Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => Camping It Up => Topic started by: Valiant on 18 July, 2008, 10:41:38 pm
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Heylo,
I have a Vango Beta 450 tent, and I'm gonna go camping inna couple of weeks if I'm up for it physically, trouble is I've never pitched a tent before. Anytime I've been camping before I've always borrowed a Quechua tent which is one of those ones you chuck in the air and it makes itself in 2 seconds, then you just peg it down.
How difficult is a Vango tent to pitch up?
(http://www.worldoftents.co.uk/images/large/Vango_Beta450_LRG.jpg)
Like that only in Red & Black init.
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Try www.vango.co.uk/products/documents/2008/Beta%20250,%20350%20&%20450%20.doc
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With our vango tent - nothing like yours, 3 poles in the inner & 1 in the fly it's really pretty easy. Just bung all your poles together, see how the sizes go, and it should be pretty obvious.
Just hope it's not raining and not trying to do it in a real hurry!
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Genius! Sounds easy enough! Trouble is where to give it a test :( Live in the middle of the city :(
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Genius! Sounds easy enough! Trouble is where to give it a test :( Live in the middle of the city :(
The day I came back with Butterfly's tent, I cleared a space in the front room and pitched it. 'Twas a doddle.
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Treat it like a Video Recorder!
Pay the kids in the next door tent a couple of quid to set it up for you!
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Genius! Sounds easy enough! Trouble is where to give it a test :( Live in the middle of the city :(
The day I came back with Butterfly's tent, I cleared a space in the front room and pitched it. 'Twas a doddle.
Slight issue there, the tent is 5x3m and my living room is 5x6 with furniture
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Either go to a local park/piece of waste ground and practice, or borrow a mate's garden.
It looks big, by the way - how many of you are staying in it?
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Sam: that kind of tent takes poles which are packed small by folding. You have to unfold the poles, then push them through the tent - you see the poles curving over the top of the tend, they go into a sleeve which holds them in. If the poles are different lengths then you'll need to make sure you select the right one for each slot.
Put the pole in carefully as you want to avoid ripping the fabric. Also take care not to pull the pole sections apart as you do so.
The tent might have a separate ground sheet. I tend to keep mine attached to the tent so the whole thing just gets laid out then assembled. The other thing to do, is before you start putting it all together, put a couple of tent pegs in first, at the upwind end, and attach the tent to those. This stops it blowing away while you try to work out what the hell this little part is for.
Once the poles are in, you go round putting the rest of the pegs in and tightening everything. Easy.
YMMV, but I didn't find it hard with my tent.
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Two in comfort lol. One of the main reason I got it was that the trike or a couple of uprights will fit in the porch lol
Thanks Maladict(a), having recapped the contents, all the poles are colour coded with sleeves :)
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These ones are easy - get the right poles in the right places, then just start pegging. The worst that can happen is you peg it out a bit lopsided. And although purists would be horrified, I tend to be quite happy with lopsided tents.
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These ones are easy - get the right poles in the right places, then just start pegging. The worst that can happen is you peg it out a bit lopsided. And although purists would be horrified, I tend to be quite happy with lopsided tents.
Well, we are all naturally a bit lopsided, are we not? ::-)
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I definitely hang to the right.
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all the poles are colour coded with sleeves :)
Should be a piece of piss then!
Instead of a ground sheet we bought a large sheet of thin foam - think of a parsimonious karrimat - from Pennine Outdoor (JFGI) I think.
Tis a great store for people who can sew and make things (which unfortunately I can't) but they have all sort of useful stuff....
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Genius! Sounds easy enough! Trouble is where to give it a test :( Live in the middle of the city :(
You can come and practice at ours - we only live 170 miles away ;D
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Genius! Sounds easy enough! Trouble is where to give it a test :( Live in the middle of the city :(
The day I came back with Butterfly's tent, I cleared a space in the front room and pitched it. 'Twas a doddle.
Slight issue there, the tent is 5x3m and my living room is 5x6 with furniture
That's not a tent! It's a f***ing mobile knocking shop! :P
I have an old Ultimate Peapod which is the same Tunnel design, though smaller.
