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There's no way in the world I could ever leave a tent... or even a tent PEG... behind intentionally!  I'm afraid I have a touch of OCD about things being lost or left behind, and I'll patrol the area, even in belting rain, just to make sure there isn't a peg or a teaspoon or a lamp hook still on the pitch!   In fact, I often find things others have left behind previously!

So far as my precious tents are concerned, even if I was unfortunate enough to have one damaged beyond repair, I would still lovingly roll it up, stick it in the car and then assess the damage at home when the sun was shining.  I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that we consider the £200 we paid for our tent to be a lot of money (I know it's not really, when you look at the prices of some of the top-range tents, but trust me, that is a LOT for us!) and I would feel I'd have to try and salvage it.

I also have a very earnest horror of the modern throwaway culture, and would feel really awful if I were to leave it behind for someone else to deal with.

FoO

It really should be a case of "take your rubbish home with you".  If it can't be saved then at least clear it away, don't leave it for someone else to deal with.

I could never abandon my tent, it would be like leaving an old friend behind - even if it had been wrecked in bad weather I would still take it home to see if it could be repaired or salvaged in some way.

When I was with my ex he used to walk round the site on our last day, picking up any stray tent pegs left on pitches, and one year after a particularly windy weekend he salvaged quite a few things that had been left near the bins. I'm afraid his attitude has now rubbed off on me and I've become a Womble, salvaging anything usable that's been left behind by other campers!

Would never leave a tent behind and we scour the site before leaving. Spares are too valuable and I don't believe that others should have to clean up after us even if the tent is decimated. With a second version of our Vango Columbia 600 tucked away back at home, anything salvageable would be very useful. Always carry a stock of large bin bags for bundling things up into and avoid coastal and exposed campsites to minimise the risk.

Like others on the forum every penny we have could have multiple calls on it, so valuable...

Helen

Likewise, I couldnt leave my tents, even if damaged they would get binned.

We bought a load of dome tents from tesco for the kids last year for £2 each for festivals, I cant see them getting packed away.

Our first (aside from childhood trips) camping trip was in a very cheap Argos tent, which did not cope well with the weather thrown at it - which according to OH was not very bad weather either!  Several seams leaked, a hole ripped in the roof from one of the guyline attachments and several of the fibreglass poles split.  We salvaged the inner tent, groundsheet, all guylines and pegs, and bundled the rest into the site bin when we left.

Needless to say, despite one breezy night where the flysheet actually flapped about on to our noses (we were trying to sleep at the time) as the tent buckled, we were completely hooked and now have 3 - much better - tents.

Last year at Woodlands I saw someone taking the 2nd tent to the bin area of our site (it was used for their kids from what I could gather).

It wasn't very well bundled up, and didn't look like there was much wrong with it. He left it at the side of the bins, he then started bringing the fibre glass poles over. AS he got closer to the bins, a flock of people descended on him (like vultures). I could no longer see the bloke before the flock disappeared leaving him with just his frilly heart patterned boxer shorts on. All of the canvass and bits and pieces of the tent were gone...

Okay, a bit of an exageration. But people did share the scraps of the tent instead of leaving it to one person to have the lot.

one of the best things we ever got was a bbq/firepit that the people in the next pitch were using. On their last day, they offered it to us before taking it to the bins. We have used it on virtually every trip since, and although the outside is a litttle rusty - the grill is still perfect, and all our friends have started to get the same one from focus (we have had it for about 5 years now)

Nowt wrong with a bit of freeganism!!

Quote: Originally posted by Tentz on 27/2/2011

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If the tent is wrecked, you should at least bin it & pull all the pegs out of the ground. Just leaving it & doing a runner is as bad leaving your rubbish. Bit different at festies I suppose, most folk are too wrecked even to find their tents.

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my sons favorite place is the skip on the campsite lol every time we go away he manages to salvage something useful, so far hes dragged back a bike , scooter, skateboard and a barbque,

i have to admit we have only once had to abandon a tent has we had reallly bad wind and the tent was broken well beyond repair we didnt need to dismantle it the weather had took care of that, but we did put it in the skip. i felt so bad that there was nothing we could do to repair it.

my favorite tent is a older outwell hartford and omg the day that dies i will be mortified, every year i have it into my local camping shop to have any repairs done on it we call it its service, and could never get rid of it unless it was really really dead but its a good strong tent and well loved so hopefully it will never happen.

Quote: Originally posted by leesdna on 05/3/2011

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 we had reallly bad wind

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Quote: Originally posted by Tigermouse on 05/3/2011

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Quote: Originally posted by leesdna on 05/3/2011

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 we had reallly bad wind

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Better stop eating the beans then!

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