucket floor, seam-sealed bucket floor.
This fabric here, the polycotton canvas on the inside,
eight ounce polycotton canvas once again,
with a rip stop,
but it doesn't have the Pitch Black material
on the back of it.
That's only on the fly sheet here.
The poles are an anodized aluminium.
So you've got two poles, there's a hoop pole here
and a hoop pole at the foot end as well.
And we'll take the fly off shortly to show you inside.
But there's also a ridge pole that runs along the top here
that's also an anodized aluminium.
Bit of a walk around the outside to show you the features.
The one thing you notice that looks very different
is this skirt around the base here.
And I haven't got this pegged on these points here
for a reason, but,
and I'll show you more on that shortly,
but this offers really good weather protection.
So if this is pegged down, we've almost sealed this tent,
this swag, sorry, to the ground.
So that wind-driven rain, dust or whatever
that can sometimes get up underneath your fly sheet
is actually all but eliminated with this setup here,
you can peg these down.
So that, combined with these guy ropes,
if you have them set up,
offers a really, really bombproof,
weatherproof shelter for you to sleep in.
Come around the other side of the head end here.
So this is the higher end.
You've got this little door, sorry,
vent here for ventilation, with a little kickstand in it.
So you can close it if you like.
We'll open it up, it just allows high level ventilation.
More so for cold nights.
So that allows the hot air to escape outta the tent
so you don't get too much condensation build up inside,
but being dual skin,
you don't have as much problem with this swag
because the condensation builds up on the fly
rather than on inside the tent.
You see on this side here, I've got this panel here.
I haven't got a peg in this point here,
but largely pegged down.
So it offers really good water shedding capabilities
and also protection from the wind coming up underneath.
Around to the foot end here,
another vent at the end,
same as what we saw at the head end
but this one's in the middle with a kickstand underneath
to allow ventilation throughout the length of the tent.
And there is a bit of a vestibule at the end, here.
Now, you can't access this vestibule from inside the tent.
So you probably need to,
it's probably just good for your boots or something,
just sort of poke them in underneath here.
But by the time you've got stuff underneath here
and this pegged down,
it offers a really weatherproof storage space
between your fly and where you sleep inside the tent.
So you've just got this amount of space here.
So it comes out about 50 centimetres.
So that's the inside of the tent there.
You have got a vent at the top there
but you can't access it from inside.
So, a good space just for, I'd say, your boots,
those things that you just wanna tuck out the way
at the end of the day,
and you're not gonna get 'em again
til the next morning when you take the tent down anyway.
But once they're in there, peg this out
and this out
and we've all but sealed that spot in there
from really bad weather.
So back around to the front here,
I wanna talk about the doors and entrances.
Now I'm just gonna get my shadow out of the way.
So this is probably what most people will use
for the entrance of the tent.
We've got a zip each side here
under each of these orange panels here.
So the same on the other side here, and unzip that.
This then gives us access inside the tent here.
So, big mesh panel, this unzips,
show you more on that in a minute.
You can roll these up if you like,
this panel here, just roll it up.
Use these tabs at the top here
to keep it up and out of the way.
If you don't want to use it at all,
alternatively, use it as an awning.
Get a couple of optional,
you'd have to buy extra, swag poles,
just anything with a spigot that'll go through here
and set this up as a little sheltered awning
out the front or on the side of your swag here.
So, gives a bit of rain protection or sun protection.
This can just sort of hang down the front there,
obviously a little bit more sun protection as well.
So you've got a protected space
to prepare your meals or whatever.
There is a second entrance to the swag.
So if you did wanna seal that one down,
peg the skirt along the side there.
So it offers a really good protection on there.
Leave this skirt unpegged
and you can then use this end here
as an entrance to the tent.
So, roll this back.
You can secure it here if you like.
You've then got this spot, here.
There's a second entrance to the tent.
You could also have these open during the night.
So if you start the night off wanting ventilation
and it cools down during the night,
you can easily reach out, do these up,
and seal the tent up to keep the wind or rain out
if it does start to go bad overnight.
And you've also got this storage vestibule at the end here.
So this comes about 80 centimetres out from here
to the very point out here.
So, enough room for a small bag,
maybe to cook some food in there, if you like,
on a small cooker,
being careful to obviously keep the flame
away from the fabrics.
Now I wanna show you inside the tent, but (sighing)
because this Pitch Black technology,
and we've done it before, we've crawled into these tents
and it's really uninspiring footage
because it is just black inside.
But I'm actually gonna just peel the fly back,
throw it over the back of the tent,
so I can lie inside there and show you the features inside.
So I'll just leave the fly sheet hanging over the back there
'cause we wanna show you this section.
So you can see now we've got the anodized aluminium poles
at both the foot and the head end there.
And the anodized aluminium spreader bar
across the top here as well.
Now, the main feature of the inner
is this big mesh panel here.
Now, a unique feature of this is it's completely removable.
So this is a good quality mesh here.
Quite often swags wanted to use a heavier duty mesh
in order to be durable,
but that heavier duty mesh
isn't as good against smaller insects.
