When Pitching a Camping Tent
(News archive - February 21st 2009)
Pitching your tent correctly is the most important part of any camping trip. The best advice we can give you is to read the instructions, take your time and ask for help if you need it. By taking a relaxed approach to erecting your tent, the job will get done a lot quicker and with less complications. Here are some other useful tips:
- Practice putting up your tent before you go away. Regard this as an essential - it’s far better you learn about putting your tent up and packing it away initially from the comfort of your own home.
- Check the weather before you leave for your camping trip, once you're at the site, you don't want your tent to get damaged due to poor weather conditions.
- Check the ground you are on is free as possible from any items that may cause damage to your groundsheet. Purchasing a stone protection sheet, or SPS, will help.
- Check your tent is pegged to the ground at all pegging points. Use a camping mallet to secure the pegs. If strong winds are expected, replace normal tent pegs with storm pegs. Consider using rock pegs or U-pegs if you think the ground may be hard or the weather’s going to be especially windy.
- Make sure your tent is well ventilated. Often, people think their tent is leaking whereas in fact what they’ve spotted is condensation, due to lack of air circulation. Especially, try and keep your tent well ventilated at night.
- Make sure all doors are closed before pegging out your tent. This will help retain the shape of the tent.
- Do not set up your tent completely taut, or it will not be able to adapt to varying wind and weather.
- Ensure all guylines are pegged out and that the anchor is as secure as possible. You need to check these periodically throughout your stay.
- If the weather should turn for the worse, consider whether you should take down your tent. However, trying to take down your tent in bad weather could cause more damage than leaving it erected.
- When ready to leave, pack your tent away in the reverse order to how you pitched it. Remember, if your tent is damp, you will need to dry it before storing it away. This will prevent mildew and in the worst case, the material rotting.
Remember, when pitched correctly, most tents can withstand winds from the season the tent is designed for. However you will be camping in natural environments where conditions can change dramatically and quickly.