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Hi, off to Go Outdoors on Thursday to buy our Hotel, then off to brave the rain and cold at Callow Top. I'm 99% sure we will leave the shop with a new Trout Lake 4 with extension, plus the carpet and foot print. Just a question about the footprint. After watching the video on the Outwell website, it shows them erecting the tent and then zipping in the ground sheet. Does the footprint attach to any part of the tent i.e are there peg holes in specific points that match with the anchor points of the flysheet? I'm guessing that the best thing to do is place your footprint down first, erect the tent over it and peg it down?? Or should I erect the tent, carry the footprint inside, lay it in place, peg down, then put the groundsheet in. This question is to all Lake owners as I'm sure it will be the same format.

Looking at the weather, you may see a cheap Trout Lake on Ebay very soon!!

The last time I went to Callow Top, the pitch they gave us was a Quagmire. Ended up buyin a huge tarp to peg down over the huge puddle of mud. With it being a new and rather expensive tent, I don't even want to get the footprint muddy, if you know what I'm saying.

Advise much appreciated

Andy

Off to watch the vid again, and again. Want it Branding into my head, so that if its Peeing it down, we can get it up double quick - The tent that is!

One of the first things you should do is weather the tent , that means erecting it and giving it a good soaking and then let it dry out , this allows the fibres of the tent to tighten so it doesn't leak , the first time you do this you may get a misting in the tent as well , don't know if I would want to take a Lake tent straight to a camp site and erect it and sleep in it in bad weather with out doing that first .

I might be wrong and am sure there will be other people along to say otherwise if I am but I thought that was the norm for lake owners.   

We didn't weather ours (because we didn't know we should). Our first time away we had very heavy rain, and also on subsequent trips. So far we haven't had any problems with inside the tent getting wet.

We put our footprint out first, that way I can make sure I'm staying inside the pitch, and can also choose the most level bit for the bedroom. We peg out the four corners then pitch and peg the tent. Only then do we attach the ZIG. The ZIG is really heavy and makes it difficult to straighten the tent once attached.

Hope that helps.

Thanks for the advise. What are other peoples views on weathering the Polycotton flysheet? I went to view the Trout Lake when they had just put it up at Go Outdoors along side a BL4 & BL6. It was HAMMERING it down with rain, yet all tents were bone dry inside, and I've viewed them several times since, with no sign of water so I don't have much of a problem with camping straight away. There is no info at all on the Outwell site regarding weathering either, it only states that the tent must be dry when packed to avoid rotting. Well, that is fine, but somewhat unrealistic, sometimes packing away in the rain is un-avoidable. Obviously.  Just a case of removing the tent when home and allowing it to dry properly before repacking again.

Andy

Update on weathering. Just found this in the FAQ's on the Outwell website.......

I have just bought my tent, do I need to weather it?

No, you do not need to weather your tent but it always advisable to pitch your tent before going away just to ensure that you are comfortable with the way it pitches and packs away again.

Andy