Firstly appologies if there's a thread elsewhere for this.
Relative newbies to camping here. Lots of enthusiasm and looking forward to the great outdoors.
We've given our tent the once over and put it up in the garden (minus guys).
What I feel we could really do with is a hour of someones time (tea and biscuits provided) to take us through the why's and wherefores of putting up our tent. The instructions that came with the tent are as best woeful. There's no DVD or anything on the web to show us what to do.
People are happy to give lots of advice, but I'm a visual person. Seeing it once and asking questions will be exactly what we need.
We're based in the Midlands and am happy to travel to someone with a big enough piece of land (the tent is 7x5m) for a bit of a "how to".
Thanks in advance.
------------- Just starting out and looking forward to it
Hi
If you dont get any offers of help you could watch the Vango Amazon pitching video as the 2 tents are fairly similar with the Vango having steel poles as opposed to the Gelerts fibreglas ones but the principal of pitching is the same
We have just got the same tent,the size is a problem because we wont be able to pitch it before we go,just hope its not too windy or we could end up airborn.how easy did you find it ?
The number of faults is worrying as we will not be putting ours up untill june.with the porch as will it will be massive,you dont belive in starting small and building up do you.good luck with the next pitch.
seantomtom
It might be worth trying to erect the tent somewhere, even local park just to get a feel for what you're doing. Also if there are any problems you can deal with them before they ruin your break. In addition, depending when you bought the tent, it may be out of guarantee if you leave it till June.
When we first started camping and bought new tents, we always pitched them in garden first to check them over...also ensures you are prepared for real thing when arrive on a campsite!
------------- 2026
Various weekends, weather and time permitting
April - Yorkshire and Yorkshire
June - Wiltshire and Oxfordshire
Autumn - North and Scotland
Absolutely agree with Gail. We're giving it 2-3 times just to get all of the wrinkles ironed out, plus, it's our first tent (nope, we don't do it by halves), and we don't want to look like first timers when we go on holiday.
------------- Just starting out and looking forward to it
If you need an area to pitch a tent to check learn ect, why not take it to a campsite that's really local, tell the owner what your doing and you may get away with half a day playing for free,
and if there is others on site, they may even come to help you and offer advice.
------------- If it wont move, try a bigger hammer.
some of the most entertaining evenings while camping have been watching peeps put their tent up for the first time espacially if they are new to camping. However, like most campers if it gets to out of hand we will offer as will others.
Sorry to hear you had problems with your original tent hope the replacement is better quality.
Make sure the adjusting straps on the ring and pin system where the tent poles fit in are slackened off so you dont put too much strain on the tent when inserting the poles and dont overtighten them afterwards. Also close all the doors before pegging the tent out so you dont strain the zips but leave the doors open when taking the tent down
seantomtom agree with gailbonney find somewhere to pitch it before you go just in case there is anything wrong with it
Hi there bought one of these a month ago had our weekend away in it on 6th,7th july, friday and saturday night.Rained all week proir to arriving on the campsite so ground was a little damp underfoot good job i bought the footprint to go underneath well worth investing in one,you can fold the tent away on it keeping it all clean,rained heavy on the saturday night no major problems at all just a very minor drip on one seam and i mean a drip to say it was teeming it down i was very happy with the tents performance,as for the pitching of the tent being in mind it was our first ever camping trip it was very easy to put up,watched a few videos prior to going to give me some idea of what i was doing,we found it a little heavy all concertined up pinning the back first then walking out with it.Come to packing up time the rain started again so we had to pack it away in the rain,when we arrived home i got the tent back out to dry as the sun was shining so pitched it up on the drive this time inserting one pole at a time and found it much easier,as for the whole camping experience we all loved it very much me the missus and three kids cant wait to go again hopefully in much better weather and dry ground fingers crossed for the british summer,bought mine for £250 of a very well known auction site, with carpets and the porch not used the carpets or the porch yet hope to use them on the next trip out,, come on you summer,, hope you enjoy yours as much as we did
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