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Hi, I have been taken by this quick erect tent system, so much so that on thursday I went and purchased not 1 but 2 khyam tents following the struggle of putting our arizona up in the winds last season.

Anyway bought the Freelander for my son and I to go weekend camping. Put it up today in the garden, a doddle, took it down and repacked, a doddle. Cant wait now for the weather to get a bit better and then we are OFF!

Also bought a ridgipod classic with three pods at a bargain price. Watched the DVD this morning and read the instructions. Put the freelander away, got out the ridgipod and what a job to fully erect this monster size tent. The guy on the dvd must use tricks of the camera because no way could I get this tent up and sorted in 15mins as advised by the salesman (excluding pegging of course). Maybe after some practice I will get it right. Now I have packed it away and it is twice the size it started out as somehow?

Any way can any more experienced khyampers out there give any hints and tips on how to get this tent sorted in the time suggested on the DVD?

Also I hadn't seen one of these out of its bag, so I was surprised at the size, it is huge, thank goodness I didn't go for the excelsior model.
Thanks in advance for any help,

Johnny

Looked at them including Excel. on display last year, great looking tents, nice size too

Tents NEVER go back in the bag they came out of ! It`s one of the laws of the universe  Takes practice to get `em back anything like correctly. Same with erecting the thing for teh first couple of times.

we have just bought the xxl classic, and we pitched it for the first time today. I think there must be a knack to it as we struggled for about 20mins not getting anywhere then all of a sudden hubby was whizzing round and it was up in no time. 

I have to admit the instruction weren't great. and we had trouble with the bedroom poles as the just didn't seem to want to fit the way that they say they should. Still we managed in the end and it only took us about 45mins, including inners.(but not fully pegged) Hope to get much quicker with practise.

I'm sure someone will be along with some sound advice for us soon.

There is definitely a 'knack' to raising that central 'hub' once the arms have been unfolded. We were lucky in that the people at the shop we bought it from took us out to a field opposite the showroom to give us a go at putting it up and taking it down again. So we practiced until we were happy.

We have both the XXL and the Rigipod and I always feel that there is slightly less pegging with the larger Rigipod. And don't feel you have to peg everything. The main pegging points are the ones on the corners of the main arms, but for a short stay with a reasonable forecast I sometimes leave some of the smaller guys.

Regarding putting it back in the bag, there is no neat way to do it - just roll it up the best you can. We tend to pack the poles separately - it gives more room in the bag, makes the bag much lighter to carry, and gives you more flexibility with packing the tent in the car.

Thanks for all the replies. Nice to hear of another new khyamper having a go yesterday.
In reallity I would never expect to get the tent pitched in such short period of time and as andy said its no race as I think pitching the tent is also part of the enjoyment of arriving at camp.
I am really pleased though that the main poles are already attached to the outer sheet, as that is what stopped my wife going camping last year when we struugled at easter trying to thread the poles through our arizona tent  flysheet in the wind. I can see that this will be a great help.
Once up I think it looked superb and have just booked a long weekend downsouth for a family trip and can't wait now.
I do think that there is deffinately a knack to this Q/E system and it takes a little getting used to, but don't all new tents!

Anyway thanks again and keep those hints and tips coming:)

Cheers

i think the beauty of the khyam (xl in our case) is that you can get the basic structure up very quickly and then take your time over the guy thingies because it isn't going to fall over.

we have just bought the annexe :)