Tent camping can be fun and inexpensive. It provides one of the most basic back to nature fun experiences possible. It can also be frustrating and uncomfortable if you aren't properly prepared or don't set up your tent right. It isn't any fun if your tent collapses on you in the middle of the night or it leaks or rain runs underneath and soaks through!
The first thing to do to ensure a comfortable stay is to buy the right tent and then learn hot to set it up properly. I suggest you get one rated for 1 or 2 more people than will be sleeping in it. I have found many tent experts who give the same advice. That way you have some extra room for gear and for indoor activities other than sleeping, like getting dressed or just hanging out during bad weather. However you may want to consider that a larger tent will be harder to keep warm so if you are planning to use it in cold weather. Don't go overboard on going large!
Next, learn how to set it up correctly. I know this advice flies in the face of all the macho guys out there, but READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! If nothing else, if they product was manufactured outside of the U.S.A., the English translation of the instructions can be quite entertaining. The translations are often hilarious. But on a more serious note, the manufacturer often provides tips that make setting up the tent a lot easier. Sometimes it may not even be possible to set it up if you don't do it right. Practice setting up your tent at home where you have a nice flat grassy lawn and plenty of time. Pay close attention to the order in which steps occur. Doing things out of sequence can make it difficult or sometimes even impossible to get your tent set up. Pay attention to where you set your tent up. You need fairly level ground, free of debris. You also need clearance over and around the tent so it isn't in contact with branches that will make an annoying sound when the wind blows and could damage the tent. When setting up under trees, watch out for "widow makers" -- dead or broken branches that could fall on you or your tent when the wind blows or a bear shakes the tree. In winter watch out for snow accumulation the the trees. Warmth from your body(s) in the tent and/or your campfire may cause snow in the branches to slip off and fall onto you and/or your tent. Choose a spot that is as level as possible. If you must set up on a slope, make sure you orient your tent and your sleeping bags so your feet are downhill. If you try to sleep across the slope, you'll roll downhill during the night. If you sleep with your head downhill, you'll end up with stomach acid creeping up your throat as you sleep and that is definitely NOT pleasant!
Tents have been around in various forms for thousands of years. Desert nomads have lived in them (and still do). Armies have conquered the world in them. Mountain climbers use them when scaling the highest and most dangerous peaks on earth. Even though they are very portable and transient, they quickly become home to their occupants. By making an informed choice of tents and then augmenting your choice with selected camping accessories you can customize your experience and truly make your tent your home. There is no place like home -- even if its just a portable home for a few days now and then. We all like to have some space we can call our own. The shape, the color, and features (such as vestibules and awnings) may each contribute to your enjoyment of your tent, so don't be shy about shopping around or occasionally switching tents to suit your needs and your mood. You might hang on to your old tent for a while in case you change your mind about the new one. It may also become part of your emergency supplies or you might use it as a loaner when you invite non-camping friends to join you on an outing. If you determine that you no longer have ANY use for your old tent, you can always put it in a garage sale or sell it via newspaper classifieds, or web sites like craigslist.com or ebay.com. Speaking from personal experience, don't be too quick to dispose of any of your old camping equipment. Chances are as soon as you get rid of it a family member, friend, or neighbor -- or even you -- is going to need it. Our kids convinced us to sell off a lot of camping equipment when we moved and some of them were back asking to borrow stuff less than a month later!
Truck and SUV tents connect to your vehicle and allow you to take advantage of some of the features of the vehicle. By mounting to a vehicle they are usually a little more stable than tents on the ground. Sometimes you can even use the vehicle heater to warm the tent and use interior lights for illumination. Roof-top tents and truck tents get you up off the ground, away from ground moisture, uneven ground,and creepy-crawlies that may come looking for warmth or to feast on your tender body.
Tent floors. Most modern tents have built in floors. Simple pup tents, military "shelter halves", and some old style cabin tents do not. Having a sewn in floor has several advantages. For one, it helps the tent keep a defined footprint. For another, it prevents breezes and insects and water from coming under the walls. You will want to protect the floor by placing a suitable ground cloth (tarp) on the ground under your tent. Make sure it doesn't stick out past the walls or it will collect run-off from rain or dew and channel it under your tent. I like to use a second ground cloth inside my tent to provide additional protection. A neat trick is to use interlocking 2' square foam floor tiles inside your tent. That gives you a cushioned floor to walk or sleep on and insulates you from the cold ground. It also protects the floor from getting damaged from walking on it. You can buy foam floor tiles at home centers. Typically they are a dark gray color, but sometimes you can find other colors that would be more fun for camping. A set of four in primary colors at Home Depot is about $18.00 - $24.00. I've seen sales at Harbor Freight for as little as $4.99 for a set of 6! They are usually used to cushion the floor in front of work benches where workers have to stand for long periods of time. I use them in my enclosed motorcycle trailer in front of my workbench. In addition to cushioning the floor, they absorb the shock from dropped tools or parts, reducing the potential for damaging both the floor and the dropped items. You might use tarps and/or foam tiles as a floor in a cabin tent that doesn't have a built in floor. You still need protection against ground moisture and any kind of floor will help keep your sleeping bags and other gear cleaner and drier. A clean floor prevents getting debris in your socks, which can be very frustrating and irritating. If your tent doesn't have a sewn-in floor (pup tents seldom do), use a tarp to protect you and your gear from dirt, moisture, and pests.
