Pitching inner first in bad weather.
 

I have two tents. One a "pitch together" tunnel tent, one an "inner first" geodesic. Despite camping in all seasons and getting rained on I have been blessed with good fortune in that I have never had to pitch in the rain. I thought that streak of luck had run out on my recent trip to the Tatras. Thankfully, if did not.

However, one day it will.

So what advice can anyone give for pitching the inner first, with the least likelihood of water hitting the inner as mine is essentially porous if the water hits with any power.

Assembling upside down?
Using the outer as a canopy and look like an idiot stuck in duvet cover?

Is do you have a particular attachment to the tent ? Is it an expensive one ? You can probably guess where I am going with this.

In terms of actual tips other than your "Duck in a doona" idea or having a beer and waiting I am not much help.

Apparently there's been a substantial shift in people's expectations recently. Back in the day, no one ever asked "How do I keep my tent dry while setting it up in the rain?" These days it happens once every couple of weeks. See: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-in-rain-58025

I'll stick by my previous answer: your best bet is to have the butler set up your tent while you lounge around in the back seat of the Bentley.

Hope that's helpful.

Mark

Well, I had hoped from some handy technique because the "pitch it as you do in the dry" point is precisely what I'm trying to avoid.

I don't mind getting wet, but I do mind sleeping in a wet tent interior. Whilst moisture beads on my inner's roof, I only need to touch that location from beneath for the water to drip through, so clearly it is pretty porous.

I was hoping for some neat trick that I could apply, but alas, there appears to be none other than my initial thought of clambering around under the inner, or hoisting my tarp which in no easier if you lack decent hitching points nearby....

I feel some dry day practice coming on.
:thumbdown:

My approach is to try and keep dry things dry, withstanding a little rain of course it should be possibe for most 2-part tents that come with a fly to use the fly as a kind of tarp to cover the inner part whilst mounting the inner underneath.

See my reply with instructions in the aforementioned thread.

In case you missed it, here it is again: http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hub...-in-rain-58025

There is, no easy answer to this... I personally would never buy a tent that didn't allow pitching the fly first, especially whilst travelling by motorcycle.

At least you can have a shelter up until maybe the rain eases off, before finishing setting up camp...

There's two solutions to this:

a) Pitch your tent fast enough + have a little bit of patience. If it's absolutely raining cats and dogs you probably want to wait a bit with putting up your tent irrespective what kind of tent you have. In little/moderate rain, it shlould be possible to be quick enough to maybe get the inner tent wet/moist, but not so wet that the inside of the tent gets wet. If the tent is well vented that shouldn't be a problem, unless you like leaning aginst the inner tent ;-)

b) If you're absolutely set on keeping things dry, then on most tents there is a simple trick. Take a piece of string (or several, depends on the tent), and tie some loops or rings to it to resemble the shape of your inner tent and the hoops that take the poles there. Use that to set up the poles, put the outer tent over it and then set up the inner tent within. I guess it sounds more complicated than it is ... On a simple free-standing tent all you need is basically a string to span the circumference of your tent, with ends tied to form a big loop, and with some 4-6 rings tied in the right places to take the poles. Light weight, cheap and easy ... Necessary - not sure ;-) ymmv, especially with complicated tunnel tents ...

in the good old days of tenting, we never had an outter or inner just 1 canvas cover just didnt touch the sides or it would leak.

With out taking the P**s I would of thought you could put the outter shell first then place the inner in side, you may have to remove a peg 1 at a time bu still dry.

I have noticed that there is more that 1 way to put a tent up, suggest you do a bit of lateral thinking go out side (in garden) put up the tent and play, try different portability's.

I have had to pitch the tent in the rain many times which is why I never buy anything but a outer first or pitch as one tent now, it's a pain that so many good free-standing tents are pitch inner first. Simple answer .... take the tunnel tent if its pitch as one. Or take a tarp & tarp poles to cover the inner but that means extra kit.:stormy:

I don't think there is any easy answer with a geodesic design tent. I have an older one, which is very good quality and I bought it to walk the West Highland Way, many years ago. As it happened I couldn't really have picked a worse time for the walk, as it rained more or less continuously for the whole 5 days or so.

You may be able to try and protect the inner by laying the outer over the inner, during the erection process, but I remember the horrors of putting the tent up outside the Kingshouse Hotel in Glencoe in the dark, in a howling gale and horizontal rain. In fact the wind caught the erected tent like a sail and it very nearly landed in the River Coe. I did get the tent erected, but then found my sleeping bag rather wet doh. At that point opted for B&B in the hotel as I was mentally and physically wrecked. At least I got everything dried out.

Using a tarp is extra weight, as said and in a howling gale is more trouble than it's worth.

I would never now buy a tent, which could not be erected flysheet first and tent designs have moved on, so I would think most quality tents these days would be flysheet first or both together.

I was thinking of taking this old tent geodesic tent with me to Norway next June, but given the likelihood of bad weather there, I may need to reconsider.

Grey Beard