As an educated guess....
Make sure all zips are closed.
Find the elastic loops at one end. Put pegs through them into the ground at approx a 45 degree angle. ( peg the tent parallel to the wind direction!)
Assemble the poles and carefully insert them into the sleeves. They will be different lengths, so work out what goes where. You may need to locate the ends of the poles in grommets at the end of each sleeve.
Pull the fabric taut and insert the pegs at the other end. Tent should now be standing up, but may be a bit flappy.
Find the guylines (red cords in the picture) unravel these and pull them out at 90 degrees from the tent. Peg them out, they will have sliders or friction toggles so you can adjust the tension. You want them (and the fabric of the tent) taut.
Unzip the door, if the inner tent is not permanently attached to the outer then now is when you attach it, usually by hooks/loops or velcro straps. peg out the floor of the inner so it is flat & wrinkle free.
Open beer, drink, relax in the admiring gaze of your lady companions and those of us who are not blessed with The Mojo...
Have Fun. ;D
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Funnily enough, I have just bought the Beta 250 in the same design and colours. I haven't got round to pitching it yet, although I am taking it on camp next Saturday.
Should be pretty easy to pitch - poles first as Maladict says, then start pegging out corners. The inner hangs off the fly. Apparently you can pitch both at the same time, but it looks as though that's harder so don't bother.
The inner will have a sewn-in groundsheet. There's a separate groundsheet for the "lobby" area. That's usually best half folded back so you can walk in with wet shoes and take them off under cover. If you're storing bikes, you probably won't want it at all.
When are you first using it?
Detailed instructions are available from Vango (http://www.vango.co.uk/products/pitching.aspx).
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Next Saturday in Huntingdon
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Next Saturday in Huntingdon
Which Site?
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Choose a flat place if you can. If you have to pitch on a slope try to have your feet at the bottom.
Pitch the tent so that it is not side-on to the wind.
Check the area for poo & stones before pitching.
:thumbsup:
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Next Saturday in Huntingdon
Which Site?
I dunno lol
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Definitely worth practising before you get to use it in earnest. Not least to check you have the right number of pegs.
LMM was kind enough to let us use her garden last time we had a new tent. :)
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You're free to come and use my lawn if you want to practise :D
Am only just Sarf of the River.
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I would second Clarions comments. It's not a matter of life or death, just convenience. It you have pitched it before it just makes life simpler. Or to put it another way, if you don't want to fall out with your camping partner before you even have the tent up then practice pitching it first. ;D
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I've got a Vango Spirit, which is very similar...
Tip 1: If the inner is detachable, detatch it completely and pitch the outer first. Hook the inner back into place once the outer is up. They get tangled up otherwise.
Tip 2: Unless you are up a gale-lashed mountain, those tents don't need the guy ropes at all. Untie them before you go and keep them separate in a little bag for emergencies.
Tip 3: There might be some diagonal internal straps. These are needed at hurricane level winds only. Wrap them up with a rubber band and keep them out of the way.
Tip 4: These tents are really easy to pitch... the second time you try it. :thumbsup:
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Whats the outer? Is that the top bit? lol
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Whats the outer? Is that the top bit? lol
Cripes. ::-)
The inner is the little "room" made of lightweight white material with a zippy door and a groundsheet. It is completely soundproof, so don't worry if you snore or enjoy noisy sex.
The outer is the outside dark nylon bit.
The poles are long and thin.
The pegs are short and thin and shiny.
The guy ropes are for falling over on the way to the loo.
The zips are free-running masterpieces of space-age engineering which only ever jam solid when you are gagging for a pee.
Enjoy!!!
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I would second Clarions comments. It's not a matter of life or death, just convenience. It you have pitched it before it just makes life simpler. Or to put it another way, if you don't want to fall out with your camping partner before you even have the tent up then practice pitching it first. ;D
Don't!
There is a perverse pleasure in sitting outside your tent with a few beers watching someone with a new tent - You will only spoil the entertainment value!
Or is that just being evil!
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Whats the outer? Is that the top bit? lol
Cripes. ::-)
The inner is the little "room" made of lightweight white material with a zippy door and a groundsheet. It is completely soundproof, so don't worry if you snore or enjoy noisy sex.
