I'm looking for some advice after packing away a very wet tent...
We just got back yesterday from a very wet (and muddy) New Forest camping trip. This was our first proper camping trip and so we're still learning things.
There was torrential rain the night before the de-camp - everything has got muddy and the tent didn't dry out before we packed it away - in fact it rained again as we were taking it down. Some rain got into the inside and the outside was quite wet when it was rolled up and stuffed in its bag.
Our garden is too small to pitch the tent in and so it might be a while before we can co-ordinate good weather and availability of a friend/relative with a big enough garden to pitch it.
It's a polyester tent. How long have I got before either damage is caused by leaving it wet or mould sets in ?
I wouldn't leave it more than a day or two. This is the worst part of camping...
We don't have a lawn big enough to pitch a tent on at the moment, so we need to lay the tent out as flat as possible, turning it to air it out once or twice a day. We used to have a house with a tiny yard and the tent would be laid out in my bedroom, over the bed and a couple of chairs!
I currently have a huge canvas tent in my boot from yesterday that might be dry enough, but I can't be sure. I need to clear a room tonight to sort it out.
One final thing to mention - Guy lines love to hold on to water and it can be enough to cause mold. Make sure they're dry as well.
Ditto guylines.
Some of us have them attached with cardboard and take them off before packing.
Air the tent. Even put it in the bath and keep turning it. We either pitch ours or put it in the garage draped over everything.
------------- Hypercamp Alaska
Vango Force 10 mk3
Vango F10 Helium 1
Coleman Cobra Pro 3
Coleman Cobra 2
Naturehike Star River 2
Eureka! Solitaire
Dutch army goretex bivvy bag
Quote: Originally posted by Ewen c on 30/5/2017
Some of us have them attached with cardboard and take them off before packing.
Personally, I would use carabiners rather than cardboard...
Yeah, the cardboard ones are rubbish in the wet
Luckily they are steel carabiners though the phone just tried to auto-correct to caraboners.
------------- Hypercamp Alaska
Vango Force 10 mk3
Vango F10 Helium 1
Coleman Cobra Pro 3
Coleman Cobra 2
Naturehike Star River 2
Eureka! Solitaire
Dutch army goretex bivvy bag
Thanks everyone for the feedback. It wasn't what I wanted to hear, but at least now I know !!
I was able to jury rig the porch on the patio yesterday and got that a lot drier than it was. I will do that again as soon as I can to make sure everything (including the guy lines and straps) are completely dry.
I also laid out the tent on the patio. It's too big to fully stretch out but I can at least expose most of it to the air at any one time and as suggested just move it around. I need to figure out a a way to prop up the inside as it really needs to air inside too, as there was some condensation and even rain got in whilst packing it away.
Also a quick apology - I did search to see if my question had been asked previously and didn't find anything - I hadn't spotted that the search defaults to 6 months - doh !!
Hope your tent dries soon! It is a pain, have had to pack a damp tent ourselves with not much room.
Based on that experience we now treat the lasts night of our holiday as a bonus and will pack up if rain is forecast overnight or following morning.
That's exactly what we did last week at the end of our Cornwall holiday. We only missed one sleep under canvas and still enjoyed a full day before leaving - an added benefit is that we could pack up at our leisure without a rush in the wet the following morning (and the late drive back meant avoiding the A30 traffic congestion!).
------------- Aug 2017 St Martins Campsite, Scilly
Jul 2017 Trewan Hall, Cornwall
Jun 2017 Higher Kestle Farm, Cornwall
Mar 2017 Pitch Perfect camping Bath
Aug 2016 Brittany/Normandy:-
La Ferme Croas Men (near Morlaix)
Le Ranolien (Ploumanac'h)
Le Bois Courdrais (Cugen)
Chateau de Montfreville (Montfreville)
The tent and porch are now fully dry and packed away, thanks to the good weather we have had this last week.
I was able to partially pitch the tent, basically by hanging it from its guy lines from such things as the gutters along my garage, the corner of the shed and trellis !! It was enough for me to crawl in with a hand held vacuum and suck up the bits of forest that had got inside but also enough for air to move around and dry off inside and out.
The last night before we came home from the camping trip we saw a family packing up at about 8:30pm and wondered why would anyone do that... then we figured out why at midnight when the thunderstorm hit and the rain hammered down. I reckon if given the opportunity we would probably do that too next time.
We've had a large canvas tent lying in the lounge many a time to dry!
Never leave it wet, packed up for more than 2 days.
I'm always paranoid until I know mines all dry and clean and back in it's bag, but luckily we have a big enough garden.