This is a finer mesh
and offers a really good balance of durability
and being fine.
But if, over years and years and years,
this starts to get degraded
or there is a rip in it,
'cause the canvas is probably gonna outlast the mesh,
you can actually zip this entire section out.
This zip will go right around.
Can't see it under the flag there. Under the fly, sorry.
And we can actually remove this completely.
So that's just hanging off the pole there at the moment.
So, you could use it like this, if you like,
leave that out completely.
You've just got a bed in the open.
But you can actually replace this.
And I guess if you wanted,
you could, I dunno, make something custom
and zip it back in, if you like.
You'd just have to use the same zippers.
But the main thing is, this is replaceable.
If something happens over years of use
and it starts to let the bugs in
or it gets a hole in it, or whatever,
and it's not fixable, it is completely replaceable.
So, I'll zip it up again, just part way,
'cause I wanna just.
Well you can roll this up,
there's tabs on this as well to secure these at the top,
if you like, so you can just keep it up and out the way
if you don't wanna remove it completely.
But I just wanna talk about the space inside the tent.
So this mat is a five centimetre mat.
Not really dense foam, it feels comfortable enough,
but it's got a polyester coating over the top
and a zippered cover over it,
so you can remove it for washing
but you're probably best
just putting a bedsheet over the top of that,
it's easier to maintain.
Inside the tent, double space, head space first.
About 90 to 95 centimetres at this end here.
And that tapers down to the foot end here
to about 80 centimetres.
Widthwise, about 120 centimetres.
The mat is just under that,
and lengthwise about 210 centimetres from head to foot.
Now, you could put a different mat inside here,
if you got like a 10 centimetre self-inflating double mat,
just needs to fit within that 120 and 210 centimetre
space that you've got in here.
It will make the swag a little bit harder to roll up,
so you probably need to roll it a few times
to keep squeezing that air out.
And I'm not sure, it depends on which mat you've got
as to whether you'd be able to get it back inside the bag.
We haven't tested that, but
it's certainly a popular upgrade
to put a thicker mat inside a swag.
So, I'm 185 centimetres.
I'll lie down in here
and then we'll go through the features.
Now, this mat has been rolled up,
so it's kinda sticking up a bit
at the end here at the moment,
but that's straight from the factory.
So, if I lie down in here,
I've got the sun in my eyes,
and I've got plenty of space.
I've got plenty of foot space at the end there.
So, plenty of height, and I've got room for my head here.
So if I've got a big sleeping bag in here
it'd probably touch the ends,
but given it's a dual skin swag,
you're not gonna have that condensation
on the inside of the tent.
You're gonna have it on the fly, on the outside.
And if it's a hot night, it's not gonna matter
if your sleeping bag's touching the end anyway.
So, plenty of space.
In terms of it being a double, it's cosy,
but there is room for a couple to sleep in here
quite comfortably, obviously.
I'll just touch off on some of the features, inside.
We'll start at the head end here.
This is the second door that I was talking about.
So you've got a zip here so you can access the tent
in and out of the end here.
It also gives you access out to that vestibule
out the front there and also to open and close
that door at the end.
On this side of the door, a little pocket,
storage pocket here.
It's kind of rounded on the bottom,
so you could put a small water bottle in that.
And then below that is a power access point.
So we can get 12 or 240 volt power inside the tent here
through this little point here.
Just below that, a mesh pocket, just for keys, phones,
whatever you want, to keep it secure at night
so you can easily find it in the morning.
Same thing, features on the other side here
for the second person.
Another pocket there, just a mesh pocket.
And similar pocket here,
just a little bit lower than the other side
to keep a water bottle or whatever you like in there.
Across the top of the tent,
to sorta line up with the power access point,
there are these little, not Velcro, sorry,
they're elastic straps.
We've got one, two, three, four and five of those.
Use those to string up string lights
or hang a lantern, if you like.
They're there to line up with the power access point
so you can actually have lighting inside the tent.
At the foot end,
not much to see apart from this vent here,
which just gives that ventilation through
to the vestibule at the foot end of the tent,
and then that little vent there,
to allow that high level ventilation inside the tent.
It's probably worth mentioning, too,
that the door that I mentioned on this side
only features on this side of the tent.
There isn't another door on that side of the tent.
So you'll primarily be accessing the tent
in and out this side, or the end
if you had the fly sheet on top.
That, I think, is all the features
of the Oztent DS-2 Pitch Black Double Dome Swag.
As I said, some people are gonna say,
"That's not a swag, it's a tent."
Let's start the conversation.
There's gonna be multiple opinions.
They've certainly got the features of a tent.
But they've certainly got
a bunch of features of a swag as well.
And I'd say it offers something very different,
or not very different,
but something, it kind sits in between.
But in particular, it offers really, really good
weather protection with that skirt around the edge,
and a little bit better condensation management
than a single skin swag.
So, check 'em out online at snowys.com.au
where you'll find them at our lowest prices, every day.
But if you do have any questions or comments,
let us know down in the comments section below.
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(inspirational music) (keyboard clicking)