Henni Penni - or anyone else with a Hartford XXL

[PandaG]

IIRC you have bought a Hartford XXL - we have just bought one too . Have you used it yet? We should be having a trial run in a couple of weekends time, before our week in the summer. Was wondering how you found it, any tips. I am just excited really and want to talk tents again!

Wow big tent! Have you checked out the Outwell website where it shows you how to pitch one?

Yes - DH and I both sat and watched - we really want to go to the local park and practice pitching - just not sure if we will have time before then. I know it is a big tent, we went away the first BH in May in a tent we had borrowed from a friend - we had a great holiday, but the tent was a lot smaller than our friends' and I think I suffered from tent envy and a serious lack of space to put anything. We figured that we may as well buy a big enough tent to last when the kids no longer want to share a pod, and one that is big enough to take a friend too. Just wondering how all the stuff will go in the car though!!

Very sensible to get a big tent!

Everyting has to have a dual purpose! We also brought back at least half of the clothes we took for a week and we only had a small rucksack each!

I think I must resign myself to DS being filthy all week - just hoping he does not repeat his party trick from the last time we went camping and fall in a stream, soaking all the clothes he was wearing - and no, the weather was not fit to dry them!

Make sure the site has a laundry room with tumble dryer!

yep dirt and camping go hand in hand with children! My dd's spent the week rolling down a grassy hill - I kept special clothes all week just for that purpose!

LOok, a thread with my name on, I'm so excited- at last!!!

Lovely, lovely tent, bit of a beast tho'!, the poles are all colour co-ordinated to the sleeves that they go in in the inner, took us about an hour all in all to pitch ( never pitched it before,) for some reason we couldn't get the fly sheet lined up correctly but after some turning this way and that way we did manage it.
A word of warning tho', if it's windy when you take the fly sheet off, keep a good hold of the inner, ours nearly dissappeared down the site with our 11year old hanging on to one of the poles for dear life!also you may struggle putting the fly sheet on if your not very tall.
Can't think of anything else at the mo, let me know if you think of anything else,
Are you going to get the canopy? IO really really want one but DH keeps muttering somethging about lack of car space

Thanks for that advice Henni Penni. Hmm, I'm pretty short and DH is less than 6' Maybe we take a step, or a tall friend, there will certainly be room for one! The bloke in the shop said he thought around an hour for a first pitch, you saying that is how long it took you gives me some hope. The porch looks good, just I really don't think we would get it in the car though. Maybe if we were taking a couple with us with another car it would be viable. The tent is so much bigger than the one we used at the beginning of May I think we will be lost with the space anyway!

We are meeting SIL and her DP in a couple of weekends time to practice before the main event. Need to book a site though.

Lucy - the site where we are going for a week is not a posh one - 'tis a showground, not sure about the showers let alone tumble drying facilities - methinks we will be off into the town to find a launderette!

canopy I mean!

I know what you mean about getting lost in the space, youngest two DDs share a pod an they looked so far away from us!But at least we didn't disturb them when we were moving about.

Hi happy campers...am invading your thread cos we have a Vango! Just had a look at a Hartford XXL - it is massive! We camped last bank holiday with friends who have a Vango Diablo 900 which looks pretty similar, but with three pods not four. I have to say that they are practised and it took longer than an hour to pitch it. Husband is 6 foot four and he just manages! Just pegging out inner, flysheet and guys is quite time consuming. We pitched our Vango Vista 800DLX for the first time and it took a lot longer than an hour! Is a different shape, though. Hopefully, it will be quicker (and cause less harsh words between me and DH) next time! All I can say is that it was totally worth it and we all loved the whole camping experience...DD and DS ran wild and we now have specific 'camping only' clothes due to the mud and my inability to get stuff clean! Waterproofs on their way from Millets! One thing to note is that you may have trouble booking pitches with such a huge tent - when we told some camping club places the type of tent our friends had, they said they'd not got pitches big enough! Hope I've not been too negative - the whole storage space thing is very important to me, too!

No, not negative snuffy - helpful! Think that 8m is often pitch restriction, and xxl comes in at under that. Friends who we intend to camp with have an equally big tent, and are similar heights to us, so hoping that we can find sites with big pitches and tall men to help us!

So glad you didn't think I was being negative. We had an offer (which we took) of help from a man on the site who was very useful with a mallet! I am sure you will find such offers forthcoming, too. I am also sure that the pitching really will be worth it! How ARE you going to fit everything in your car?? Have you got a gas fridge? Camping kitchen? Portapotti? We are going to get a new car in Sept and have decided on a modest family car and a trailer!

Just got back from giving the tent its first outing! Had a fab time, and pitched successfully in about 1 hour 20 - will be quicker next time. Can anyone help, would you peg out the inner before you put the fly over? We didn't as it wasn't clear in the instructions, but watched someone else pitch an L the following day, and they pegged out the inner first and it seemed a bit easier. All advice very welcome.

So glad you had a good time! The Outwell website shows them pitching the inner first (with someone standing inside to hold it up!) then dragging the outer tent over the top!

Check out the website \link{http://www.outwell.co.uk/\here!} go to tents, then find your weapon of choice and click on the pitching instructions!!

Hi PanaG, I think we pegged the inner before we put the fly on. Gla you had a good time, brilliant tents aren't they?

Thanks for the advice Lucy and HenniPenni - will watch the video again more closely! I agree HP, the tent is great, our 2 had a pod each, they looked a bit lost on their own in a childs size sleeping bag on a rollmat! Just got to dry the bottom of the inner now, it was pretty damp with dew when we put it away, but at least the fly is dry. Do you use a separate groundsheet under the tent too? - I know this is recommended, but I don't know if we would have room for one!

Yes, we got cheep taup from B&Q £3.99 each i think (needed two), we managed to pack it in the car going but unfortunatly we couldn't get it nice and flat again for the journey home, so we had to leave it at the site

Thanks for that HP - might have to buy a couple of tarps for next time - easier than having to dry out the bottom of the tent! Every spare inch of space in the car is at a premium though!