Very very new to camping (have just one night under canvas under our belt now in a Outwell Imagine -same size as Outwell Montana 6). First trip a success (lots of planning and a large car helps!). Wow everyone was soo friendly, helpful and relaxed, loved it!! Back to the burning question - How do you cope if its raining (or has been raining) when you need to take the tent down? I have no idea how this would work!!! I didnt even know that you should take tent down and move out by about 12 noon! I assume that you take down as normal, then open up again once at home to dry? Tent is pretty sizeable and house it pretty small rooms! I dont even know how long it would take to dry. This is worrying me!! First trip last weekend was sun, sun sun, lucky for us, but that wont last.......
Any tips, thoughts?
3 year old boy twins
Choc Lab
6 Chickens
------------- Newbie Campers gathering vast amounts of kit
2 x 1 night trips and 1 x 2 nighters at Kelvdon Hatch
3 nights Sandringham
Last weekend coming up Epping Forest
3 year old boy twins
Choccy Labrador
7 Chickens (yes I leave them at home!)
can only tell you waht we do... we back the car as close to the tent as possible. everything gets loaded in. Once empty, we remove the bedroom pods and placed them into the tent bag,this is also put into the car. So we're left with a empty shell. Then we get the tent down as fast as possible, and it gets folded very roughly and put into a bin bag, and the groundsheet gets the same treatment. The tent is then erected at OH work ( our garden not big enough) to make sure it dries properly. And I hang the groundsheets on the rotary line to dry them. But it's much more important to make sure the flysheet is dry than the groundsheet. and dont leave the wet fly in the bin bag for too long either.
If bad weather continues and you cant put up to dry, then drape it somewhere... bannisters, garage etc and turn it often to make sure dies all over. A damp tent is a dead tent
------------- Shelli
Campers do it in the mud!
Hubby says we can
We had to pack up in a thunderstorm two weeks ago in France. We had no choice but to go ahead as we had to be on the road by 9am. We had packed everything we could the night before. The rain started at 7am just as we were getting up. We packed everything we could, hubby took it to the car, the ground was like the Somme by now with all the coming and going and a huge puddle appeared at the front of the tent.
Eventually everything was in the car but there is no room for the tent or indeed us! Some hasty rearranging required. We stood in the shell of the tent for a while to see if the rain would slacken off, but alas it seems heavier than ever. The good side of this is that we have packed up in record time.
We decided to bite the bullet and down comes the tent, also in record time, the rain saves us from hosing down the footprint groundsheet, we just flip it over to get both sides washed. I have had it by now and retreat to the car. I took some pictures which didn't go down well!
We drove along to the showers to get cleaned up and put on dry clothes and we were on our way by 9.30!
That night we were in a hotel and the next we were on the overnight ferry. When we got home and started to unpack approximately a bucketful of water poured out of the tent into the spare wheel well which had to be bailed out later. The tent was put up and hosed down in the garden and dried off with all our groundsheets etc. No harm done on this occasion. Last time this happened the (canvas) tent was mildewed by the time we got home and was never the same again.
I wish you luck with the weather on your next trip!
we have a Monty 6 and very little room to dry it, but we managed in the end even tho it took us the best part of a week...
because it rained for the first few days after returning home we were unable to put the tent outside to dry, so instead propped the front door open using a clothes drying rack and used a fan to blow cold air inside it...this was very slow going as we only had a space approximately 6 feet by 4 feet to do this in...after 4 days of wrestling with the tent and drying it a little at a time, the sun finally came out, so we draped the Monty over our washing line outside and laid the footprint and bucket groundsheet from the rain porch on the patio...we had to repeat this process with the tent the next day as well, but at close of day it was finally dry enough to roll up and put away...
Me and DS camped at Symonds Yat last week next to the river
with the 4.2, full base and a base seconds ( I was with 2 of my brothers and supplied the tents).