Tent pegs or stakes. Tent pegs or stakes are available in different sizes, styles, and different materials. Bright yellow plastic stakes are easy to see and light weight to carry. Steel or aluminum stakes are very sturdy, but are heavier and sometimes get bent. Some that are like big nails are especially good for driving into hard ground where those formed from sheet metal or made from plastic might bend or break. Delta brand "dog leg" tent pegs are supposed to be extra secure. They are designed so the more the guy rope or tent loop pulls on the anchor point, the more it forces the tip into the ground. They are a little pricey, but probably well worth it. For loose sandy soil I made my own giant tent pegs from 3/8" rebar. I welded a washer to the top of each one and cut the bottom at an angle to give it a point to penetrate hard ground. The extra length and the rough texture on the surface of the rebar helps anchor them in loose, sandy soil. When it comes time to pull up stakes, I use a pry bar with an angled tip. For round stakes, like my home-made rebar or the nail-like tent stakes, twisting them with a pair of pliers before pulling them often makes getting them out easier. You might add some inexpensive solar yard lights (check your "dollar" store) near each stake so you don't trip over them at night. A tent stake pulling tool also comes in handy and eliminates a lot of bending over. These tools have a hook on one end and a T-handle on the other so you can snare the peg with the hook and pull it out with bending way over. Make sure you pull the peg straight out at the same angle the peg is in the ground. If you pull it at a different angle it will be a lot harder and may bend or break the peg. It is sometimes tempting to pull up the pegs by pulling on the tent fabric they are looped through. Avoid doing this as it is a good way to tear the loops loose or rip the tent.
Tent poles. Dome tents usually have shock-corded poles that keep the pieces together and how the poles go together is usually obvious. All you have to do is slip the assembled poles into the right sleeves on the tent. Metal tent poles are often several separate pieces that have to be assembled. Sometimes they come color coded or marked with letters or numbers so you can tell what goes where. If yours isn't marked, use a fine tip permanent Magic Marker to label them as you figure out where they go to make putting it together easier in the future. If you have trouble with metal poles coming apart at the joints you might wrap each joint with a little duct tape or vinyl tape. It will make disassembly harder, but it will keep things together while you erect and use your tent. Self supporting tents (like dome tents) don't require guy ropes, but many other styles do. Always use guy ropes for added safety with self-supporting tents. Some ropes or cords come with cord locks. If yours doesn't have them, use a taught-line hitch to connect the ropes to the stakes to make keeping them tight easier. Another simple way of tying guy ropes so they can be easily adjusted is to bring the tail back from around the stake, wrap it around the rope and under itself as in the first step of a taught-line hitch, then just tie off the end further up the rope using an ordinary overhand knot. To tighten the rope, pull the first loop to remove slack from the rope, then slide the knot up until the rope is tight between where it loops around itself and the knot. Ropes and the stakes they are tied to often create a trip hazard. You might want to tie some brightly colored pieces of ribbon or trail marking tape on the skinny little ropes to make them more visible. I recently saw some glow in the dark rope to reduce tripping over the ropes at night.
Spare parts and repair kits are good to have on hand. Stakes and poles get damaged or misplaced quite easily, so having some extras on hand can save the day. Being able to patch minor damage when it occurs can help prevent it from getting worse. I like to carry a pack of various colored nylon repair tape for fixing tents, sleeping bags, and apparel. Some repair kits include extra netting for repairing screens and some sleeves for fixing broken shock-corded tent poles. A roll of duct tape will always come in handy for tent repairs. If nothing else works you can always splint a broken pole using a stick or piece of fire wood and duct tape. You can sometimes repair small tears in the screens using Superglue or Goop glue.
Rain flies are a integral part of double wall tents. Single wall tents can often benefit from a rain fly, tarp, or canopy to shield them from excess sun and rain. If you plan to use your tent in cold or snowy weather, look for one with an extra long rain fly or sew a skirt to the bottom of the fly so it reaches almost all the way to the ground. It will prevent snow from blowing up beneath the fly. Dual wall tents often have screen segments for ventilation near the top. A short fly might allow snow to blow up onto the vents and into the tent.
