User rating:
9/10
Beanie Mumma
asks
: I have a very much loved Blacks Good Companions Tent. My parents bought it in the 70\'s but have recently upgraded to a larger tent and have passed it on to me.
It is missing one of the circular discs that the spikes of the A frame are surpossed to sit in. Where can I purchse a replacement one?
Dad can not remember how long along he waterproofed it. What do I need to use to do this?
Also (and this is the girl in me I\'m affraid) the fly sheet is very fadded, would dying it back to that fantastic orange ruin the canvas?
porky
asks
: where would I get the instructions for putting up a good companion major(with extension) as I think ive got a pole missing?
BriLo
asks
: My GC tent (no fly) dates back to about 1968 and was used as late as the 1980\'s by my kids.
My favourite memories are of canoing and camping in Algnquin and Quetico Parks in Ontario as well as trips to Vermont, New Hampshire, and the Maritimes.
The A-frame worked nicely and gave us lots of room inside, especially with small kids. And it was easily packed, light and compact for tripping.
It\'s been stored in our dry basement pretty much since then although I seem to recall having it out in the early 90\'s for a day or two in the back yard.
Do these tents go on forever? And do these tents have any resale value - on E-bay say?
Black produced The Good Companions back in the late 60’s & 70’s. They offered three variants, The Major, Standard and Minor and could been seen in most campsites around the country. The Major, as the name suggests, is the larger of the tents, depending on the size of the occupants, it could sleep three, four at a squeeze. The Standard sleeps two comfortably and the Minor could sleep two but one is idle.
They are made from orange Egyptian cotton and consist of the inner and a flysheet, the early models had a single pole in the middle of the tent, the later models had an ‘A’ frame; this allowed the flysheet to be put up without the inner being in place and was idle on hot summer night when you was staying only one night and you needed a quick shelter.
The door on the inner tent was big, opening up the whole front of the tent allowing good access, uninterrupted by any pole, into the tent. There was one zip and the mud flap of the doors tucked under the ground sheet to seal the inside from any weather. The doors could be pegged out to make a bit of shelter while cooking in bad weather.
The only problem with the Good Companions is it had no real covered storage unlike it competitor the ‘Vango Force Ten’, however Blacks tried to compensate by offering an extended flysheet, which I only saw on the Standard.
My overall impression to the Good Companions is that it is a great base/group tent of it’s time, as you can see by the picture I have all three, not used as I wish to keep them in good condition.
Written by Richard Smith
Need more? Further information on this Tent may be directly obtained from 
blacks.co.uk.