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Hi chaps,

Just joined your site and would like to say hello to you all.

Here's the story. We have been camping a few time last year with a tent of ebay. It was ok for a few trial runs but we all got the bug. We sold on the tent and got a bargin in the end of year sales in buy a Diablo 900. Made up with it. So we went away this weekend and all was well. On the Sunday we were packing the tent and the wind caught the flysheet and ripped the flysheet on our dogs anchor post. From then I went into depression and there is large L shape hole in the roof.

So what do I do????????

Thanks Paul 

Thanks for the reply. There is a small hole about the size of a 50p and the L is about a foot on each straight. Hope that makes sence.

Take it and see if you can get an estimate on repair.   However, I don't like to be the bearer of bad news, but when we got an estimate on our little frame tent it was around £80, when the tent had only cost £130.   Ours was mice damage, and as the sleeping pods had also been wrecked it wasn't worth it.

There seem to be various patches and tapes you can use to repair tents yourself - I've never used one but it might be worth a go to save your lovely new tent.

Look here for examples http://www.needlesports.com/acatalog/Mail_Order_Repair_30.html  MT

There is no worse place to rip a tent than the roof of the flysheet, sorry. That is where the rain falls straight on, obviously, plus the flysheet takes most stress from wind buffeting.It`s not something you can do yourself with any degree of sucess, not with the rip where it is.

Does your local camping shop not keep the address of a local tent repair place? If not, then Tent Valeting Services as Stewey says is your best bet. They are very highly thought of, and basically if they can`t mend your tent, it can`t be mended.

However....tent repairs don`t come cheap.It might not be worth your while, as Moonseeker says, depending on what you paid for the tent. You could try emailing Vango to see if they could sell you an older model flysheet, of course. Just make sure you know the correct year of manufacture. (On the instructions sewn into the bag, probably.)

If it proves to be too expensive and you have to bite the bullet and buy a new tent, then Ebay the old one. Even with a full and frank description of the damage, someone is sure to jump at the chance of a complete set of poles and non-mouldy inner tent for a Diabolo.

Thanks to you all. It looks like all might not be lost. I will do a bit of phoning round tomorrow.

Cheers Paul