is it just us or when u go camping for over a week doesnt everything take on that damp feeling irrespective of the time of year? we keep all clothes etc in suitcases etc and most other stuff in sealed containers yet that good ol damp feeling still creeps in. any advice to prevent this? could it be the fact we dont have SIG at the mo?, getting new tent this year with one(RIP lichfield u served us well).
Every morning as soon as its light we open all doors and roll up all the mud flaps and secure and open all the vents ,open all the bedroom pods ,open all the sleeping bags and air the whole tent out ( we do all of this regardless of the weather ,except the doors are kept shut if raining heavily )
our lichfield doesnt have a vents, maybe thats the prob the tent isnt getting enough air? another question i must ask is how taught should the flysheet go in the sun, last year we noticed that when the sun was out the material went so taught it was like it was streched over a drum, then as soon as the sun went in it went so loose and saggy it was unbelievable, i used the tent for many years and had no probs like this. i know the flysheet taughtens in the sun, and loosen's in the shade but is what i described normal?
I know its time to bit adieu to good ol lichfield, but really feeling the loss! put him up the other day to check whether he could do a trip at easter; and the poor chap looked pathetic! last trip nearly killed him, broke most of his poles and even ripped the sleeves the poles go in to! we replaced all the broken stuff but he is still all distorted and out of shape. i feel its time to let him pass with dignity! but now left with the prob of no tent for easter and hadnt planned to upgrade till may so have no clue what to buy, looked at various tents online but cant decide which is the best! any thoughts?
We have SIG, and have never had this problem. Doesn't even happen when it's been raining (heavily), and we don't really air the tent out either. We have the Coleman Weathermaster (about 4 years old, so not most up to date model), and haven't really had any problems with it.
We looked at a lot of makes before buying our Coleman Trispace, but found the quality on some was woeful. In our opinion the quality on the Trispace was superb. The feel of the fabric, the thickness of the groundsheets, the poles etc; they all just added up to what was, in our opinion, a higher quality piece of kit. And it has more than proved its worth, after 18 months of ownership and 8 or 9 trips its still like new. Unfortunately its now a little cramped for our new addition (Baby Ewan whos 3 1/2 months old and growing fast). So we have bought a Outwell Montana 6, although I have to admit that the quality on the new tent is not on par with the Coleman.
I have noticed, when using those flock covered plastic airbeds, there is a slight dampness in the morning on top of the airbed, whereas no problem with the traditional red and blue rubberised cotton ones.
No SIG as such but Venture has that groundsheet under which you tuck mudflaps. Never had damp problem (condensation has occured but soon clears with ventilation)
Pixie, Colemans Weathermaster Plus and Sahara have SIGs, also the Michigan and Columbia but the latter two have fibreglass poles rather than the formers strong steel poles.
Am sure that Weathermaster is the American version though, noticed the measurements are in imperial where the other tents sold on that site are in imperial. It certainly looks different to the ones I've seen before, including mine. Remember if its designed for the US market its probably designed for US weather.
The old Litchfields did suffer quite badly with condensation. I had a 12-berth Litchfield Catalan 1200 (?) and it could be dripping inside in the morning. The Vango Colorado 1200dlx we replaced it with has no such problems, despite having a higher HH and being of a very similar design. The main difference is the Vango has lots of vents in the flysheet and one permenantly open one in each bedroom area. You can open the back and front doors and all the side window vents and the tent airs out in no time. If I recall correctly the Litchfield only had a vent in the top of the dome. Not really enough.
We don`t use the seperate groundsheet in the Vango any more than we did in the Litchfield, so I doubt it has anything to do with the condensation differences in the two tents. Airflow...that`s the difference.