Today being a fine sunny day I decided to practise pitching my tent in the garden...the forst time I have pitched a tent since my schooldays and then we worked together.
The tent in question is a Hi Gear Ion 3. Here are the trials and tribulations.
Firstly it was not easy as the tent poles were nearly the same width as the garden which didn't give me a lot of room to maneovre. The tent was new out of the carry bag and even though laid as flat as i could there were still folds in it and loops hidden in the folds so that missed them with the poles when i threaded them through. At the top of the tent I also threaded the poles through the wrong holes which i didn;t discover till i'd bent it up into a dome. After it was up with the poles through all the right holes I marked each set of loops with a different colour permanent marker. The joins in the poles kept coming apart as I threaded them through or got snagged on the loops....I just persevered.
Hooray the inner tent was up but getting the flysheet over it by myself was an effort. At first I thought theyd given me the wrong sized flysheet as it seemed to short but once i'd pegged it out it does cover the inner tent.
I did take note of how the inner tent was folded but after the hassle of 5 attempts to thread the poles and uttering a number of choice words I had forgotten! At the moment its drying in the conservatory as i wiped the dirt and grass off the bottom of the groundsheet....i'll have to struggle with it later.
The tent pegs that were supplied seemed a bit flimsy so i'll see if i can get some stronger ones, they were steel not plastic.
Question, the guy lines seem to come out a long way from the tent...is this usual? I wouldn't want other people to trip up on them on a campsite or to take up unnecessary space.
There will be plently of room for me to stretch out in sleeping bag inside. Was hoping for bigger storage pockets but hey ho....the tent was a bargain.
I have taken a couple of pics for you all to laugh at. Unfortunately due to time constraints I couldn;t wait for the sun to get fully round into the garden so they may look a but dark.
I doubt even when i'm fully practised at it that i'get the tent up in its advertised 5 minute pitching time, i'm assuming thats for a 3 man assembly team:-)
Happy camping folks
------------- If your wife wants to learn to drive don't stand in her way
Well done. It's scary trying to pitch for the first time as the instructions never seem to make sense. Our tent is so big it doesn't fit in the garden, so we had to go to a park which was very worrying as people stop to talk and tell you how much trouble you are going to have getting it all back in the bag - all useful stuff like that.
We are off this weekend in two separate cars and I am due to get to site first, so am going to have a go at pitching it myself. Hopefully I can manage to get the footprint down and pegged, then lay the tent on top and no more before OH gets there if I take my time
well done on getting the tent up , it's a daunting prospect when you have not done it before.......even worse if your on a campsite with everyone watching....lol
I test pitched/tested the new Quebec 8 on Saturday that was tricky slightly diagonal cross ways accross Garden avoiding end of garage which protrudes into Garden and with all the assorted climbing frames, Swing and other garden toys accumulated at the bottom of the garden, at the far side of tent, so guys were not as far out as would be desirable
Glad I did it as both know it is not faulty (real and simulated rain test, more below) and know what I am doing, I also know to lock the kids in the car while doing as an 18 month old boy can have tones of fun trying to drag the fottprint around while you are trying to peg it down.
Put the tent up and gave it a real good soaking, direct spray and causing rain above, plenty of fun with a hose, and no issues (other than the obvious when I opened the door to check insides) as porch not attached in order to test all material on main tent.
However before the tent could dry the damp came down of the evening, no problem I thought looking at weather reports for Sunday, I'll take iot down tomorrow, they were wrong it was a mixture of light and heavy drizzle all day...Still further tested I guess.
it was sunny Monday and the garden was reclaimed, fortunatley I was working at home.
Yay......it was a struggle but i managed to get everything back in the carry bag and I managed to find several vidoes on youtube explaining how to tighten guylines
Well done on getting your Quebec pitched loftus.....did you remember to let the kids out of the car afterwards?
------------- If your wife wants to learn to drive don't stand in her way
You will get quicker each time you pitch it. You certainly did the right thing with a trial pitch in the privacy of your own garden, rather than waiting till you're on a campsite with an audience.
To save the bedroom floor getting muddied up, buy a cheap polyethylene tarp & cut it to the exact size of the tent (including the porch), then turn two inches over & get someone to sew it for you, or failing that, use double sided tape to stick the hem. This will give you a groundsheet in the porch, and keep the bottom of the bedroom pod clean & dry, so that it doesn't mess up the tent fabric when you fold it.
Congratulations! Bit of a faff to begin with huh?! As people have said, you will get more familiar with pitching it with a bit more practice. I spent over an hour trying to pitch a new tent on a campsite for the first time and was deservedly embarrassed at my unprofessional escapades, but it didn't take me long to get the hang of it and eventually managed to pitch a 6 berth tent alone, quicker than my friends pitched their 4 berth. Looked rather good too if I may say so.
I hope you're pleased with it though. Did you get a little bit excited about using it or were you just fed up?! Have you understood the guy ropes now?
Here's a site that may give you some help, it's a bit light hearted but may give you a few guidelines.
JK-yes i think i understand guylines better, there are enough videos on youtube showing how to tighten guylines and you can find out how to do just about anything on google these days
Pokey-i can't wait for next season to start using the tent for real. Being a night worker id have slept in the tent yesterday if id had a sleeping bag and air bed, it was warm enough. Was hoping to have another practise pitch today but its a damp drizzley day. Thanx for the video link
------------- If your wife wants to learn to drive don't stand in her way
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Topic: I practised pitching the tent
