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Guys and dollies (how to pitch a tent)

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Niklas
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PostPosted: 11:26 - 12 Aug 2012    Post subject: Reply with quote

This tent is rock solid standing and will be even more so when guy ropes are attached:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rAcyTOiVJc

Very Happy
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c-m
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PostPosted: 11:37 - 12 Aug 2012    Post subject: Reply with quote

Tunnel tent. Sucks. Try pitching that on rocky ground.

Fully or semi geodesic is the best way to go.
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Jack1975
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PostPosted: 06:35 - 16 Oct 2012    Post subject: Great tip! Reply with quote

Thanks for the tip about the pegs, didn't know that Smile
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coyotie
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PostPosted: 00:14 - 09 Jan 2013    Post subject: TENTS Highlander Arran series Reply with quote

[img] just replaced my faithful Khyam with aHighlander Arran 3 man quick erect it,s has improvment over Khyam with tougher sewn in ground sheet ,guy ropes attched at the poles not the sides of the fly sheet vents are on the sides not at the top under the storm cap and the ground sheet goes right to the front porch aera bought it online at camp& fish under £100[/img]
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bikersupermot...
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PostPosted: 15:27 - 14 Jan 2014    Post subject: Reply with quote

how comes you didnt even mention important things like :-



pitching with your bum to the wind

importance of knowing tents hydrostatic head

use of footprints

dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning

use of clam cleat line loks

use of delta pegs

advantages of cotton / polycotton against nylon polyester tents that rustle like a crisp packet in the wind.

advantages of airbeam tents

no mention of ehu

no mention of the speed and cheapness of using a portable induction hob


you ve missed out so much of the camping essentials...

but then you can always refer them to

www.ukcampsite.co.uk instead!
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stinkwheel
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PostPosted: 15:31 - 14 Jan 2014    Post subject: Reply with quote

bikersupermoto wrote:
how comes you didnt even mention important things like :-



pitching with your bum to the wind

importance of knowing tents hydrostatic head

use of footprints

dangers of carbon monoxide poisoning

use of clam cleat line loks

use of delta pegs

advantages of cotton / polycotton against nylon polyester tents that rustle like a crisp packet in the wind.

advantages of airbeam tents

no mention of ehu

no mention of the speed and cheapness of using a portable induction hob


you ve missed out so much of the camping essentials...

but then you can always refer them to

www.ukcampsite.co.uk instead!


Feel free to add your contributions to the thread.

Link is broken.
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bikersupermot...
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PostPosted: 15:34 - 14 Jan 2014    Post subject: Reply with quote

ms51ves3 wrote:
Halfords are doing 15% off all Gelert tents at the moment.

Clicky

I'm eyeing up the Gelert Eiger 2 Man Tent. £25.50 delivered Thinking




25.50?!?!?!

wtf u think ur gonna get for that???

the courier will be wanting minimum a fiver to get it to your door. its gotta get from china to uk only about 8,000 miles.

the packaging, the storage in uk, cost from port to halfords warehouse, guys to handle the boxes and pay fuel and run fork lift trucks around the place and heating costs for the shops

if ur lucky a piece of the same material they use to make the 50p umbrellas with on the other production line in the factory in shenzou province.


so theres about 80p left for the tent.

an you think thats a bargain!!! Rolling Eyes
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stinkwheel
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PostPosted: 15:45 - 14 Jan 2014    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you're going to try to start an argument, try to at least get your response in in the same year as the original point.
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I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.
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The Shaggy D.A.
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PostPosted: 17:33 - 14 Jan 2014    Post subject: Reply with quote

stinkwheel wrote:
If you're going to try to start an argument, try to at least get your response in in the same year as the original point.


He's only just finished typing.
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reddeviljp
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PostPosted: 20:52 - 18 Jan 2014    Post subject: Reply with quote

A good guide on caring for a tent from the daddy of expedition tents, Terra Nove is here:

https://www.terra-nova.co.uk/p/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/TentOwnersManual1.pdf

Guidance in choosing the right tent
https://www.terra-nova.co.uk/p/help-advice/product-guides/choosing-the-right-tent/

Choosing the right family tent
https://www.terra-nova.co.uk/p/help-advice/product-guides/choosing-the-right-family-tent/
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mentalboy
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PostPosted: 21:30 - 18 Jan 2014    Post subject: Reply with quote

