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Hi all, Were loading up tomorrow for our first family camp, we are off to York on Friday and the forecast is not good! We have got the Montana 6 and just wondering if anybody has had to pitch up in the rain? and any tips would help.

Kids are nearly as excited as me, and caz has just started with a stinking cold!

it never rains but....

John

Just last weekend I pitched in driving rain and very very strong winds at Ullswater. My first time camping by myself with the kids - I'd have been in real trouble if the kind chap from the tent next door hadn't come out to give me a hand getting the dome up on my tent, after that I was OK pegging out but it took AGES by myself.

Make sure the tent, waterproofs, wellies, headtorches (if late), lantern (if late) are all easily accessible. I got an in-car DVD player with twin screens from Argos for about £90: the kids watched a DVD on the way up the M6, and another one inside the car whilst I pitched. Not good for bendy roads though: strictly motorway only for my kids !!

Get extra pegs in case the wind picks up: I found I had to cross pegs on some guys to cope with the gusts, and with the tent hopping around it was quite easy to lose track of a few pegs temporarily, especially in the dark (see point about torches ;o)

For unloading, maybe one of you in the tent and one outside passing things in: saves walking mud in. I loaded most stuff into those big blue IKEA bags and didn't put down the groundsheet until stuff was loaded into the sleep pods.

Good luck.

Thanks for that everyone. I'm all packed up now and ready to go, trailer, roofbox and car full. Its still a bad forecast for tomorrow but I'm determined to go and get on with it. Get wet or not I want to camp! Its got to be better than sat indoors at home all weekend with 3 bored kids. Were going to York so plenty to do in the day even if raining.

Hope you all have good weekends, Cheers.

John

Well I live about half an hour from York and it's glorious today so maybe they have got the forecast wrong.

We put up our Montana 6 in very, very windy weather last Friday and it bent one of the poles! Managed to get the tent up anyway and no real problem getting it down again either. Think we may have to buy a couple of new poles though if they bend that easily never had that problem with the Coleman. Love the tent though!!

Thanks cmcpne,

We are 75 mile away from Naburn, we chose it because of its really good reviews and that York has so much going on for the kids. Plus the river taxi from the site to the city centre and bus stop outside the site. So hoping that we wont need the car when we get there, hence plenty of beer for me and caz!  Enough to please all the family.

Are your bent poles too bent to straighten? No way you can jig em up?

John

Hi cmcpne,

The forecast was good for you today, but not tomorrow or so the reports say. We had rain all morning up to 1pm and the forecast said it was heading South over night! They say saturday is going to be great. Its usually a guesstimate!

We have a monty 6 and hanve never had to pitch it wet yet. I'vo often wondered how much rain would end up inside as you have to open all the doors on the monty to get it up, and with the SIG will it quite literally end up 'bathtub'?

Good luck and let us know how you get on as we are away on Tues and the forecast doesn't look good then either.

Hi Happy Hippy, that is my main concern about the monty,  laying it out and threading roof bars through etc. while its raining! and then opening the main door up to let air in, not to mention trying to keep the kids in the car at same time, bare in mind we dont have kids ICE. Still its experience and I will of course report back to you on our ups and downs. Hope you have an excellent long weekend!

John