Huh, We arrived at our campsite, and the ground looked very sandy/stoney. Sure enough, once we had laid out our tent, got the poles in and erected it. We sat inside relaxing, when my DS spotted a tear in the side wall, about 1 and half foot long.
It must have caught on a sharp stone and tore the material, as we dragged it out to get it to lie flat to put the poles in. Amazing, as the tear looked like it had been cut with a sharp knife.
Luckily, I spotted a lady camper a few tents away, who looked very organised, and sure enough, she had a reel of gaffer tape and scissors, and I was able to repair it.
------------- its me again!
Top End Farm May
RSPB Big Camp June
Diamond Campsite August
I think my worst accident to happen with one of my tents is when I came to open the zip for the bag it was in the zip snagged on the material of the tent and put a hole in the roof! I was not happy with myself for weeks! It was an easy repair though with a small patch.
I used to take 2 bits of wood to level up the camp kitchen on my TT on uneven ground..In the middle of frying breakfast one morning when the wood slipped kitchen tips to one side...hot fat all over the extension wall!!!!
Was off this w/end..family pitched my tent(I only had to put my bed etc in it..Having arrived later than expected We decided to have a meal before setting the rest of it up...Well fed...I go to start...unzipped a door..stooped down to get in and hit an invisible force field...For some reason I had only unzipped the door and left the mozzie net in place...Luckily I bounced off with no damage done...but its a stramge feeling when your expecting to enter a space to find your way barred by something unseen.........
Jelboy.
------------- Campers of the storm,Into this world are born
Quote: Originally posted by hunterxf382 on 09/8/2010
Quiet a few years ago, I went on a camping adventure on my then new motorbike ('96 or thereabouts) down to Newgale in Pembrokeshire, <snip>
That's feckin' fantastic touring on a small cc bike like that. Good cheap way to do it. It makes me laugh when I see people on the large and very expensive KTM and BMW Dakar type bikes, all done up proper for touring......yet the longest trip they do is a few miles pottering around on a sunny Sunday! Brilliant.
My worst mishap was only a year ago.....with my Northface Bedrock 5 man tent. Had used for only about 2 weeks in total of camping over the previous couple of years. Got to the site, unpacked it, and found that the shock cord in the poles was completely shagged. This made it really hard to thread them through the pole sleeves. Which in turn was made even harder by the fact that the inside of the pole sleeves had somehow become sort of sticky and the poles would slide through. There must have been some sort of deterioration going on despite the tent being packed and stored perfectly dry in the house. And then worse, once the poles were finally in, two of them shattered at the end as the tent was being put up - these are high quality flexible alloy poles, the dead expensive sort that come with expedition tents.
Ended up just ripping the whole thing down, 2 of the kids stayed in tent of friends who were on the pitch next to us, my son and I stayed in our tiny Coleman Avior X2, and my wife slept in the 'bus. Still had a great time though!
Quote: Originally posted by petemillis on 10/8/2010
That's feckin' fantastic touring on a small cc bike like that. Good cheap way to do it. It makes me laugh when I see people on the large and very expensive KTM and BMW Dakar type bikes, all done up proper for touring......yet the longest trip they do is a few miles pottering around on a sunny Sunday! Brilliant.
Thanks Pete, it became an ambition to do it shortly after buying the bike and sitting looking at my camping gear wondering "what if"
Also used to load the bike up with the same gear and go along to the Bulldog Bash - which got jealous reactions from those that turned up on "Power Ranger" kitted out sports bikes with no means of holding that quantity of gear... Pity I can't do the same now with my latest Coleman tent - no bike would ever carry the weight of it...lol
------------- Pete B
Coleman Coastline 6 + extension and too many extras..lol
June 13-21 Cotswolds
August 20-21 Swinderby
September 15-19 Cotswolds
November 19-20 Hopleys
Many years ago on our very first trip ever in a Combi-Camp (Beige sides, Brown roof) a young girl on the next pitch threw the contents of a half empty tea pot into the hedge behind us. Unfortunately the very strong wind caught the complete contents and dumped it straight onto the beige side wall. And the child's parents thought on the matter was "Kids, what are they like?" and then disappeared back into their tent. Never did get rid of the stain
We had a lil mishap at a race meeting earlier this year. The worst bit is as experienced campers we should have known better.
Time came to drop the tent, not a breath of wind so we just unpegged the whole thing (I KNOW!). In the process of dropping the poles a freak gust of wind whipped up and turned our half-un-pitched tent into a lovely kite. Instinctively I grabbed what I could which happened to be a pole section... tent carried on... elastic stretched... elastic snapped... OWWWW!!! as it snapped back against my wrist.
DH and a friend managed to rescue the tent which was undamaged apart from snapped pole elastic. The resulting red mark on my wrist took a week to fade!
------------- Current tents in use: 5m Bell, Obelink Palamos 6, Vango Tornado 300 Vango Force 10 Mk3, Hypercamp Eldorado & Orange Raclet
about 2 years ago now, taking down the hartford xl in filey there was torrential rain and me and her got an absolute drenching, despite wearing wet weather bike gear.so after fighting the wind and rain we put the tent in the bag and in the boot and off we set for home(northamptonshire). get home, blistering sunshine decide to put the tent up in the garden to dry it out and lo and behold the poles are missing, to this day we still blame each other and it was only the second time we had used it
Waking up at 5am thinking something wasn't right, basically the tent pole was on my nose! Got out, tried to fix it, went back to sleep. My co-camper did the same about an hour later, weirdly we both slept through each other trying to fix it. Most of the poles had split, but as my friend said when we tried again to fix it after crawling out of it 'at least it didn't leak'.
It wsa the windiest campsite in the world and at 8am we went out to buy two 'emergency tents'.When we came back it was total collapse and we spent quite a bit of time in torrential rain rescuing stuff out of it. It was an awful inherited tent though, the Vango Icarus so far so good, but avoiding campsites which say they are very windy!
It was very funny but not what you want to do doing a few hours into a camping trip.
Where was this, so I can avoid it. I am always worried about the wind, whether I stay, had a bad experience at North Berwick one weekend, at a very exposed site.
Apologies for late reply. it was a campsite in Dorset in Seatown, Bridport. i will try and find the details for you. If I had seen the field I would have opted for camping in one of the lower fields, more expensive but with hindsight.... Reviews said it was windy but nothing prepared me for how windy it was!
We bought a new tent with SIG and on the 3rd day off the holiday i dropped a sharp knife which went straight through the ground sheet, told my OH if he had done the cooking it would not have happened, luckily he saw the funny side and went to search for the patches to cover it.
Camping at a Land Rover show at Billing Aquadrome a few years ago. Pitched my Oztent and only put out a couple of guy-ropes. MASSIVE storm came through, and part of the tent was blown down but fortunately not damaged. Unfortunately I had left a window open and I was left with a very wet bed........
Another time I pitched it on a site outside Newquay with some help from my sister. Unannounced gust of wind, flapping canvas and one speared mesh door.........
Nowadays I peg out absolutely everything, especially all the guys, shut all the windows when I am out and I am more careful when I am pitching it.
------------- Love a lot. Trust a few. But ALWAYS paddle your own canoe!!
Minds are like parachutes:- They only function when they are open!!!
Those who talk don't know.
Those who know don't talk.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Tent Mishaps...What`s Happened To You?
Pity I can't do the same now with my latest Coleman tent - no bike would ever carry the weight of it...lol 
