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Hi Val nice to see you back after your hols.

Timing to put up with 2 of us it takes about 20 mins for the cabin, 40 mins for the main awning and 20 for the ext awning, which as new comers we reckon is very good. 

It is a NEW tent, best time we had the tent up was in France in July but not right for position then either Tent was too low as the elastics were on the ground so to get any tension we had to pull out wide.  - It had not been weathered the time.

but at the end it rained and we had to take down not fully dry - and had to dry off the awning in the house and the cabin in the garden.... it has probably not been fully soaked and dryed on the frame enough.

When we put it up after a trip to Blarney in Cork (Ireland) August,  it was not right but after lots of adjustments gave up.  There was lots of raining and drying and had to take it down again in the rain - seems like a trend  .  A few days later we put it back up to get it dryed out fully and now it is worse - Shrinkage?.

I have measured the position of the double canvas and the centre poles (which are not adjustable and can not be mixed up with any others) and there is a good 3 inches difference in length to have the poles on the cdouble anvas - could it be Shrinkage? to be fully centred I reckon it needs to be about 5 inches - seems alot.

We have had the trailer and beds level all times, we have only put up one notch in the cabin perhaps we need 2 but this caused other problems which make the door of the cabin very tight and pushed out the canvas alot at the poles - again needs weathering?

Could weathering / shrinkage account for this big a difference?

Quote: Originally posted by Shellyfoz on 17/8/2008

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Could weathering / shrinkage account for this big a difference?

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Possibly....as in I think it's probably at least partially  that which is the problem, but I wouldn't swear on it.

If I were you I'd pitch it out as tight as possible, soak it within an inch of its life then keep repegging it to a good tension  till dry. Of course, this requires you have a large enough garden? If not then wait till you're on your next rainy trip and wait till it gets soaked then repeg as above. Alternatively you could keep on pushing up any adjustable poles by cautious increments to achieve the same effect.

Five inches does sound a lot though, especially if you don't have adjustable roof bar poles. Are you totally 100% sure about this? (Pleeeeeze don't get cross at this question...I recall a TT owner here a couple of years ago that swore on his mother's grave his poles did not adjust on whatever TT he had, then got so hacked off with me insisting there had to be something that he opened it up to check and...guess what?) If not, what about other poles like leg or cross poles? The usual method of pitching starts with all poles at their minimum setting, then you only put up one notch at a time all round and keep repeating as and where neccesary until the canvas is taut. But never in great jumps. If you have everything set at minimum, where does the reinforced panel lie then?

Thanks Val - Keep asking - ASSUME nothing.

When everything is at minimum the first awning pole is about half way between the cabin and the double canvas. the centre poles are a fixed length - they are spring loaded so are pretty sure they don't adjust.  cann't remember where the end pole is - will have to check that. 

Looks like we will have to "weather" it out - but as all we have is rain at the minute it will probably have to wait a while.....

Thanks

SF