The obscured window is just to the left of the door as you go in. Is that supposed to be the kitchen bit then? and what makes it special for a kitchen - is it that it is the only window that rolls all the way up to let cooking smells (and carbon monoxide) out? Does that mean I could cook in my Bear Lake next to a completely open window?
I'm still a bit bemused that we have gained an extra tent. I was supposed to be building a treehouse (hence the wood in the photo) and now I have a tent slap bang in the middle of our work area.
ETA: Should she also have some curtains somewhere too?
Wow, you are so lucky, what a find! That obscured window is the kitchen bit that you can use for cooking, just the same as the one on my Cabanon Espace.
With regard to the bedroom inners, it is easy to get the universal inners online for less than £20 each, so it would not be that much outlay to get the tent usable for camping stays.
There should be some curtains too, in my Cabanon there is a plastic runner above the windows where the hooks clip on, if there are no curtains with your tent, it is quite easy to make these because you can buy the clips for these online, they just sew on the top edges of each curtain at regular intervals, so it would simply be a question of hemming suitable sized rectangles of fabric and attaching the hooks along the top of each.
Jane.
------------- Enjoying life beyond kids, new love, living on a boat and a new lease of life in my mid 50s! Never too old to reinvent yourself.....
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I can do rectangles! I want to have a trip in her just to test her out. I will examine her more thoroughly tomorrow and make a note of exactly how much repair / replacement is needed.
If you are going to sew some curtains it would be an idea to sew a roof liner too, see if you can get some cheap flat second hand sheets as they insulate and stop the early morning frost defrosting raining we had a sub zero night in ours and were thankful for the roof liner).
we Bought an oversized groundsheet and folded it to cover the whole floor area, if you put the legs on the bottom storm flap you can lay the groundsheet over which makes it as bug and draught proof as a SIG/ZIG.
If the canvas is as good as it looks don't even attempt to waterproof it. Just give it several good soaks with the hose pipe and let it dry in between. If its been dry stored the weave of the canvas will have shrunk by wetting it it will swell again making it water proof. We had an old Conway T.T and the canvas never needed proofing. Your going to get a lot of middle age campers reminiscing when they see this design. Be prepared for stories of when they camped when their children were young. Enjoy 'vintage' camping
Joopy yes the obscured window with the roll up section was the cooking area. Because the tent is cotton untreated canvas it breaths. Also if the weather is wet its possible to have the top half of the door open to ventilate. The built in overhang of the roof stops the rain coming in. Don't know about cooking in your bear lake tent just know that we never had any problems with cooking in the eighties with our bungalow tent. We just msde sure there was ventilation. I t probably helped that tents were msde from breathable material and not synthetics sealed completely to stop water ingress
The canvas looks in amazing condition so I certainly don't want to add anything to it. There are a few patches of a pinky mould though. I've read on here about using rally mild Milton solution, but can't remember whether that caused a big chorus of 'no' or not.
When I was little we had a dark reddy brown bungalow tent before moving to a trailer tent. IT brings back memories for me - except that this one is a far more beautiful colour. I've left her up for a good airing for now. And I particularly like the built in overhang - it makes her look more classy to me. By the time that you refer to a tent as 'she' you know you are hooked, don't you? :-)
Re mould....give it a good airing out and a brush down with a soft brush then sponge down the pink bits with some plain water and a good solid car sponge. You can absolutely saturate the canvas like this from both sides and hopefully this will remove the marks. Yes you can use Milton, make it up at the dilution for baby bottles, sponge it on both sides of the canvas, leave it for a few minutes and then rinse it out. Use the hose and rinse it A LOT, then a bit more, then again.
Do not use soap, detergent or any supermarket cleaners of any sort. Do not be tempted by Dettol Mould & Mildew Remover spray, this contains a wetting ingredient which is detergent based and all detergents are a no-no on cotton canvas. Plain Milton is a form of bleach, it may lift the colour a touch at that point but it's not got surfactants in it so it's okay. But rinse it out well.
As to checking the proofing, give it a good hose down all over. If it's been in storage for a while it will leak. Do not worry, let it dry off and wet it again. The cotton fibres will have plumped up with the first wetting, the second time round they will be good and tight and waterproof.
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Topic: Mystery canvas tent
