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Pitching inner first in bad weather. Pitching inner first in bad weather.
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Photo by Marc Gibaud, Clouds on Tres Cerros and Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia

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Photo by Marc Gibaud,
Clouds on Tres Cerros and
Mount Fitzroy, Argentinian Patagonia




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  #1  
Old 21 Aug 2011
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Question 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?
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Old 22 Aug 2011
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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 and waiting I am not much help.
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Old 22 Aug 2011
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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
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  #4  
Old 22 Aug 2011
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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.
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Old 22 Aug 2011
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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
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Old 29 Aug 2011
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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...
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Old 30 Aug 2011
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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 ...
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