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Hi, I am new to this site and my fiance and I have just come back from our first weekend away in our new Vango Orchy 400 tent. The only problem is it rained the whole time we were away (just our luck), so we couldn't use our stove as the Orchy doesn't come with any poles to hold the door up with. Do you know if you can get other poles to fit or if there is another way of being able to cook without burning the tent down? I saw a couple of people with a wind break round the front and the front door being used as a canopy. Other people had pitched a gazebo and just sat under that, but on some sites where space is limited we may not be allowed to have such a large structure in addition to our tent. I think you can buy an annexe for the tent which attaches to the front door but as far as I can see, it doesn't have enough ventilation to be able to cook in, so we would be back to the problem of risking burning the tent down!

What does everyone else do/recommend?

We have a parasol that is taken and can usually manage to get it angled over the stove or BBQ in bad weather.

We camped in Wakefield a month or two ago and we dropped lucky with a picnic table on the pitch so this and the parasol made it easy.

a couple of opptions for cooking in the rain are a

canopied windbreak or a utility tent

if you do want to use your door as a canopy then you need to get a couple of 180cm upright poles to do it

Hi there,

Have a look at my pix - I use a cheap tarp with uprights that can be bought from any good camping equipment site for around a tenner. Remember to get extra guys though.

Tarp advantages - takes up very little room in car, and I've never been charged extra,

Quote: Originally posted by clairechris on 11/8/2008

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we had same prob I reckon a £20 gazebo would do us at front of tent, you stand under and have cooker half in/out do you think? let me know if you solve it!!!

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the one problem with that is more and more sites will not allow garden gazebos on site as they are not stable in the wind, and the sites that do allow them tend to charge extra to put them up

Thanks for all your suggestions I'll let you know what we finally decide on and how it works out!

We have an Orchy 500 and were wondering the same thing. We had our first trip out this past weekend and while it stayed dry long enough for me to cook, there were still a few large splats of rain. We had considered a Vango canopy but still not sure of its suitability. Or King poles to prop up the front door, along with a wind break.

It's hard being a newbie !! I could nearly do with a camping course! lol