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Hi Rick, sounds like a nice part of the British Isles. It's very flat here in Essex and we've got to travel to get some scenery, we're actually in a little place called Kirby Cross. My local dealer (Camperite) is about 20 miles away - but he holds a good range of stock so worth the visit for us.

Okeydokey on the tent - hope your weather improves, looks like we're hogging all the sunshine on the East coast.  

Hi Pete , I think i've worked out the problem (my boy and I have just put it up again). After putting it up the right hand side of the sig (looking at it from the porch) was up in the air by a good 7 or 8 centirmeters while the left hand side looked fine , if you had stood on the right hand side it would have ripped.

the problem by the looks of it is getting the material dead center on the center dome poles which is not as easy as it sounds ,  any incline on the ground has to be adjusted for    eg.... where we just put the tent up the ground was running downhill from front to back and at a slight angle from left(being higher) to right , only very slightly but it made a difference hence why it was pulling at the front right corner and not the back or left.

The only way to resolve this is to put the central dome up first and peg it down making sure the material is equal on the poles and pulled in the relevant direction to the lean on the ground , and then do the poles on the bedroom pods,

In the outwell video the tent is put up  on perfect flat ground hence no problems there, they don't seem to have allowed for any give to deal with any slight inclines in the ground

but this is only my opinion  

Hi Rick, yep that sounds about right. We have put the tent up on flat level ground and found the same issue albeit not as severe, but still raised at the front with the back flat to the ground. And that was with lifting and pulling the straps to bring the poles inwards. It looks to us like the SIG has been over-engineered in the corners to cope with the tension but that section of material or the pegging strap hasn't been adjusted when it was stitched. 

It's kinda of nice to know that it's not just the 2 tents we've had but that it looks to be a design feature. (Unless any other Maryland XL owners wander in with tales of a 'good' one). We still have a couple of options open to us with our dealer (under the warranty) - as he has accepted that it's not right as it is.

And of course the biggest problem is that we love the tent.

Thanks for doing this and hope the ground wasn't too wet.

Ahhh....that's perhaps a problem.  Both of the tents we've had have had the issue, albeit this second one is better. The first was probably like yours. My dealer wanted to see the tent up so we've put both of them up with him and he has accepted that it's not right. Unfortunately, it looks like they're all going to be like it. Did you pull the ring-n-pin strap of the central poles fully ? Because this did help pull the pole in and allow more material to drop.

We've agreed with our dealer that we'll use the tent and when appropriate let him know what we want to do. The biggest issue which he accepts is if it rips - but our camping trips (been on one, got another at the end of May) were too close to do anything about it other than get the replacement.

We did pull the straps pretty tight but I was a bit worried it was going to rip , but just talking to the OH about it , and we both seem to agree that when we put the tent up in the garden the first time the problem was not there ( if it was it wasn't as severe as it was this time )as nether of us noticed the problem

The other difference was when we put it up in the garden the tent was vertical on the slope but when we put it up in the park today it was horizontal on a lesser slope , the other thing we didn't do was pull the bedroom pods out to maximum tension in the garden , and I am now wondering if these factors make a difference.

I am going to put it up again tomorrow in the garden and see what happens. 

My OH has come in and I showed her your photo. The section it shows is as you enter the SIG, this is aok on our tent. It's the front left and right corners within the SIG as the porch meets the main tent which is where our problem lies. If you can picture that.

Good luck tomorrow.

I am going to set the pin strap lengths the same back and front  before we start today , and then make sure the dome material is central on the poles as we put it up .I am not going to pull the straps in this time because i think that is causing the problem .

 The material is already tight on the poles and by pulling the straps in you are forcing the poles upwards only making the material tighter , because the material is already tight on the poles it can't move so the only place it can give is on the front walls hence why the the ground sheet is being pulled up and making it rip

Does this make sense to you Pete .