Already I have to say thanks to many people on this forum for the advice I've already found on camp sites and on tents. We recently bought a new Diablo 600, and have pitched it twice so far - first time for practice in the garden (though the garden is not really big enough), and the second time we camped in it for one night. That was a good experience, because there were high winds, and shortly after we put it up, it started raining and rained all night, but we stayed perfectly dry. Our 5 year old daughter absolutely loved it, and slept very well. We enjoyed it too.
Anyway, we find the pitching instructions to be confusing. Its as if the author got bored when he/she got to putting up the outer part of the tent. The instructions make little sense.
Does anybody have any good guides or advice on how to put up the outer tent, so that it is straight, and doesn't touch the inner (especially where the porch joins the main tent)?
Secondly, can anyone tell me what the different shaped pegs are for that come with the tent?
Lastly, something I discovered - I thought that our new D600 was supposed to come with a porch that has a skylight in it, and wall of pockets opposite the porch side door. It doesn't - no skylight. I rang Vango, and apparently, after receiving customer feedback about the skylights, (mostly relating to problems with condensation), they changed the design and their production run. The latest D600s have no skylight, but instead have a new window in the wall opposite the side door in the porch which also provides extra ventilation. Nice to see a manufacturer listening to their customers.
go to vango website there is a video to watch the tent being pitched.
and the diablo has changed as you say in your last paragraph, vango didnt tell anyone when the change happened, so retailers and customers learnt the hard way as they changed whithout notice halfway through summer
Thanks for the reply. Myself and my wife watched the Vango video, and that certainly helped, but didn't really explain the answer to some of the questions I've listed above.
I have just put up our Diablo 600 alone for the first time. My new insight (?) is that once the three long poles have been put in and the inner tent is still lying on the ground, now is the time to tie the outer to the inner. Then when you arch up the poles of the inner, the outer is already in place. It's much harder to try to swish the outer over the inner once the inner poles are fixed in place.
On the question of the different styled pegs: no real ideas here I'm afraid. The round headed ones seemed good for the guy ropes
I've now found quite a few posts that explain what the different pegs are for, and also advice on getting new pegs (apparently Delta pegs are the dogs b's).
The normal wire pegs are for pegging out the inner and guy lines, the v-profile pegs are for pegging the straps on the outer on the porch and I think around the bedroom as well. The wire pegs with the curled heads are for pegging the ground straps in the porch, that stretch across the door entrances - there are brass eyelets for pegging these down to reduce the trip hazard.
Another question I have for D600 owners...
What are the small webbing loops found atttached to each ring/pin thing for? Are the to help with pulling the pegs out, or is the outer sheet supposed to be attached to these, or what? The instuctions aren't clear.
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Topic: Diablo 600 pitching advice