The outer is the outside dark nylon bit.
The poles are long and thin.
The pegs are short and thin and shiny.
The guy ropes are for falling over on the way to the loo.
The zips are free-running masterpieces of space-age engineering which only ever jam solid when you are gagging for a pee.
Enjoy!!!
Damn, tents are quite advanced these days. The only non 2second tent I've used was basically a dark green bedsheet with ground tarp and alu poles that push into eachother. Now you get two tents in one?
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Tents are a lot lot simpler than they used to be when you had to scrabble about with flappy canvas and a load of big poles. The outer was (sometimes still is) known as a flysheet, and had to be thrown over and pegged down separately. Now most tents allow you to keep the inner hooked in when you fold it up again, making the pitch really quick.
Go camping. Chill. Enjoy it.
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Buy a bag of extra tent pegs. You always loose / bend some or they don't provide enough. I am a bit anal about pegging my tent down though, perhaps this is due to the fact that most of my camping these days is done in Northumbria or the Lake District and we seem to be guaranteed one storm every time we go.
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Good advise :)
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Most tents come with extra pegs now anyway. Take care putting your pegs in and pulling them out, and you should only bend the very occasional one. Clean & straighten between trips.
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Count up how many pegs your tent needs and travel with n + 2.
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Most tents come with extra pegs now anyway. Take care putting your pegs in and pulling them out, and you should only bend the very occasional one. Clean & straighten between trips.
Except if you're on tour for a couple of weeks moving at least once every two days carrying a few spares is then essential.
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Even if you take enough your friends never do and if you have spares you can be gracious. Camp sites always charge a fortune for extra pegs.
I like a sections of your normal cheapo steel skewers plus some of these (http://www.camping-online.co.uk/TENT-PEGS/GROUND-HOG-STEEL-TENT-PEGS-17.8CM.html) and these (http://www.simplyhike.co.uk/ProductDetails.aspx?StockID=35021) for the most important guy ropes depending on conditions. The yellow ones hold well in damp ground and the green ones are ace in more rocky ground where normal pegs just bend.
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That's true. It's amazing the number of people who go camping without enough pegs ::-)
Worth saying: Make sure you have a peg on everything on your tent (including every guyline, despite what a lot of folk say) before you lend any out. You never k now when the weather's going to turn, and your friend is unlikely to want to return any loaned pegs in a gale at 2am.
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The other thing to remember is that pegs don't go in vertically. They go in at an angle leaning away from the tent.
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A thread called "pitching a tent" has reached three pages without being moved to NSFW?
Tsk. You just can't get the smutmeisters these days ::-)
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I see something in your pants that can't be real
don't hold back, baby, tell me what's the deal
i gotta move in closer and cop a feel
oh my, you got something with mass appeal
the tent so big in your pants, baby
the tent so big in your pants
if there's a housing crisis there ain't anymore
need a place to go, you gotta open the door
wanna save the night, pull up a floor
wanna feel alright, party galore
How's that?
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What will my neighbours think? ::-) ;D
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hehe
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How do you drive your peg home then? I prod the peg into the ground at approximately 45 degrees. place the toe of my boot upon it and push with enough force to get it to sink into terra firma!
I have noticed people with mallets, and one guy with what looked and sounded like a nail gun. Me? I just put my foot into it! ;D
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Depends on the ground. Foot or plastic mallet.
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How do you drive your peg home then? I prod the peg into the ground at approximately 45 degrees. place the toe of my boot upon it and push with enough force to get it to sink into terra firma!
I have noticed people with mallets, and one guy with what looked and sounded like a nail gun. Me? I just put my foot into it! ;D
Some years ago, I arrived at a sailing event in Brighlingsea and asked the steward at the bar if there was somewhere that I could pitch my tent. He pointed to the end of the car park and told me I could put my tent up near the fence. I got the tent ready to put up and tried to put the first peg into the ground, only to find that I was trying to put the tent up on solid concrete with fine gravel over the top. Not to be put off by this, I got my rechargable hammer drill out if the car and drilled some holes into the concrete, then used two and a half inch x eight wood screws and Rawlplugs instead of pegs. When I went back to the bar for a drink the steward was finding it hard to keep a straight face as he asked me if I had managed to pitch my tent OK. I had the last laugh as I told him I hadn't had any problems. ;)
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How's that?
