Hi folks, Ben from Snowys here again today to give you another product to
review. I'm going to show you how to set up the Dust To Dawn swag today.
Available in three sizes, like most of the Darche range, in 900, 1100 and 1400, so you've got
a single, XL single or a squeezy double and a double. It's probably the swag
we've had in our range the longest out of the entire Darche range. It's a really
roomy freestanding design. Just two hoops, really large doors on the side, so, good
for stargazing. But first up, let's show you what comes in the box. So straight out of
the box, there's two hooped poles that go at each end. They're a good quality black
alloy pole, flexible pole, and it comes with little pole repair sleeve in there
as well. This is the spreader pole. Fits together like this and it has a lever,
and this pole extends. That goes between the two end poles to keep it in
its free standing upright position. Comes with a little pack of pegs here. One, two,
six pegs in there. They're reasonable quality steel pegs.
Probably wouldn't need to replace them, they'll do the job straight out of
the box. So you've got the main body of the swag. This is the mat, comes very
compressed. If we were to take that out of the bag now it wouldn't be a very
good indication of how comfortable the mattress is but the one on our display
model here's had plenty of time to puff up, so you'll get an idea of how thick it
is. And it comes with a nice heavy duty canvas bag, like you see just here. So
that's what's in the box for the Dusk To Dawn swag. I'm going to push all this
aside and show you how to set this one up. So as I said, it's a really good
quality bag. It's the same canvas that the swag's made of. It's got grab handles at
each end, a carry handle on the top and compression straps over the top, as well.
So easy to throw on the roof rack, back of the four-wheel drive, whatever you, whatever
you will have. You pack your swag and it's going to withhold the elements.
All the buckles on this swag are a heavy-duty steel - D locking buckles.
So there is no plastic clips or anything that can potentially break.
It's a nice heavy duty zipper with a storm flap over it
and as I mentioned, when I rolled this up this morning,
this actually fit relatively easily back into the bag. I didn't have
to wrestle too much with this swag to get it back in there. Comes with
compression straps attached to the swag, so when we undo these it's going to stay
attached, so no chance of getting them lost. So we'll unroll the swag.
Poles right up inside.
Now, you may have noticed it's got a PVC bottom on it, as well. A little more
waterproof than the canvas on some swags. It's also good if you just want to
roll the swag up without it being in the bag, the PVC provides a bit more
protection on the outside. Spread the swag out, the first thing we do is
putting the two end poles together. Three sections - they've got a
pre-curve to them. And it's pretty obvious which way they go around. Feeds
in through this sleeve at the top at each end, so this pole goes through here
and then on each corner is a pin inserted into the end of the pole here...
and that happens on both sides. Goes in relatively easily, so if you're feeling a
bit of force or feel like you're forcing it when you're putting that pole in then
you might want to make sure this sleeve isn't caught up anywhere.
Then there's plastic C-clips that attach to the pole. And that's one end of
the swag, do the same at the other. So now we've got the two end poles in place, this could
be freestanding if you were to peg out the awning at each end here to hold
these two up but the Dust to Dawn Swag, as I mentioned before, comes with a
spreader pole. It's got a spigot on each end, which goes into the brass
eyelets at the top peak of each end here. And then you spread the pole out to push
both ends upwards and create a free-standing design. And then this just
locks in place. A couple of other C-clips on the top here.
And our swag is pretty well set up.
So that's the swag setup. Just looking at the outside, quick overview.
400 GSM rip-stop canvas. You can see the rip-stop feature in the canvas
there. It feels tough, it feels like you're going to get tonnes of, tonnes of use out of it.
Nice big storm flaps over the zips. This is the zip for each door. There's
actually two. You've got one storm flap going this way, and another
large one over the top here as well. And these extend right over the top of the
zip, down the bottom here, so nice and weatherproof. At each end, you've got a
reasonable sized awning with a guy rope pre-attached. You could fit, maybe fit your
boots under there. Not a lot of gear but it certainly protects this, this
entrance at each end, it's the same at both ends. The main benefit of this is
that you've got entrances at each end, you can have that open, this closed. Tonnes of
protection from the weather but still get ventilation throughout.
There's three eyelets on this door here, you'll see when I open
this, you can actually extend this as an awning.
Darche do these handy little awning kits. There's only two poles in each,
which you really need for this one but you can actually extend this out
with those eyelets, just two or three would
make it sturdier, as an awning from the side of your tent. That exists on both sides
so you can create quite a sheltered sleeping space, really good for
warm weather camping. As I mentioned, this door features on both sides so you can
open the tent right up and there's both the canvas and mesh panels on each side as
well. So if you want, you could have it right open or just as a bug proof
shelter or on warm humid nights, you can just have the cam, the mesh on both sides
and at each end as well. A lot of people ask whether this is insect proof. It is
insect proof. Midge proof is another story. They seem to be able to get through
any little hole. This is pretty heavy-duty mesh, just feeling it.
You'd be going to destroy it, you're going to have to work pretty hard to wreck it, but
I wouldn't say it's fine enough to keep Midges out. I'm not really sure what does
keep midges out. There is a finer mesh but it becomes less durable. But, certainly
going to keep the mozzies and all those other bugs out of your, out of your swag.
I've opened up one side of the swag, it's actually got the same doors on both
sides, so huge openings, really good for ventilation and stargazing
at night. Inside you've got a 50 mm mattress. Feels pretty comfortable but it
could certainly benefit from an upgrade, perhaps another 900 wide or whatever
size swag you get. A self-inflating mattress would give you a little bit
more comfort, but it's certainly going to do the job straight out of the box.
Inside we've got four small mesh pockets, two at each end for storage of gear.
This mattress cover is removable as well, just going to back to the mattress, it's
got a zip around the edge here so, easy to remove and wash that. I guess you
could also just replace the foam inside the cover if you wanted to upgrade that
mattress or put a closed cell phone mat inside, just to give it a bit more more
padding. The other addition to the doors on each side, both having a canvas
and a mesh panel, is that each end also has vents with an internal canvas panel
and a mesh external panel. Can all be open from the inside, but this is a
canvas panel here and then another mesh one here, which can be opened. So just
looking inside, really roomy as you can see the head height is the same at
both ends so tonnes of space inside the swag. Look, I'm six foot one and I've got
plenty of space in this swag so I would sleep very comfortably in here, so.
I haven't got much more to say about it, it's a nice, simple functional swag. If I was
to open up both of these sides here, all I'd have was a strip of canvas down the
middle here and I'd have a pretty good view of the night sky in the evening or
watch the sunrise in the morning. There'd be tonnes of ventilation by the time I open
both of these sides on each end, I'd have air flow throughout.
A popular swag. Really good, really popular part of our range. Certainly
recommend it. So, hopefully that helps you out with the Dusk to Dawn Swag. Some
people ask if they should season these swags or any swag really, when they first
purchase them. Look, it's not as important nowadays. The canvases usually pretty
well treated. You used to have to treat canvas to make a kind of swell up and
seal all the seams. It can't help, it can't hurt, sorry, just set it up in your
backyard and just squirt it down with water to start with, squirt it down, let it
dry, only pack it away once it's dried, don't pack it away wet. No harm in
doing that at all. Best conditions for the Dusk To Dawn Swag is probably, well
pretty much any condition really. With it all closed up, you've got a really
weatherproof shelter. If you're in humid or really warm conditions, as I mentioned
before, you can just about open up the whole thing, so a really good all-round
swag for any condition, particularly any conditioning in Australia, so yeah,
really popular swag, so. I might take a snooze again.