First time out !! Well , when I did it , there wasn't the shared info available as now . Pitched the main tent and one annexe in the garden in about forty minutes, but it was a bit cramped to move round . First time away , got everything up in less than an hour . Depends how many hands you have to help . Two proficient adults should have the main tent up and pegged out in thirty minutes or less . Then if you take one annexe each , say ten minutes , then the loser finishes the last one , another ten minutes. Of course , once the main tent you could decide to do the annexes later and get everything out the car .One of the joys of this is that you can stop pitching at any point after the main tent is pitched if the weather turns bad .Sharlene managed it in about an hour first time out I believe, and this compares favourably most larger tents first time out . Its virtue is not necessarily speed , but ease of pitching and modularity and flexibility .
I agree. Around 30-40 mins to get the main pitched. Then around 10 mins per annexe. My wife and I pitch the main, then I pitch the annexe outers. While she sorts out the inners, I go round and guy it down.
A great tent, with loads of space and very light and airy inside. Good enough for us to buy one even though we had a Wynnster Mercury 9 Excel already!
I stand by the times given now I have been away twice with it now . Quicker and easier to have the panels out though . But it is not the speed that is important, it is the ease of pitching . I've pitched tents faster, but nothing easier of this size .
------------- Be seeing you!!
Numbersix
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We leave the panels in, because if you arrive on site and it is raining, you can erect the main section and then have somewhere dry to have something to eat/ drink etc.
The flexibility of the pitching is great, and compared to our 9 man, easy.
We have also re-arranged the bags slightly. The outer sleep annexes are now together in the black bag that originally contained the supplied sleep annexe. The sleep annexe inners are in the soft grey bag that originally contained the 'additional' sleep annexe. This way the inners stay in the car whilst the outers are being pitched and stay totally dry. Then when we strike camp, the inners come down dry, and go straight into the bag. There is nothing worse than having wet inners! So far after several outings with the Evolva, the only problems we have had are that one of the pulls on the groudsheet zips has come off. Easy fix with a pair of pliers. And the main entrance zips weather strips that run the length of the zip to stop any water ingress regularly get caught in the zip. Not a real problem, just annoying, especially when you're getting wet!
We have both the sleep annexes in the original bag rather than the addtitional . Nice idea to have the inners separated . Daren't do it , as with my memory, when we pitch the Evolvalette, we would outers , and no inners!!
Saying that, the wife did get 'the tent' down out of the loft, remembering the big black bag and the 2 grey bags.. forgot the smaller black bag that contained the 2 sleeping annexe outers.
Good job it was me packing the car and not her as she may have packed all the bags she had and not realised her mistake.
Haven't tried sleeping annexe inner in chef annexe outer yet, but could have been fun!!
Daz
PS Any news on the extension 'T' that allows 2 annexes to be attached to 1 side of the main tent?
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Or three black bags and two grey if you have the LA ! I don't think a T extension will ever appear, and that would have been very useful. I think that was more wishful thinking than hardened fact.At the moment I have all the poles in one bag also , so it is important that I do get the right combination ! Next is to seek out the canopy for the Evolva .
Our poles have remained with the respective outers, but we do carry out own set of ground anchors, so only the pegs from the main generally get used for the pole ends and elastics.
Do you know of anyone selling the Link Annexe, as we would be interested.
Sharlene is in the process of selling hers , it is on a thread here . I know several who bought LAs from me bought multiples, which they may or may not be using ,so maybe in the coming months they will surface on ebay or here . When I bought 12 for folks on here, there was only 36 in total stock in the country. I expect the price to go up , naturally .But it does give you a useful weekender or storage cum day tent options .
The LA will connect an Evolva to another main tent, insert between the main tent and SA or CA , or make a smaller tent with any combination of SA or CA . It is possible also to just use one annexe to make an even smaller overnighter for two or three , or a stand alone store and kitchen . You can see pictures in the review of SA+LA+SA, and SA+LA+CA. Also some stand alone shots. Note the Evolva panels can zip in either end , which gives the option of day tent or small gazebo.
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Topic: coleman evolva realistic pitching time