Much better.
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How do you drive your peg home then?
With metal pegs, I tend to take the view that, if I can't put it in by hand, it's run up against a stone, and hitting it will just bend the peg. I move it a couple of inches and try again instead.
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More bent pegs are caused by people trying to push them in with their boots (on their feet) than any otehr way, I reckon. Most places you can just shove the damn things in by hand far enough. Remember you gotta get 'em out again.
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That could be true Clarion but I tend to wand my pegs driven home rather than sticking up 2 or 3 inches and popping out or worse, catching your exposed pinkies when you pop out in your sandals for a wee small hours pee ... :)
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If you drive them home you'll have to pull them out by the guys. You're not supposed to walk over guys so projecting pegs shouldn't be an issue.
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Indeed but I'm nearly blind (literally, esp in the dark), often slightly drunk when camping, and a right clumsy oaf. Having said that it's not me who does the toe-stubbing and relations can get strained when it happens ... ;)
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I think PB makes a good case, but yeah - generally, if you're walking over your guylines, you're too drunk.
Our guys are reflective. Works well.
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So after speaking to Notsototalnewbie, a fairly last minute gathering was arranged with myself, and Clarion who came down to drop of his stove and show me how the big boys do it. Jane was also there dropping off some shoes.
So, apparently the tent packs quite small, but is somewhat heavy though still managable at just over 7kg (incl bag and pegs) according me scales. It went up quick and fast, it us about 15 minutes, that includes a lot of tea drinking and Clarion explaining how to do things and whats what and not to mention the separate groundsheet and inner. It all went smoothly and was idiot proof :) the pegs are decent sturdy stuff and there was even a few spare. It was fecking huge though. Easily fit about 6 bikes in the porch maybe more, or even 15 girls with the other five in the sleeping area hehe. Seriously though, it's quite large and I can almost stand up in it :) There be pockets in the inner room, dual doors, two windows with shades and loadsa vents :) Not a bad tent.
We left the groundsheet/inner attached so next time round it'll probably go up quicker than the stated time of 10mins.
PS - It's all black and red :D
Thankyou to Clarion for your help and the stove/gass and thanks to Notsototalnewbie for the venue and teas and biscotti :)
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More bent pegs are caused by people trying to push them in with their boots (on their feet) than any otehr way, I reckon. Most places you can just shove the damn things in by hand far enough. Remember you gotta get 'em out again.
But, the reason you're using your foot is because the ground is so hard, so if you can easily get it in the ground with your hands, then it won't bend, it's only when it's hard work that you use your feet and things can then go wrong... (iyswim)
I'll use my feet occasionally, if the ground is very dry and hard, carefully and allowing for rocks. If I'm camping from the boot of a car, I've got a small rubber mallet that makes life easier. To get the pegs out, you only need to get one peg out, turn it around and use it as a puller to get the others out.
The important thing is to pull them out systematically, so you don't leave one in the ground. Both aluminium and titanium pegs are remarkably difficult to see against the ground (my new titanium ones have orange painted heads to aid finding them).
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Sam - glad you feel confident with your new tent now. I didn't want to patronise, but there was a lot to mention.
It's a good tent - and excellent for a long stay somewhere, given the space inside. Bit big for cycle camping, I'd say, but people do it with bigger/heavier ones!
Tim - that's all good advice. But if the pegs aren't going in straight, it's better to get down on your knees and use some hammering device, cause you can see when it's starting to bend. I always go for the systematic peg pulling (and I've taught Sam the same ;) ). Worth mentioning that the person before you on a pitch may not have been so careful, so check your pitch for stray pegs before you lay your tent out. I once tore a groundsheet courtesy of a forgetful previous camper leaving a peg behind :(
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I'd have had more than biscotti on hand if I'd know we were making quite such an evening of it, and fed you properly! Unfortunately I have not been home much lately so didn't have much food to hand.
