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Hi all,

We've just arrived back from our first trip with our new Oakland XL. We went to Northumberland and were subject to some serious wind and rain - but it held up very well.

We just have one question - How, the friar-tuck, do you up the thing up?!

The two of us tried for half an hour, and couldn't get the flipping thing up. In the end it took the lovely couple in the caravan next door (i.e. 4 of us) to get the tent upright.

We watched the Outwell video before we left, followed their instructions, but at the point where the two men casually pick the poles up and then fit the ring and pins, we were seriously struggling. OH was insistant, right down to when I showed him in the literature, that the poles were made of aulminium, not steel - which was a large part of the problem. It weighs a tonne!

Can anyone with experience suggest an alternative pitching method? Where have we gone wrong?

Many thanks in advance for your suggestions,

PauliesGirl xx (now with a serious back injury!)

Glad it is not just us then!  We too watched the video but could not get all the pins in whilst holding all the poles upright.  The trouble is on those videos they keep cutting away and don't show that they are just holding the end of pole and putting a pin in (at least that is what we reckon they did!).  We gave up in the end before we had to file for divorce . Luckily it was only a practice so we will have another go now that we have had time to calm down (and make up)

Post on here if you ever manage to find an 'easy way' to do it. 

Did anyone ever find a way to erect the Oakland Xl as easy as they make it look in the video ..... or without the need for a divorce lawyer? We purchased one 3 weeks ago (the 2010 model i think) and I'm with RTS5 ... the wife and I had 5 attempts to get this thing erected yesterday (the tent!!! ) and watched the video on a laptop each time afterwards. I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that the poles are too long for the flysheet as there is no way of getting the damn thing centered on those aluminium poles and getting the pins to slot into holes. It took me ages, was not centered, extremely taught to the degree of riskiging it ripping, the tent was 6 inches off the ground one side, and the adjustable straps holding the pins were very tight but at their maximum length to enable me to get the pins in the holes.

I'd be really interested and curious if anyone got a resolution to this.

Thanks, John.

Here is the link to the thread mentioned above.

http://www.ukcampsite.co.uk/chatter/display_topic_threads.asp?ForumID=32&TopicID=241669&SearchPagePosition=1&search=Oakland+XL&searchMode=allwords&searchIn=Topic&forum=32&searchSort=dateDESC&ReturnPage=Search