Had a Khyam XXL Special Edition approx 6 years, over the summer four knee (bedroom pole) joints have snapped (2 of which were new replacments) and they are both difficult to get hold of and expensive, as they come in a pack with a rapidex joint that I don't need!! Just cut short a week in Devon due to very very high winds and another two joints giving up the ghost. I've rewatched the pitching instructions over and over again and can see no reason for the sudden poor performance.
Can anyone offer some good advice...other than getting rid!
i stocked up on spare joints when i bought our Classic XL but i have never needed any of them (am i tempting fate here ? ) and we have had some very windy weeks in Dorset.
Our bedroom poles are a bit bowed but we haven't replaced them.
Oh I bought a Khyam this year. When I was putting it up this weekend one of the joints got itself into an almost impossible position and looked for all the world like it was going to break. It is easy to put up but then again I haven't put up any other kind of tent. Worried now that I haven't made the right choice.
Also I found quite a sizeable hole (well two holes quite close together about 1/4" long and more a slit than a hole) after putting it up the second time only. Don't know how it happened, it might well have been caught up in one of the joints when we were putting it up. I find now that it is not good to have too many people trying to put the poles up. Best left to one person doing it in a more methodical pattern.
Like "Sonja.p" I've always got a couple of each of the replacement joints in my kit, but in seven or eight years of using the "XXL Classic" and "XL Classic" I've never had to use one...
I can't comment as to why some people manage to break the joints so often, but having seen the method (and end result!) in which some 'ridgidome' tents are pitched, I'm not surprised...
I agree with "Neelie" too, the basic pitching (opening out and fitting poles), is best left to one person ('too many cooks' and all that!). Others can share the work of Pegging out and fitting groundsheets etc., once the basic pitching is done...
Quote: Originally posted by Andy Pandy 666 on 20/8/2008
, but having seen the method (and end result!) in which some 'ridgidome' tents are pitched, I'm not surprised...
hi andy :)
whenever i show pics of our tent i think goodness knows what andy will make of it
The most difficult time pitching can be when you are in a group and friends try to 'help'. It took ages to get our triguys back to where they should be, after someone messed with them :(
I am 100 percent responsible for the rip in my annexe though.
The ridgi domes are a bit vulnerable when you fold them up and despite taking great care i have caught the fabric slightly in a joint. We leave the little leg warmer thingies on all the time.
glads22 .. do you mean it was this joint that broke ..
did the hinge come apart ??
when i bought my spares it was from a camping shop that had stopped selling khyam but still had a box of joints. I have an idea he said these were vulnerable, which i thought seemed odd. I think i bought 2.
We have also had 2 broken joints the 1st 2 years ago in same place as in Sonja.p pic did ring Khyam first time as we in Newquay for 2 weeks they sent out 2 in a pack next day delivery for less than £10 delivered to campsite. Used the second 1 this year in Warren Farm when it broke on same side in same place. Dont know if we are doing anything wrong but both times the pitch as been sloping that way and i think that joint was taking all the pressure. Still will not get rid of tent though love it.
Quote: Originally posted by milkybar on 21/8/2008
they sent out 2 in a pack next day delivery for less than £10 delivered to campsite.
i remember that!
We camp on very uneven pitches and because i want to look at the view i am nearly always facing into the wind which i think is contrary to advice.
When we pack away our bedroom poles now one of them has a pronounced curve.. which is better than the joint breaking..
i think luck probably has a lot to do with it as wind is a fickle thing. We lost a delta peg last month, which put the ridgi-poles to test!
nb: i was looking through some photos last night and came across a picture of Andy's annexe interior. It is sooo neat! I don't think my husband thinks it is real .
We camp on very uneven pitches and because i want to look at the view i am nearly always facing into the wind which i think is contrary to advice.
When we pack away our bedroom poles now one of them has a pronounced curve.. which is better than the joint breaking.
I certainly wouldn't criticise your tent pitching Sonja. Looking at some of your pictures, I'd say you did really well to pitch the tent at all!... Uneven ground and modern tents are not really made for each other, to pitch them perfectly you need ground almost as flat as a billiard table...
I'm lucky, in that most of the sites I use are pretty flat (well, you'd expect that in East Anglia!) and very easy to pitch on. The biggest problem I get are 'slight undulations' where a ploughed field has been flattened and grassed over; in time they settle and you get 'waves' on the ground. I'd hate to think of the 'pigs ear' I'd make of pitching in a forest, with roots pushing the ground up. Or even worse, pitching on the side of a hill!...