You can come again when I get my tent for Mildenhall (after payday)! ;D But I'm getting a significantly more dinky one than the Lurve Shack Sam had.
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The Mobile Temple of Mojo TM is a very different beast from the tents we mere mortals use. ;D
Biscotti is goooood, as is tea ;)
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:P I'm sure I could arrange a slightly smaller tent too ;)
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Worth mentioning that we have tents we can loan to those who might not want to buy one, NSTN :)
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Thank you Clarion, but as I plan on getting into this camping thing a bit more I should probably get my own. Lusting after a super-light one. My bank manager probably wouldn't agree, but never mind. :)
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Super light isn't always better. My super light one is more complex to pitch than my big one, and a lot more flimsy. I have to be very careful with it, since the material isn't half as rugged, even the groundsheet feels noticeably thinner. Of course you never wear shoes inside even a moderately lightweight tent.
Of course it also weighs <900g, so it does have some advantages over the 3kg Ultra Quasar!
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Yay! Speak to Butterfly for tent-buying advice :)
Edit: What TimO says about superlight. Make sure you have enough porchspace, and that it's not a fiddle or flimsy. Those are the compromises you make going beyond a certain point in weight-weenie-ing.
But there are loads of tents that would suit...
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I quite liked the look of the Laser one wot Liz had when we were fleeing the Zombies. I would go for a quality one from the outset, I think, rather than fiddling about with an Argos special.
You know my feelings on hills etc. I want something well under 2kg, closer to 1.5kg. I am willing to be careful with something flimsier if this means I get to lose a kg or two on them lumpy things.
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I love my Wild Country Ultra Quasar (now made by Terra Nova), but it's a bit heavy at 3kg or so. It's a dead easy tent to pitch, and you don't actually need to peg it down (other than to keep the porch away from the inner door). I've moved it in the past without taking it down, because of it's geodetic shape, you can just pick the entire thing up! I can also sit up in it without hitting my head on the roof, which is not true of many small tents.
On the other hand, the Terra Nova Laser Photon is a bit fiddlier to put up (you do have to think a bit about the pegging), but you really can't beat it on weight (790g). It was also a bargain at £200. Supposedly it holds the world record from The Guiness Book of Records for the worlds lightest tent, although this does require the use of their stupidly light and flimsy ultralightweight titanium 1g pegs! (http://jakal.sp.ph.ic.ac.uk/~timo/blog/index.php?entry=entry080627-182327) Needless to say, I've replaced them by a slightly more rugged tent peg. Aside from that though the tent is quite practical, if a little more compact than the Quasar.
I haven't used the Laser in anger yet, so can't comment on exactly how well it works, but it seems a competent design. The non-Photon versions of the Laser are probably a bit more rugged, and also have a bit more space (ie the Laser is quoted as being 2 person, whereas the Laser Photon and Competition are meant to be 1+ person which is possibly a bit optimistic, unless you're very good friends!)
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I've just been pitching my Beta 250 in the garden. Worth doing - some tweaks I hadn't seen before, and there could have been a bit missing. Not quite sure about the porch being big enough for a bike, but I'm not taking one next week :'(
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There's quite a good choice of lightweight tents available now, much better than 4 or 5 years ago.
All tent choice is about finding a compromise between weight, price, space, robustness (both in terms of not blowing down, and in terms of not wearing out too quickly), ease of pitching, packed size, and doubtless other factors too.
It's probably best to start a separate topic, but questions you should think about include...
Are you likely to want to accommodate a second person?
What sort of weather do you anticipate? Weekend camping, you can just not go if it looks horrid, but if you go off for 2 weeks moving on every day you have to take what comes. You may end up having to pitch the tent in strong wind and/or rain. If the latter, you may wish to avoid inner first pitching and throw-over flysheets.
Is there room for all your pannier in the porch?
Is there room to cook in the porch? (sometimes it's either that or eat/drink cold).
There are often two weights quoted for tents: packed weight and minimum weight. Packed weight includes the tent bag(s), pegs and guys, but may or may not include other things supplied, like spare pole sections, instructions, seam sealant. Minimum weight is the inner tent, outer tent, and poles. It does not include bags, pegs or guylines (often left behind or swapped for different ones).
