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Subject Topic: Help with bell tent Post Reply Post New Topic
03/8/2016 at 1:06pm
 Location: colchester
 Outfit: Bell tent NR7 kitchen
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Hi all, we bought a new bell tent and went camping a couple of weekends ago. We had a bit of rain and it was waterproof. Only thing is no matter how hard we pull the ZIG we still can't get the ground sheet flatt. Not the part that stands up about 75mm the actual ground sheet it's self. I've been on to the seller and they say from our photos they can't see anything wrong. But i think the ground sheet is too big that's why it can't be pulled flat.
Has anyone else had this problem or is it just us.
Never had problems getting our Palamos 6 ground sheet flat.
Thank you for your replies
Steven.


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03/8/2016 at 7:30pm
 Location: Aberdeenshire
 Outfit: Several tents and a hammock
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That's really odd. Was the ground uneven?

I peg out my groundsheet on its own and then zip on the canvas and have no problems. You could maybe try that? It should be easy enough to get the groundsheet taut if you do it that way. Whether the canvas then fits the groundsheet is another question of course!

-------------
Sarah


03/8/2016 at 8:46pm
 Location: Bala
 Outfit: None Entered
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Can you post the pictures please.


04/8/2016 at 5:03am
 Location: colchester
 Outfit: Bell tent NR7 kitchen
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Sorry I sent loads of photos to the seller as though as I wouldn't need them after that deleted them. We went to Breck farm in Norfolk, the farmer there always keeps the grass short. The ground was even, like I said have been on to the seller about it and now I get the feeling they don't want to know. Which is really annoying they have had my £539 I'm sure there was nothing wrong with that, their after sales service isn't good. I pulled the sheet as hard as I dared as I didn't want to rip off the pegging points. We have what looks like a gutter running round inside tent where ground sheet is too big, on their website pictures you can see the pegging reinforcing patch from inside but ours are hidden by the hidden ground sheet. Can't get ours to go flat and really don't know what to do, thing that really annoys me is how much people on here said how good the customer service was, but their after sales service is not so good once they have your money.
Steven.


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04/8/2016 at 8:29am
 Location: Kent
 Outfit: 5m Bell Tent & Olpro Pop Tent.
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This is about the only pic I can find showing how our groundsheet looks. It doesnt lay flat to the ground, and I wouldnt want it to. Having the plastic going in a curve (bath tub) helps keep the canvas off the ground and keeps it clean and stops the canvas touching the wet grass.




I know the footprint on this pic is sticking out too far. It was just a trial pitch in the garden.


Found this one as well. Our 1st attempt.





Post last edited on 04/08/2016 08:34:07


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04/8/2016 at 4:23pm
 Location: colchester
 Outfit: Bell tent NR7 kitchen
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Quote: Originally posted by geoffprinter on 04/8/2016
This is about the only pic I can find showing how our groundsheet looks. It doesnt lay flat to the ground, and I wouldnt want it to. Having the plastic going in a curve (bath tub) helps keep the canvas off the ground and keeps it clean and stops the canvas touching the wet grass.




I know the footprint on this pic is sticking out too far. It was just a trial pitch in the garden.


Found this one as well. Our 1st attempt.





Post last edited on 04/08/2016 08:34:07



Hi sorry not explaining my problem correctly, I'm not talking about the outside the outside is fine. Our problem is inside. Inside we have excess ground sheet. With the pegging points pulled really tight the ground sheet the part you walk on is not pulled tight, there's so much it has what looks like a gutter round the inside. Been on to the supplier and they say it looks normal to them, but the bathtub we have look more shallow than from the inside because there is so much loose ground sheet.
I'm thinking I'll put this b£##£y thing up Saturday and take a load of photos.


Steven


05/8/2016 at 5:00am
 Location: colchester
 Outfit: Bell tent NR7 kitchen
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Hi geoffprinter,
Inside your tent can you recall how flat the ground sheet is, our bell tent is same as yours. Can you get yours as flat inside as the one pictured on their website? Because we can't get ours smooth inside like that. It's not the grass underneath because we put a footprint down first and that helps flattens the grass.


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05/8/2016 at 5:05am
 Location: colchester
 Outfit: Bell tent NR7 kitchen
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Quote: Originally posted by tentfluff on 05/8/2016
Hi geoffprinter,
Inside your tent can you recall how flat the ground sheet is, our bell tent is same as yours. Can you get yours as flat inside as the one pictured on their website? Because we can't get ours smooth inside like that. It's not the grass underneath because we put a footprint down first and that helps flattens the grass. Also the elastic rings you have photoed in your pictures I was told by them that you only ever peg them down if the weather is really bad. I don't know that the first time we pitched ours but I unplugged them as it made our tent look worse.






05/8/2016 at 5:07am
 Location: colchester
 Outfit: Bell tent NR7 kitchen
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Quote: Originally posted by tentfluff on 05/8/2016
Quote: Originally posted by tentfluff on 05/8/2016
Hi geoffprinter,
Inside your tent can you recall how flat the ground sheet is, our bell tent is same as yours. Can you get yours as flat inside as the one pictured on their website? Because we can't get ours smooth inside like that. It's not the grass underneath because we put a footprint down first and that helps flattens the grass. Also the elastic rings you have photoed in your pictures I was told by them that you only ever peg them down if the weather is really bad. I don't know that the first time we pitched ours but I unpegged them as it made our tent look worse.










05/8/2016 at 5:08pm
 Location: Kent
 Outfit: 5m Bell Tent & Olpro Pop Tent.
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Simple answer is no we cant get ours dead flat and smooth, and neither can anyone else that I have seen,or seen pictures of. Remember the ground sheet on the Bell is really thick compared to some of the thin ones you get on a "normal" tent. Its not square or rectangular, but almost round so its almost impossible to get it taught all round I would have thought. Heres a few pics of ours and some of the floor coverings we use. I have to say its never been a big issue for us.



With just rugs, this is as smooth as we can get it.



We have made a couple of carpets to fit the whole area,1st one is a cheap cord exhibition carpet, cut to size



This one is made out of Removal firms blankets sewn together really light so not recommended if you have kids as it does move around a bit.



Is this the sort of effect you are getting?



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05/8/2016 at 7:16pm
 Location: colchester
 Outfit: Bell tent NR7 kitchen
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Have been emailing Karma canvas and they are telling me that it looks normal to them and don't see my problem. We get what looks like a gutter affect round the inside of ours it drives me nuts. So you are saying it's normal, there all like it. I thought we had a faulty one, I've been back and forth with emails driving Andrea up the wall. We had a Palamos 6 before and we always had no problem getting it flat.


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15/8/2016 at 10:04pm
 Location: Norfolk
 Outfit: 5m bell tent & Vango Peace tepee
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Hi Tent fluff, have you tried unpegging the groundsheet once up and adjusting the groundsheet and re pegging it? Also are you pegging the groundsheet and the elastics together? I know some people do this, some peg separately and some (me!) rarely peg them as I don't like the canvas so close to the ground. We had a tiny leak once through the zip by not doing this but rake was torrential and the flap was up not down. We've had our Karma canvas tent for nearly 5 years now and other than changing the guy ropes for polyhemp and replacing the pegs with storm pegs had no trouble at all.



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