It had rained all day Friday and there was no way the tents were going to dry before we wanted to leave. So down went the 3 tents and into the car wet, drove for 3 hours to the glorious sunshine of Surrey, unpacked 3 tents and put them up in the garden. A couple of hours later they were dry again so I took them all down AGAIN and put them in my camping loft.
Thank goodness for pop ups, if it was the Pendine I'd have struggled.
Welcome to the forum and to the camping world Sawbo, am so glad to hear your first experience was a good one. I know exactly how you feel as my first time exactly one year ago was filled with endless sunshine. It is pretty miserable striking camp in the rain and, fortunately, I haven't had to do it much yet but I always take a roll of bin liners with me to throw bedding, tents etc in and putting some sort of footprint down before pitching is a boon.Then just get everything out when you get home. I have been lucky so far as my tents were small so not sure how I am gonna cope with a large wet canvas yet, but just wanted to say hello.
Hi and welcome along. We have had to do this a few times and its not good. Its also hard keeping your other stuff dry, especially if you are putting a soaking wet tent in the boot. Bin bags can only do so much.
If you get home and its nice and sunny then its not so bad, at least then you have a chance of getting it all dry fairly quickly.
I really dont think there is any easy way to do it, just accept you are going to get very wet and get on with it! Last time it happened we woke up to beautiful sunshine but just as we started to pack up the heavens opened. Now that is annoying!
We currently have what feels like half a ton of polycotton draped over our bannisters - even if it was dry outside for long enough to put the tent back up, our garden isn't big enough. This is the method we've always used, the tent hangs and we turn it occasionally to make sure it's all drying, then once it's dry wait for a dry day and take it onto the drive to fold it away. As for taking it down at the site when it's wet, we have to fold it away properly into it's bag regardless, no room for anything else! We felt a bit unlucky this last trip, every day started sunny and warm apart from the last two of the fortnight!
------------- April/May - Georgia destroyed in high winds sob
May - Loch Ken, 1st outing for the wolf lake
July - Waterside House, Lake District
July - Inside Park, Dorset
We had to take our canvas ridge tent down in torrential rain many years ago, and the footwells of our Morris Marina were like twin paddling-pools. I'm afraid it was autumn, and the rain continued for weeks, so the poor car and tent were never the same again. My best bit of advice would be to line your boot with big plastic sheets before you set off camping... or stow some rolled-up plastic under the seats or somewhere. We use the mattress bag which came with a new bed ten years ago. It's intact, so no water leaks out even if the tent is soaked. We just pile the whole flysheet and SIG into that, and the car at least is safe.
Drying is also a problem here, as our rooms are too small to dry a tent properly. If all else fails, I would put the tent up in the garden and just wait for the rain to stop. It might take a few days, but you have air around the tent, so it shouldn't go mouldy.
If no good weather is expected in the near future, then you have to resort to other methods, and some of those already described are good. Here's where a good fan heater and a dehumidifier can be really useful! I believe your Monty 6 flysheet is made of Outtex, which I think is a man-made fabric, so it should dry out quickly. This is one of the reasons a lot of people (myself included) go for poly fabrics rather than heavy canvas.
the main problem we had with taking down the Monty in torrential rain was the fact that having the doors partially open to let the air out they in turn let A LOT of rain water in...we had water pouring out of our SIG for days after returning home...
i'd advise you to do the same as us and remove the sleeping pods before taking the tent down...bung them in a bin liner to keep them dry...if you leave them inside the tent they too will get extremely wet...
the first thing we did on our last morning was to put together a dry change of clothes plus a towel and tied them up in plastic bags...this meant that we no longer cared if we got soaking wet...when the car was packed we simply drove over to the shower block and changed into our dry clothes...
once you've resigned yourself to the fact that there's nothing you can do to change the weather and both you and the tent will probably be drenched by the time you've finished the process then the pressure is lifted...get the tent down and into a bin bag asap and have a laugh along the way...it's just a part of the great adventure...
intersting reading, we've always hung the tent over a washing line and dried it out but I think the new tent will be too heavy and too big for that(wl7)
our garden is too small to put it up.
we're planning on joining friends for just sat night only,however the weather looks awful and I dread drying the tent out just for being used one night.