A lot of the American lightweight tents have inners that have large areas of mesh. Coupled with outers that don't come right to the ground they can be quite cold. Nicer if it's hot though.
If you go too lightweight, you may find yourself taking a groundsheet protector, which rather negates the point of an extra light tent.
FWIW, I use a Hilleberg Akto.
It's much the same in layout as the Laser Competition or Photon, but hasn't been slimmed down to the same extent so it's heavier at 1.5kg. On the other hand I trust it to at least 40-50mph wind, and I can put it up in 30mph nearly as quick as I can in good weather. It also allocates a little more space to the porch, so I can keep 4 Ortliebs and cook under cover at the same time.
To my mind the lighter Lasers have been slimmed down too far, so convenience features like door tie-backs and extra sliders on the zips for top-down unzipping have gone. There's also the 1g pegs that anyone not racing will immediately swap for proper ones.
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We used the MSR Velo in France recently when we were following the Tour (in the car).
The massive porch was really useful in Brittany when it kept raining on and off - with a bit of slouching we could both sit in there in our folding chairs while we sipped our G&T. However, the flysheet was always soaking in the morning and had to be packed separately - even when it hadn't rained overnight.
At over 4Kg it's a tad heavy for cycle camping solo but when the two if us go again, it'll be worth it for the extra space.
I'm looking forward to trying my Quechua Ultralight T2 Pro (snappy name eh?) at the end of August. It pitches really quickly (outer first or with inner attached) is just about big enough for 2 as long as you know (or intend to) each other well and cost £70. Oh and it weighs 2Kg and packs down small.
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How difficult is a Vango tent to pitch up?
I have a Vango Equinox 4 which is the same as the 350 baby version of yours.
Very easy to set up. Make sure all the doors are closed. Check all the tension is off the flysheet straps.
Put the poles in, Peg out the back end. Walk forward and pull up the rest of the tent. Peg out the front of the tent. Make sure all the poles are in line on each side and peg down.
Dont put too much tension on the cross bracing straps inside.
For those interested my Equinox 4 (350) has been used 3 times and is for sale
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My my this brings back memories. Pretty much a season pro these days lol. Tent still looks brand new despite having gone out to tens of festivals and camp meets. Starting to realise that it might be a little big after all but hey that has it's upsides and downsides.
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We has a vango beta 35o ,its a doddle ,if I can do it anyone can.Great tent lots of room for 2
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Our Vango Tigris 400 is a bit of a pig to pitch really. There's one corner where I can never get the fabric tight, and the bracing in the porch overhang, where it pokes into a pocket in the main shell, makes the fabric tight around the door zip.
When it eventually dies I'd like a Cabanon, because they go up without so much as a crease.
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I can't imagine anything is easier to pitch than a Vaude MKII Light.
External skeleton frame with tent suspended on shock-cord via hooks.Goes up inner & outer simultaneously.Self supporting thus needs guy lines only in extreme wind.Only needs a peg at each corner.
A porch at each end & bags of room for two.
Weighs 2kg IIRC.
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Some good offers on solo tents at Field and Trek at the mo - the £75 Wild Country one would make a good backpacking tent though maybe needs a few more guylines.
With my Saunders tent (http://www.zen18633.zen.co.uk/ftp/pictures/knockfell.bmp) I've got a few rock flaps that attach to the pegging points so you can weight it down with rocks rather than peg it out if the ground is unsuitable. I used it the other w/e when I went to Coniston with a workmate - he spent £90 on 2 nights' B&B and needed to "chill out" with his corfee and smoke a cigaarette each morning after breakfast so we didn't start walking till late morning, I was up at 5:30 - 6 each morning, I had recced a good spot for the 2nd night along the lakeshore from the usual campsite (full of noise, cooking, flashing lights at past midnight), did some T'ai Chi, skinny dipping, cooked breakfast, magic.
The compromise is between lightness and stability, a heavier one eg semi-geodesic will have more poles and be self-supporting, hence only needing a rock in each corner as above, under 2kg will need to be pegged out well to be stable.