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Hi, first time poster and was impressed with Kampa reviews (Lulworth 6 seems to be the Croyde 6 predecessor) and bit the bullet and bought our first tent last week.

Went to the local field last night to try putting it up (no grass here!) and after an hour and a half called it a day - we got as far as threading the roof poles and attaching legs.  The instructions then say to stand the front section upright and hold using the guy lines which we did, where problems started. Next step is inserting a pin into the base of each leg - well !!   we released the straps as far as possible but could only get, with a struggle, a pin in one side of the leg but not the other.  We tried different tensions with the guy lines on the front section but still couldn't do it.

would welcome any advice please!  Even 6ft hubby struggled with trying to support the poles whilst I was trying to get the pins in! 

There also seemed to be a piece of equipment that didn't tally up with the parts list.

Many thanks!

We don't have this tent, but tunnel tents all work essentially the same way. There are 2 methods you can use -

1) Lie the flysheet flat on the ground and insert the roof poles, attach the legs, then put the legs on the pins whilst the tent is lying flat. You may need to slide the pole into the pole sleeve to get the first pin in and then slide it back and use a fair bit of strength to get the other pin into the bottom of the other end of the pole. Do this for all poles (except the porch). Peg down the flysheet at the back of the tent.  Then gather the poles together (one person on each side) starting from the front standing them up as you go, so that you end up with all the poles upright in your hands close to the rear of the tent. This can be really heavy work. Then you walk the poles forward stretching out each section of the flysheet as you go to form the shape of the tent, ending with the porch pole. Then peg the front down and the guyropes front and back. Then go around straightening and lining up all the poles and then peg and tighten the straps.

2) Do a pole at a time starting from either the front or the back (sometimes if you peg down the tent at front and rear you can start with the middle pole as the flysheet will help hold it up). For the first pole, with the tent lying flat, put in the roof pole, attach the legs and then get one pin in as described above and then slide the pole through the sleeve and get the second pin in. Then stand it up and guy it out loosely. Then move to the next pole, you will be working with the flysheet slightly off the ground this time, but do the same.

We actually use the first method for our large tent - but many use the other. We find that you actually have to have the flysheet quite bunched up and not pegged down to help get the pins with the first method as a pegged flysheet actually works against you in this method.

You'll get the hang of it. You could have a look at the pitching videos on You Tube. May be the Vango one for the Columbia 600 or Amazon (Method 1) and Yeoman Outdoors video for the Montana 6 (a version of method 2).

There is also a thread here with advice on pitching a Kampa tunnel tent - take a look:

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=32&TopicID=218368&PagePosition=2

Good luck!

Helen

Thank you Helen, will try both methods then to see which works best for us - DH already disheartened but I won't be beaten by a bit of canvas! 

Will let you know how we get on - raining here today (Dorset) so will have another go tomorrow.

Hooray! Had second attempt at putting tent up on Wednesday and used the method of pegging the 4 corners, started at the middle poles, then either side, then rear then porch.  Worked very well and only had a bit of a problem with one side of the porch where the straps on the pins don't adjust, but DH had the brainwave of releasing one of the leg joints and then got the pin in.

Was hoping to have gone away this weekend but we left it too late to make a booking, the world and his dog seemed to be heading for Dorset! So next weekend will be the first outing of the Kampa Croyde 6.

Thanks again.

We bought a kampa croyde about 6 weeks ago ( which I have now put up for sale on here)  and really struggled to put it up!  We are "elderly" and both very small, so its nice to know that its not just us that have had a problem.  We spent 2 frustrating hours at it, trying all the different variations posted on here, with I had already researched - with no success. 

The croyde was the third tent we have had, so not exactly novices at it, but we will buy a lighter tent now.  The worst was the weight of the poles, so back to fibreglass I think!