We are very interested in purchasing an outwell BL4. Our existing Sahara,s poles have almost given up the ghost. Have seen a pitching video (which was a joke) it only showed threading one pole - then the tent was up and they were pegging out. Also I am interested to see if the ZIG needs to be removed each time, or if it can be left on. It would surely take much longer if it needs zipping on each time. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
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Hi Freddy, we have the Norfolk Lake which is very similar in style and size to the Bear Lake 6. Whilst it is a very easy tent to put up, the sheer weight of the flysheet and the number of pegging points mean that there is no super quick way of pitching it! Even with practice I would say it takes around an hour to put up properly! Luckily we have never had to pitch or strike in bad weather but dread the day we do!
The Bear Lake 4 is around 12kgs lighter than the Bear Lake 6 so may be a little easier to handle, nevertheless I can't imagine it could be pitched any less than 45 mins!
I think it would be nigh on impossible to handle the either of the tents without removing the ZIG! Removing it is very quick and also stops you from getting the flysheet mucky!
I think the Bear Lake 4 is a great tent, in fact we are thinking of downsizing to it from the Norfolk Lake!
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Quote: Originally posted by 2mnn on 30/3/2008
We do our Wolf Lake 7 in about 1 hour without removing zig or bedrooms & still manage to fit it in the bag. Are we doing something wrong?????
Not at all, that sounds about right! For me personally, fitting it in the bag wouldn't be the issue as the bags are generously oversized, I just think handling the extra weight of the ZIG on top of the flysheet would be too much for most people? I can appreciate the convenience of pitching and packing as 'all in one' though!
Quote: Originally posted by 2mnn on 30/3/2008
We do our Wolf Lake 7 in about 1 hour without removing zig or bedrooms & still manage to fit it in the bag. Are we doing something wrong?????
Not at all, that sounds about right! For me personally, fitting it in the bag wouldn't be the issue as the bags are generously oversized, I just think handling the extra weight of the ZIG on top of the flysheet would be too much for most people? I can appreciate the convenience of pitching and packing as 'all in one' though!
We've tried pitchng without zig & with it & find it a little harder to get the thing up with zig attached so this takes a bit longer but then we don't have to spend time zipping the thing in so overall both take about the same time. As you say it's the convenience of it for us as OH can concentrate on pegging whilst I concentrate on the important things like putting carpet in & making a brew!!
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Always zip in the groundsheet after the main tent is up and always un zip before it goes in the bag.
Great tent by the way - like the extra space in the 6 as there is now 4 of us, the living space is great and hope to pick up the side extension for this season as that space can be used to cook in undercover.
Thanks everybody for your help, i think 45 mins to an hour sounds good for pitching also sounds good to remove ZIG to keep flysheet clean,by the way have ordered BL4 from yeomans today, get friday put up saturday(Trial Day), also looking at side extension but will wait a bit, thanks again
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Topic: Pitching time - Bear Lake 4
