Quote: Originally posted by liatoby on 26/8/2006
i am still having trouble as i have never been camping and never put up a tent before.
Thanks
Hay don't panic, we all had to start somewhere.
Take a good look at the pic that Mags has posted and if you have time go to a camp shop to look at some tents to get an idea of typical construction. Here is a more detailed run through, starting from an assumption that you don't know much about tents.
So when you get the tent out and lay it out on the floor in front of you you need to work out which is the outer side as this will have fabric "tubes" that the poles go through - have this side uppermost. The poles are linked together with elastic so you just need to slot them together which is very easy to work out how to do. You will find 2 long ones that go diagonally over the top of the middle dome bit, and two shorter ones that hold out the bedroom areas to either side. There is often some colour coding to help match poles to sleeves.
When threading the poles, push them through as pulling them can mean that they separate inside the sleeve and are a b*gger to sort out then!
Once all 4 poles are threaded through and the fabric of the tent is distributed evenly over them, you need to lift the whole thing up, and then one person needs to hold up to centre where the 2 long poles cross. The other person needs to go round the outside fastening the pole feet down. This is usually a ring-and-pin system - a metal ring with a pin like a short tent peg on it. The pin goes inside the end of the metal collar (called a "ferrule") at the end of the pole. If there is not a ring-and pin then there will be an eyelet in the webbing that the pole end fits into. Given the design of this tent there will be 2 fastners as 2 pole feet attach at the same point.You can then peg the pole feet down by putting a peg through the ring.
There will be tension straps on the underside of the tent which are there to pull the poles up into the correct shape, so when you are pegging down the pole feet, do make sure that the zips are all closed and that the tent fabric and the tension straps are all taut and straight. Once that is done, then you need to follow these steps:
1. Peg out the bottom edge of the flysheet, making sure it is taut and even all round.
2. You should have bedroom pods that then go up inside at each end. These may clip at the bottom onto the same ring that the pole foot is attached to - on some cheaper tents there are just pegging loops and you have to peg the base of the bedroom down. The bedroom will need to be lifted up and attached to the inside of the tent, usually with a toggle and loop system which is easy to work out. Again there may be some colour coding to help you match up toggles to loops and get it all the right way.
3. There should be a groundsheet too - if this is small it will just cover the area between the 2 bedrooms, if it is bigger than that then it may in fact cover the whole "footprint" of the tent in which case it needs to go down before you put the bedrooms in.
4. There are guy ropes on the outside of the tent. These are there to provide essential stability, so they need to be pegged out - in general you place a guyrope so it lines up with the seams/pole it is attached to.
To be honest, if you are heading off to set up at a camp site there will be friendly neighbours who may offer help, cos none of us like to see newbies struggle. Good luck with it!
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Topic: HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!
lets hope i am smiling tomorow and not sleeping in the car!!! Thanks