Going back to 'breaking joints'. I reckon you may be right about the added 'stresses' on joints and poles, when pitching on uneven ground. Add some strong winds and it's not surprising they break or bend occasionally. Having said that, sometimes it's definitely down to the tent pitcher, even on a nice flat pitch...
To illustrate the point, here's something that happened a couple of years ago, while camping on the Norfolk coast. We had a chap come over (seeing we had a Khyam tent) and ask whether we had any spare pole joints. It appears he'd broken two of the 'goal post' (bedroom pod) joints on successive nights. It wasn't particularly windy (for Norfolk!) and I wondered why, I fished one out and went round to help him fit it... Arriving at his tent, it was easy to see the problem, he'd fitted the 'goal post' inside out (ie. not under compression). The pods (it was an 'XXL Classic') were like a 'baggy sock' and had been blowing from side to side in the wind, until the inevitable happened... After fitting the joint and the poles properly, his 'problem' was solved... It wasn't surprising really, as it was the families first camping trip and they hadn't done a trial pitching, which is always a good idea... Anyway, the next day, he bought round a replacement joint (from Norwich Camping and Leisure) and was really chuffed at the difference the correction had made to the tent and hopefully no more breakages!...
Looking at Sonja's photos, I don't think I did that badly. (I'm wondering too what Khyam will thing of my stopping to take a photo instead of rushing to take down the bedroom pole ...)
I was on a slope, but it wasn't anything like as bad as that.
But no matter what I did, I didn't seem to be able to achieve a nice relaxed, balanced angle on my poles.
I reckon now it probably was a joint that failed first.
Quote: Originally posted by Andy Pandy 666 on 21/8/2008 I certainly wouldn't criticise your tent pitching Sonja. Looking at some of your pictures, I'd say you did really well to pitch the tent at all!...
i was dragged kicking and screaming into camping when a sunday afternoon event we had been going to for years turned into a 3 day festival, on a slope!
The slope didn't really worry me too much, especially in the 2 second pop up quechua, after a flagon of cider, until my dodgy hip started complaining loudly :(
The easy up khyam (you are joking!?) solved the standing up in the tent to get dressed issue and i promised my husband if we spent the money we could have a camping holiday.
We tested it in the new forest.
So much for the grassy living area! Anywhere flat enough to pitch a tent at all was totally grass free!
My friend's idea of an idyllic camp fire sing song was proven to be a myth as you get fined £500 if you so much as smoulder a twig!
looking for sites that allowed camp fires in Dorset i came across eweleaze farm. Sadly it isn't open until a week after our little festival and anyway the slope is even worse!
However i love Dorset and we had the tent.. so the rest is, as they say, history
ps: many thanks to Andy who answered all my khyam questions and has always been very polite about the state of my tent :)
I have just had the same problem. Pitching the tent on a gusty day the wind got hold of the bedroom end before I'd got it pegged down and bang went the joint. Fortunately I had a spare which was in a better state than the one which had just broken. When I got back I rang Eurotech Leisure on 01922 628554 and ordered 2 new joints at a fiver each plus £3.50 pp. I got them 3 days later. And now to my 'innovation'! I have put a jubilee clip on each joint where they keep splitting and hope that gives a little bit of extra support. Has anybody else tried this and how effective has it been?
Just for interest I have also bought an Outwell canopy which I have put up across the roof of my XL Classic. It needed a bit of reinforcement where it touches the joints but it's great!! No more dripping into the tent every time you open the door on a rainy day and to be able to sit in your tent with the door open when it's raining outside is fabulous. Also handy pitched over our little tent to provide shelter and somewhere to cook and all for just £19.99
Quote: Originally posted by Oldbluefox on 21/8/2008
to be able to sit in your tent with the door open when it's raining outside is fabulous.
Hope that's of some help.
i am really interested in that!
We have used the khyam screen canopy but it has a gap between the tent and the canopy and it has to be taken down when it is windy. In fact it ripped off last time and i have attached a clingon but not tried it yet.(
It covers all the living area, most of the bedroom area and gives about 4 or 5 feet of cover for sitting/cooking/storage. If you don't reinforce it over the joints it rubs against them and it weakens the fabric so I have sewn some bits from an old oilskin type tarp over these bits. You also need to shorten some of the guy ropes to suit your tent. For the money you can't beat it.
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Topic: Khyam joints
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