We just got back from camping for the first time in a gigantic Gelert Zenith 8.
It was thunderstorming on the last day and still raining when we loosely rolled it away. The tent is much bigger than my tiny garden and at 8x5m is even bigger than the footprint of my house! Plus it’s meant to be raining on and off for the next week so how on earth am I meant to get it dry to pack it away so it can be used again. I’ll be gutted if it’s ruined on first use as it really is an amazing tent.
Your help and advice would be much appreciated 😩🙏.
have you got enough room to erect the central dome part? if so then just get that bit up and then put the poles in one bedroom section at a time, or failing that surely you can borrow a friends or relatives garden for a week or so? or do you have a garage where you could put up some washing lines to drape it from
We live in a duplex and our biggest tent is a canvas Dutch pyramid. We don't have a garden.
We have to drape it in a room and periodically turn it to let air at all the parts. A dehumidifier helps. It does dry but then it needs the two of us to fold it and pack it away.
The good thing about a synthetic tent is that they don't need to be folded perfectly to be put away. Just make sure the guy lines and zips are dry. The main material will dry quite quickly. In fact they can be stuffed away loosely if you don't mind a creased tent the next time you use it for the first night.
It is doable indoors.
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No attic then?
If you can drape it over the lounge furniture & keep opening out the folds, that’s how we used to dry our big canvas pyramid tent (footprint bigger than the MH). Put towels over the furniture if they might get damaged by damp.
Or if the sun comes (we have plenty today!), put it over the washing line, maybe pegging it out.
(No tent drying firms hereabouts, didn’t know such things existed!)
I have just enjoyed a couple of days of sharing my small front room with my wet Dutch Pyramid Tent. I put my stepladder inside it to create more height / bigger drying surface : footprint ratio and just keep rearranging the folds until it is dry. Then spread tarps on my v small lawn and I can roll it up from being folded in half.
At least my room smells of tent while this is going on and I can imagine I am still camping.
Even if I was thoroughly fed up after 3 days of rain when the forecast was hot sun.
My pets were not impressed when I tried to dry a 4-berth cotton canvas Dutch pyramid tent indoors on the sofa as it took up their favourite napping spots!
Not being able to dry a wet tent was one of the reasons why I switched to a van!
Good luck!
DK
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At the moment it’s spread out on my childrens trampoline getting even further wet as we’ve had torrential rain the past two days to top things off 😩😩😩. Tomorrow is meant to be dry so I’m going to try and rescue it and drape it over my banisters is the only thing I can think of doing.
Camping in the rain was a breeze compared to getting the thing dry when it’s rained ever since😳. Thank you for your advice everyone
oooooooooooo youve got a trampoline! leave it on there for a couple of days, the weather is meant to be getting better the next 3-4 days you should soon get it dry on that