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Hi, am hoping someone can help. We took down two 6 man tents yesterday in the pouring rain, needless to say they were both drenched, and as they're both inner pitch first, the insides were as wet as they fly sheets :-(

Both layers ended up being folded up on a mixture of grass and mud and I was wondering if people had experience of cleaning tents in this state? Would it be better to wash the mud off before they really dry on (obviously no detergent) or better to wait until they're dry and brush off?

We've hopefully got a window of good weather so our inner is on the line drying as I type!

Cheers everyone

Quote: Originally posted by RTS5 on 27/8/2011

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Or you could put it up in all this rain and let is wash off!

Then let it dry and pack it away.

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That is a very good idea. The weather is a good cleansing agent. I haven't had to wash my car in weeks!!

In all seriousness, lots of marks and stains on tents can simply be ignored and in many cases the weather, hot or wet, will take care of them by washing/bleaching and sterilising (if we ever get any sun that is)...and a bit of muck on a tent makes you look like an experienced camper rather than a newbie.

Quote: Originally posted by joaquinfan on 27/8/2011

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Like the idea of leaving a bit of dirt Bob

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I can remember the very first time I had a brand new posh tent (probably wouldn't be posh by todays standards) and set it up on the campsite. Everything went smoothly. No mishaps. I sat down outside like a seasoned camper with a well earned cuppa feeling chuffed with myself when another chap stopped for a natter. One of the first things he said was, 'New to camping then? My bubble burst! 'Why?' I asked. 'Because that's the first time your tent has seen daylight isn't it?

Now, whenever I have a new tent I feel like a newbie until it's picked up a bit of dirt

for nexttime maybe a footprint would help then you can fold up tent on that and only have the base of the footprint to clean?? weve got the 900XP with footprint but previously had 600 without footprint so know what its like.
Just a suggestion as we have one now for this tent and has made cleaning easier.
Try folding inner in half making all inner material on the inside and base on outside so all mud on outside??

Or keep a groundsheet for rolling at end of hols

The usual technique with folding tents is wet to wet, dry to dry, dirty to dirty etc. This can be hard work with a big tent but it's worth making the effort, especially if there's a lot of mud. A footprint make a huge difference when trying to do this and of course a footprint can just be flung over the washing line and hosed off.

I'd just get your tents dried out though, brush off as much dried mud as possible and leave them.  few stains never hurt anyone but you can damage tents by over enthusiastic rubbing and cleaning.