Terra Nova's are definitely the kings of the camping world but probably beyond most people's budgets.
My little Laser Competition is tiny, weighs in at .87kgs, is rated for three seasons use, you can get two in it (if you're friendly Wink ) and it's perfect for bike touring.
For something a little more comfy for two the Quasar takes some beating, my family have used them all over the world in all kinds of terrain with no problems, they last for years but are pricey.
I was never that impressed with the old Force 10's following an autumn experience with a school group in the Ogwen Valley, North Wales in the early '80's. I was lucky and camped in the family owned mountain tent (made I think by Mountain Equipment) which was the same shape as the Force 10's but made of nylon with snow valances et al. My fellow students in the school Force 10's had a particularly rough night after a gale swept down the valley and flattened every Orange tent in it's path! I slept through the whole performance. Laughing

Edit: not Mountain Equipment it was the old Phoenix Phortress! Like this one:
https://i1164.photobucket.com/albums/q573/Gyponline/Tent/20120812_182835.jpg
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chickenstrip
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PostPosted: 21:41 - 18 Jan 2014    Post subject: Reply with quote

Also consider Vaude - good tents, but at a price. Mine's a Power Lizard UL, silnylon, very light, packs down small, and is ample for my 6' 2'' frame. Easy to pitch and adjust too - pitches with liner already installed, and if the liner gets wet when you put it away, it dries out in no time when you pitch it again. Used it for 2 months in the Lake District in all weathers and it performed well. Not a great photo, but:
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bikersupermot...
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PostPosted: 21:58 - 26 Feb 2014    Post subject: Reply with quote

The Shaggy D.A. wrote:
stinkwheel wrote:
If you're going to try to start an argument, try to at least get your response in in the same year as the original point.


He's only just finished typing.


nonsense! id only just started typing ... and now in february 2014 iv just finished! Laughing Laughing Laughing
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trevor saxe-coburg-gotha
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PostPosted: 20:44 - 14 Mar 2014    Post subject: Reply with quote

Neutral
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Diggs
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PostPosted: 22:06 - 14 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

Another thing to remember - check the ground before you pitch. We pitched up in Spain once in a hurry as it was about to pour down, only to find that we were on grass with horrible, spikey things like teasels but truly evil. They pierced the groundsheet, and after that the tent was useless on wet grass as water would draw through.

What a fun night that was - I had to dig a trench around our pitch because we were on a slight slope and it rained so hard that a river of surface water ran under the tent.
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stinkwheel
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PostPosted: 10:41 - 15 Apr 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

Diggs wrote:
Another thing to remember - check the ground before you pitch. We pitched up in Spain once in a hurry as it was about to pour down, only to find that we were on grass with horrible, spikey things like teasels but truly evil. They pierced the groundsheet, and after that the tent was useless on wet grass as water would draw through.

What a fun night that was - I had to dig a trench around our pitch because we were on a slight slope and it rained so hard that a river of surface water ran under the tent.


Also, ants nests. Thumbs Up
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.
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ThatDippyTwat
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PostPosted: 18:48 - 09 Sep 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

stinkwheel wrote:
Diggs wrote:
Another thing to remember - check the ground before you pitch.


Also, ants nests. Thumbs Up


See also - cow shit. Easy to miss if all the grass is long.
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Lone-Wolf
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PostPosted: 19:51 - 09 Sep 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

ThatDippyTwat wrote:


See also - cow shit. Easy to miss if all the grass is long.


Wotcha.

Not forgetting that old favorite . . . . a dead bird just under the edge of the groundsheet . . . so you only smell it occasionally . . . . and sort through all your gear thinking you may have left some bacon in there from the last time. Shocked
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lingeringstin...
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PostPosted: 14:16 - 11 Dec 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

stinkwheel wrote:
Princess Sunshine wrote:

Or you need more experience with half decent modern tents rather than 40 year old ones Wink.

I've only got memories of camping for 26 years or so, but in that time some pretty significant advancements of materials have happened.
With a cheap tescos tent it is still an issue, with a really expensive ultra-light tent it might be an issue too, but much less so with modern half-decent ones.


I think the most significant advance is that the outer is errected first and the inner just hangs off the inside via a series of plastic clips/toggles on short bits of elastic. As such, it tends to move/flex with the flysheet/poles.

On older tents, the inner was the structural part and the flysheet was thrown over the top of it then pegged down. This allowed the two parts of the tent to move independantly and if the flysheet wasn't held away from the inner, you'd be getting wet.




Having finally gotten fed up with £20 dome tents I now use a fairly unexciting 1980's French army tent (F1 they're called). I mainly decided on this after watching disasters at rallies. Yes most disasters seem to be avoidable with common sense but the weather can murder you at a rally when you're right out in the middle of an open windswept muddy field because that's the only place you can set up. Personally I'd rather be under the trees round the edge somewhere but that's not always possible.

