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Hello everybody,

  I have just joined today and am looking for a little advice, ive been camping for more years than i can remember i started in small ridge tents, moved onto large trailer tents and gradually swapped and changed until now we have a Vango diablo900.    This tent has been brilliant so far but i cant help but feel that there should be an easier way to attatch the flysheet to the inner and poles without tediously tying countless bow knots, i was thinking somewhere along the lines of attatching plastic loops and toggles (as used to suspended inner tents)  to the inner flysheet ties to speed things up but not too sure how they may hold up under stress?-  if anyone else has tried this, or has any other ideas i would be very interested to hear!

also along the lines of tent carpets- i have been using pvc backed picnic blankets for a long time as the price of tent manufacturers products seems to be way too high, i have looked on the web for a long time to try to find an alternative and suitable fabric to but to no avail, has anyone tried to make one yet? i'm sure its possible

Anyway thanks for reading my ramblings, its not long now!

Hi Captain Birdseye & welcome to the forum

I have never had a good look at a Diablo, but I must agree with you that there has to be an easier way than tying it together. The window blinds in our APS had to be rolled up & tied, which I found really tedious, so I bought some wooden toggles from a haberdashers, threaded one of the ties through the toggle, and sewed it on, then made the other tie into a loop. The next time we used the tent it was really easy & quick to roll up the blinds each morning.

I can't see this method being a problem with attaching the flysheet to the inner & poles. As the loops are already there, there is no need to sew through the flysheet leaving needle holes, you can just use the original ties to make the loops & to attach the toggles.

Of course you can buy proper plastic tent toggles, but I just liked the little wooden ones from the haberdashers

Regarding the carpet, mmmm, I use picnic rugs too. Like you I would love a carpet, but find them too expensive. If you do find an alternative, I'd be interested to know about it, so that I can make my own carpet too.

   Hello again, and thanks for the replies, as far as carpets are concerned i have managed to find one in the clearance section of the escape outdoors website for just under £30, so snapped that up straight away- they have others in stock for the outwell hartford L - a pretty decent size for the price, i'm not sure what sort of area you'd need to cover JK98, but it may be worth a look!, i'm still looking into an alternative for my other tents and if i find anything, will let you know.

 I had a tnf mountain 25 a few years ago with velcro ties and they worked perfectly ,the only problem is that they need to be sewn into the flysheet and there are so many on the diablo it'd take me a week, and the use of an old aircraft hangar in which to spread out the material! i think i'll give the toggles a go for now, if they fail at least the ties will still be there to try something else,, mini carabinas maybe...

My old tent was inner first which meant dragging the fly over the top then tying countless ties to the inner poles. To do this you had to scabble about underneath the fly often tying them blind, and it was a pain in windy weather.

I believe the Vango Diablo 900 is inner first as well, which must be a right pain on such a large tent.

My new tent has the poles on the outside of the fly (through sleeves) and the tent is then clipped onto the poles with 'U' shaped clips. Would it be possible to buy some of these clips, tie them firmly to the ties on the tent and then just clip them to the poles each time? You will need the right sized clips for the pole diameter of course. Even plastic pipe retaining clips might work. 

Yeah, i know the ones you mean, i think they're called C- clips, and i do think they would be the easiest way to do it but i cant find them anywhere- the poles are around 12mm i think, and none of the searches i've done have come up with anything like the right size- they all seem to be for clipping the inners to frame tent poles (i think they range from 18-25mm) if i could find them in 12mm, or maybe 13mm (to allow for inner tent pole sleeves)  then i'd def give that a go! Cheers

The steel poles on my Outwell Carolina 3 tent are 22mm and the fibreglass poles are 11mm. The tent clips to both poles so you must be able to get clips for 11mm poles. I hope so in case any break.

Try the guys at www.pennineoutdoor.co.uk for the C clips or they may be able to suggest an alternative.

Having had a Diablo in the past I know what a pain the fly sheet is. The last model, the DX, used velcro strips to secure the fly.

Quote: Originally posted by CAPTAIN.BIRDSEYE on 31/1/2010

 i have managed to find one in the clearance section of the escape outdoors website for just under £30, so snapped that up straight away- they have others in stock for the outwell hartford L - a pretty decent size for the price, i'm not sure what sort of area you'd need to cover JK98, but it may be worth a look!, i'm still looking into an alternative for my other tents and if i find anything, will let you know. 

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