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As a newbie we had a go at the first pitching of our tent yesteday.On the video on the outwell site it showed them pegging it down first before putting in the poles and erecting it, is this the best way to do it?

Any other tips on puttting the tent up would also be appreciated

Have a look at my post from yesterday Outwell Hartford L - HELP!!

We tried pitching for the firs time yesterday - ARRGH!

Posted on here and got some good advice from L and XL owners.

Tried again this afternoon and now we hadan idea of back and front to start with we managed in 1/2 hour (feeling very pleased with ourselves now).

This time we pegged down the ends of the bedroom pods before we put the poles through and it seemed a much better way to do it.

The video on the Outwell site is good but it's too short and not enough detail.

I think we'll have one more go at it before we go at beg. of August.

Good luck

Keely

We have a 2007 model which pitches inner first; we also have the footprint (highly recommended. I have found it best to position and peg down the footprint and then peg down the inner. This allows us to get the SIG free properly stretched out, and then we erect the inner using the poles. Finally the fly and peg out. This method makes it an easier job in windy conditions too.

JD

We have the XXL and foot print. We peg out both the foot print and inner before inserting and lifting the poles. We found that this was more suited to us.

Thans for the comments, should of mentioned we have the 2008 model. We pegged out the footprint first and then put in all the poles, up went the dome and pinned it first before doing the pod poles. we then pegged it out. seemed ok except one area of the living room next to the entrance seemed a bit higher, a bit more trial and error next time we pitch it.

Seems to be as many methods as people!

Those Outwell videos are just awful aren't they?! We have a Sun Valley and studied the video taking note of that moment when the camera pans round and then back to the flat tent only to find Lo! the tent has risen and is errected!  As if by magic!  We tried putting it up in the way 'suggested' by the video and the poles were being stretched to their limits with us worried about breakages, so we tried again using our common sense and own trial & error method and it went up much easier. So our rule now is watch the videos and then do the exact opposite! 

I will say that Vango make much better videos for their tents, they have a running commentary talking each step through.

Totally agree with Angie about the videos.  We thought exactly the same as we were torn between Outwell Hartford and Vango Kura.  If it was down to the videos we'd have gone with Vango but chose Outwell because the green colour made it lighter inside than the blue Vangos.

I was keen on green (we'd previously had a Hartford XL) but I have to say the Sun Valley, although blue isn't too blue!  Does that make any sense?!!!!  I put it down to the huge windows which let lots of light in and cut out too much blueness. The pods are cream & grey (apart from the Kids room which we just had to buy!) so it doesn't feel too blue inside. I remember checking out a Diablo and it just felt as though we were going into a bluey world, quite disorientating at the time as I recall!