------------- tent and gear all packed away now and making plans for 2012
plans so far..
Easter..Nantcols
August..Bristol balloon fiesta
August..Cornwall..of course!
Fab, thanks for the welcomes and useful tips and comments. I "think" I am now mentally prepared for a downpour!! I just didn't want to ruin my lovely tent, called Maggie from previous owners
Need to update my signature from last night, now down to 5 chickens, thanks to a cheeky as hell fox this morning. Gutted
------------- Newbie Campers gathering vast amounts of kit
2 x 1 night trips and 1 x 2 nighters at Kelvdon Hatch
3 nights Sandringham
Last weekend coming up Epping Forest
3 year old boy twins
Choccy Labrador
7 Chickens (yes I leave them at home!)
Interesting reading.......paused the tv to tell OH about the tip to line boot with protection first before heading off on tripm (thank you FriendofOwls). This has been concerning me as it is inevitable it will be raining for our first camping trip cos it is August Bank Holiday.
Apparently I pause the tv alot to tell OH stuff from the site - so am very grateful to all the members that have given advice/hints/tips and above all made me laugh with their humour and dry comments.
Jewels
------------- Jewelsm - a fair weather camper
August 2013, 14, 15, 16 & 17-Trevornick for two and a half weeks of sea and surf (and ever optimistic -lots of sun). Some other weekends if I can persuade DH
We did some touring recently with a lot of wet pitching and packing away. We didn't have a lot of space so needed the tent to go back in its bag. We've also brought our large tents home wet quite a few times. Its certainly worth finding some very large strong bin bags/rubble bags/similar as you can pack your tent up in one of these, separate out the dry inners from the wet flysheet and also pack away the wet poles. Our tips would be:
put on full waterproofs or strip down and change in the shower block before you leave
shake the tent firmly several times as you unpeg and take it down to shed off the worst of the water
keep the doors shut as much as possible
if its a tent you pack away by folding inwards, don't, as moisture from the outside of the flysheet gets trapped in the middle of the roll and will seep through the doorways to the inside of the flysheet getting the whole tent wet. Fold the tent so that the doors are on the outside of the roll - i.e. in half and half again keeping the doors on the outside
if you can, its worth tipping the tent to the side after each fold and shaking it to get as much moisture off as you can (with door openings downwards)
roll the tent as quickly as possible and put into its bag (either into a plastic bag first) or encase the whole tent bag in a plastic bag. If too big then make a plastic craddle underneath the tent to stop everything else getting wet.
Give the footprint groundsheet a good shake too before and as you fold it. This can go in a plastic bag too.
As said - you need to dry the tent as soon as possible. If touring we pitch it as soon as possible to let it dry. If we have a wet overnight tent from stopping off on the way to a main campsite, we pitch the big tent and spread it out to dry inside whilst we are out (which is very effective). At home we pitch the tent outside if we can the next day to reduce the moisture levels before finishing it off in the conservatory over several days turning it regularly. If its too wet for this, it goes in the bath and gets turned to drain and air until we can pitch it or its dry enough to go on a tarp in the conservatory to dry properly. Groundsheets are treated the same way or laid over the shower or a ladder in the garage to dry.
Poles and inner tents are also given an airing to make sure they are dry.
Its worth remembering that you need to dry both the inside and outside of the tent given rain and condensation. Putting chairs inside or turning the tent inside out will help if you can't pitch it to allow airflow through it.
------------- Love our set-up and need no more tents or gear, so trying to stop looking!
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Dumb Q- taking down tent in the rain?
I assume that you take down as normal, then open up again once at home to dry? Tent is pretty sizeable and house it pretty small rooms! I dont even know how long it would take to dry. This is worrying me!! First trip last weekend was sun, sun sun, lucky for us, but that wont last.......
I "think" I am now mentally prepared for a downpour!! I just didn't want to ruin my lovely tent, called Maggie from previous owners 