After thinking "so what would the Romans have used?" I did some research and found that for the last couple thousand years the bog standard A-frame tent was common for military and explorers.

I decided that a 1880's-1980's ridge tent design with a floor was probably a reasonable choice so after looking at prices I finally got a the canvas French army tent for around £45 and it's quite good for certain rally conditions.

For starters it's designed as a two man tent (that's one bloke and some minimal camping gear in reality) so it's quite wide at the floor and you can scatter your shit around and still have sleeping space but it has no real sides to speak of. Just very short walls with velcro fastening vents in them which are nice if the weather's good.

The A-frame design of the French tent is really low to the ground so it holds up well in the inevitable hundred mile per hour sideways rally rain. It's no fun having your cheap dome tent break up and fold over you in the pissing storm.

I got the canvas model because I figured it would be durable, which it is much more so than a nylon tent around windy campfires. Unfortunately it was designed to have the outer flysheet just sort of flung over it and pegged down but that's a shit design that means the outer and the inner were touching and it tended to get quite wet inside.

The old nylon flysheet was perishing anyway and wasn't at all waterproof so to fix this I painted the canvas with a 50/50 solution of silicone and white spirit, applied with a brush, and bought two silnylon modern army tarps that I now arrange over the army tent with their own poles and guy lines so they don't touch the tent and that works a treat. The French army tent actually has some pretty good ventilation without being too breezy.

The downside is that it's now way heavier than it used to be with the silicone coating painted on and the dark green army canvas makes it completely dark inside even in good daylight. Also you can't sit up anywhere in it apart from right down the middle ridge. It's pretty cramped. Being designed with only two short poles it's pretty fast to set up and the groundsheet is quite good. It requires a lot of fiddly guy lines to pull tight but when it's up it's more firmly planted than any of the dome tents I used to use.

Yes the dome tents have much better usable room in them. Even the cheapo Tesco "two man" festival tents have better space, but if I suspect foul weather I would always go with the shallow A-frame French army canvas tent. It's an old design with certain flaws but it's comparatively cheap and it just works.





I just had a look on 'tinternet for info about these F1 tents and it looks like you can't get them anymore, only a few of the lightweight nylon versions left which might be OK for most of the same reasons above but probably not as sturdy. Shame it seems like nobody's making a nice cheap canvas tent nowadays. It's a good, simple design for people with minimal needs who just want a simple, cheap crash pad at a rally that won't blow away or leak badly on your drunken slumber.
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ThatDippyTwat
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PostPosted: 15:50 - 11 Dec 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

If I want speed and reliability, then the Vango Hurricane 200. It's fully geodesic and outer pitch first, but unless it's wet and needs drying out, you leave the inner attached when you're done, and it's up in about 2 mins flat. It's 5KG but unless you are camping miles from your bike, then it shouldn't be an issue. It's bombproof and has the space for bike gear that needs to be inside, not in the porch where it can get wet from condensation etc. I use it if I'm away for a few days in the Lakes, Snowdonia etc.

If I want something light or am only away for a night, then I have a Terranova Trisar 2. Semi-geodesic, and light enough I can happily carry it up anything the UK has to offer that doesn't need crampons. Less space for bike gear, and most of that will need to be in the Porch. The 2D version of the Trisar may be a slightly better choice.

Neither are cheap, but I've had enough cheap, shitty tents collapse on me both at rallies when I'm too pissed/whatever to do anything about it, and when less than clement weather decides your stay up a sizeable bit of rock in the middle of nowhere should be livened up. Never had a single issue with either tent, bar learning about space limitations, which is my own stupid fault for not testing it out beforehand. The only thing I've done is replace the guy adjusters on the Trisar for Loop Alien copies, makes things far quicker when adjusting them if things get blowy or loosen up. Footprints help if you know the ground is iffy. you can also bodge a tarp underneath if you don't fancy shelling out for one.

Non-Teffers version - Shit tents are shit, fall down, and don't last. Buy something decent if you plan on using it more than once a year.
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The Shaggy D.A.
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PostPosted: 22:28 - 11 Dec 2016    Post subject: Reply with quote

This year I'm going to (a) trim down the number of tents I have and (b) actually get out more than a couple of times. I enjoyed sleeping out under a tarp back in September (even though it rained), so tempted to get a bivi bag.

https://cdn.bcf.44bytes.net/files/tarpsmall.jpg
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