Choosing the right tent. Having the right tent will make your outing more fun and more comfortable. Having the wrong tent can be a real pain, sometimes quite literally, if you don't have room enough to stretch out or stand up. Choosing the right tent means choosing the right tent for each set of circumstances. If the number of people and where you go and what you do is consistent you can use the same tent over and over. But if you have a differing number of people or different kinds of locations frequently, you may need different kinds of tents. Having a tent that is too big just means you have more weight to carry and it takes up more room. And it will be harder to keep it warm. A really big cabin tent offers a lot of room, but having the right size dome tent will be a lot easier to transport and to set up and will be easier to keep warm on cool evenings. Double wall tents (those with rain flies) are usually warmer in cold weather and cooler in warm weather. Tents with built in vestibules and closets help you organize your gear and keep dirt and debris out of your tent. I like having a canopy on the front of my tent to shade the entrance and provide a little shaded sitting space. Pop-up tents are really easy to set up but can be difficult to get back into the bag. Self standing tents work well on hard surfaces. You will probably want to stake down any tent you erect on sand or other soft ground and you may need special stakes or special procedures (like a deadman anchor) in soft sand etc. A deadman anchor is a large piece of wood, pipe, or rock buried in sand, snow, or soft ground to which you connect your guy ropes instead of hooking them to stakes that might easily pull loose.
You may need extra room in your tent -- or an extra tent -- to store your gear. Having room for gear in the same tent you sleep in means you will have a larger volume to keep warm on cool nights, but it is convenient if you need something after you're retired for the night or before you are ready to go outside in the morning. A separate tent for gear gives more flexibility and sometimes avoids unpleasant odors in your sleeping area and allows you to have less space to heat to keep YOU warm at night.
Tent lighting is important. Most tents allow in enough light during the day or have windows or vents that admit light so you usually don't need artificial light except at night. For nightime use the best choices are battery operated lights or glow sticks since there is little risk of fire. Batteries will last longer if you use LED light bulbs. Gas lanterns and candles are traditional sources of nighttime illumination, and often provide much desired heat on cold nights, but they can ignite even fire-retardant fabrics. If you do choose to use gas lanterns or candles, exercise caution. Most tents fabrics are treated to be fire retardant, but this will still melt or burn when it comes in direct contact with open flames or even the hot parts of a lantern or heater. You must also be aware that flames consume oxygen and may give off toxic fumes so make sure you have adequate ventilation. That means having at least two openings to the outside -- windows on opposite sides or a top vent and a low opening under the door, for example. Your goal is to encourage cross ventilation to ensure removal of fumes and sale air and bring in fresh air for you to breath. It may be tempting to close vents in cold weather, but ALWAYS leave a little room for ventilation if you're using any kind of combustion inside your tent. When using candles it is a good idea to put them in a "candle lantern". They are attractive lighting devices that offer some protection against a candle getting knocked over and starting a fire. If you like arts and crafts you can probably make your own candle lanterns out of soup cans. Just about anything that will contain a candle if it gets knocked over will help prevent a fire.
Temperature control is difficult in a tent. A tent offers a surprising amount of protection against the elements, but it can only do so much. Just keeping you out of the wind or sun adds a lot of comfort and conserves a lot of heat. However, even the heaviest canvas tent provides very little insulation to maintain a comfortable temperature inside. Using a rain fly or covering your tent with a tarp will help keep it warmer in winter and cooler in summer. Good cross ventilation goes along way toward reducing excess heat or moisture buildup from condensation inside a tent. You might supplement natural ventilation with battery operated fans when it is warm. If you need additional heat on cold nights, the heat from a Coleman lantern is sometimes enough. If not, use a catalytic tent heater, but take care to follow the manufacturer's instructions for ignition and for ventilation during use. It may seem a little at cross purposes to have to open windows when you're trying to warm up the interior, but ventilation is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY -- unless you want to get really sick or even die! Some old-time solutions include using heated stones or potatoes to warm your sleeping bag and tent. You can put them at your feet or tuck them into your armpits. Just make sure they aren't TOO hot! Wood burning tents stoves are sometimes used successfully in large canvas cabin-style tents, but you must exercise caution to avoid suffocating or catching your tent on fire. Such stoves are usually not recommended for use in light weight nylon or other synthetic fabric tents. Stoves must have a stovepipe to the outside, protected by a fire-proof "jack boot" where it passes through the tent fabric. You might also need a heat shield between the stove and the tent wall. And again, you must provide adequate ventilation to maintain a breathable atmosphere inside the tent as the fire consumes oxygen.
Tent up!
No comments:
Post a Comment