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Hi, we have just brought the gelert meridian 10 and today attempted to pitch it to weatherproof it. Can any meridian 10 owners tell us the easiest way to pitch as we got in a bit of a muddle and could have done with more than 2 pairs of hands, thankfully it wasnt windy.

I have pitched my Meridian 10 single-handed four or five times.
My family and friends have a knack of arriving after the event!

The trick is to understand it structurally so that you're not fighting it.

Peg the two end corners of the groundsheet at the upwind end only. Don't peg any more of the base down! Slide the first pole through the first sleeve nearest that end.
Don't be tempted to let anyone "help" by threading any more poles! They weigh the tent down and impede progress.

Get the first pole onto its little pins and erect the first hoop. This is where you need the main part of the tent floppy so that it's not pulling against you. Don't be afraid to bunch it up towards the pegged end to help you with this.  At your erected end, peg down the two main guyropes which come off the vent flap at the end (temporary will do).This is just to stop the first hoop falling in towards the tent. The floppy weight of the tent will prevent it falling outwards.

Then move to the next pole/sleeve set and erect that. Don't peg anything else as you want constraints to the minimum.  Don't thread the next poles until the previous hoop is erected.Keep going that way until you get to the other end.  Then peg down (temp) the two guyropes at that end.

Now pull the tent to get the base taught and the tent positioned right.  Re-do the two groundsheet pegs at the first end to achieve this and peg down the other two corners. Peg them at the longest strap length then tighten the strap to tension the base.

Now you will realise that the Meridian is theoretically fully constrained and self-standing using only the four corners of the base (groundsheet)! You can unpeg the end guys and it stands up quite happily!  Of course, you now need to peg down all the guys because the shear area of the tent will catch the wind and needs to be braced fully. But it helps illustrate that the tent's structural design doesn't have any give-and-take so if you peg anything down too early, you will end up fighting against it.

Peg down the ends of the poles as the wind can make these dance about.  I use rubber bands looped round the end of the pole.  Don't forget the other points to peg down the base at the ends.

I strongly recommend getting a footprint groundsheet as it helps positioning and protects the tent from mud.  A B&Q cheapo tarp will do if you can't get a Gelert one.

Also, throw away most of the pegs and buy either the big 9" nail type or delta pegs if you want to be fancy.  The pegs which come with the tent are only any use for the mud valence. Don't be tempted to leave this unpegged as it can flutter in the wind and get damaged.  The waterproof coating starts to come away where it frays.

Rubber mallets are for poofs as they date back to wooden tent pegs which could split easily. Use a 3lb lump hammer for putting in and a claw hammer for taking out.

Peg the guys as far away from the tent as the tensioner adjuster and space constraints allow. I've seen bozos pegging them about three inches from the tent which is useless!

You don't need absolutely all of the side guys, but you should only leave out those which hamper moving about.

That's how I erect the Meridian on my own.  If you have help, obvious jobs are at each end of the pole threading operation.  "To you!"  "To me", and holding the hoops up for a few seconds, etc. Also to disentangle the individual poles ready for the next sleeve, and to help final pegging out.

Don't even bother straightening up the poles before threading. They're too long for that. Just unbundle them one section at a time as you're threading.

The last time I took mine down the wind was blowing furiously and I took off all the poles and guys leaving only the four corner pegs.  The tent stood up WITHOUT poles!  The wind was coming in the end vent enough to inflate it like a big bouncy castle!  Wierd!

Well, I hope I've explained it clearly enough. At least I know what I mean!

That is a really helpful guide, thank you.

Do you, or anyone else, have any guidance on the easiest way to erect and attach the porch, based on their experience?

My best tip for attaching the porch:

Get two of those oversize caribiner shackles from the Pound Shop.

Clip them to the end of the rear flap cord/straps.

Get the porch close to the front of the tent and throw the caribiner over the top.

It has sufficient weight to hold the cord until you can get round to the other side.

You can then clip them temporarily to a convenient tent guy to keep the over-tent-flap reasonably positioned while you erect and adjust the porch.

The pegging points adjacent to the front of the tent at ground level should be as close to the tent as possible as this is what allows the porch edges to hug the tent, in combination with the final tension on above rear-flap straps. Pull the tent back a few inches to help get the peg in here.

If you haven't yet purchased your porch, consider Royal Atlanta 6, 8 & Hampton 4 Extension. The Gelert porches have steel poles which are ungiving in the wind and gets scarily dynamic. The fibreglass poles of the Royal Extension have the same resilience in the wind as the Meridian tent itself. I think the Royal Extension also fits the Gelert Meridian better than the Gelert Porch.

Thank you, just what I wanted to know. We have it all new and not had the chance to put it up yet cos of the poor weather, so will have to risk it on Saturday!

Some people have said it takes as long as the tent to erect!