If your tent was your only holiday source would you lend it out???

[Dickorydockwhatthe]

I feel like I'm being a bit anal tbh and would like to happily lend it out and not begrudgingly iykwim. Am I wise to be weary??

[hettie]

No bloody way! It was a wedding present and has been lovingly cared for for 10 years and I'm hoping it will serve us for 10 more. Non campers (ie people without kit of their own) are unlikely to know how to care for it...

[Fannydabbydozey]

Not. In. A. Million. Years.

I love my tent and happily have said no to lending it it in the past. It looks as good toady as the day I bought it four and a half years ago. I'd rather lend my husband...

[nipersvest]

no. we lent our 2 man tent out years ago to a colleague of mine for the weekend, it came back with one pole missing and another bent, no mention of replacing or repairing the damage. another friend semi-permanently lent a tent out, it wasn't dried off or stored correctly, it went mouldy and had to be binned.

[AnneEyhtMeyer]

Someone asked DH if they could borrow our tent. Fortunately he said he'd have to check with me.

It is such a cheeky thing to ask - they are expensive and need to be treated with care.

The worst thing is that you probably wouldn't find out that they had mistreated it / let it get mouldy until the next time you needed it.

I would never lend it out.

[pictish]

Just read that and guffawed as well!

[pictish]

I wasn't even abashed at refusing when I was asked. It was like...

[StarlightMcKenzie]

No. I woukdn't any more than I'd lend out my toothbrush.

[LiberalLibertine]

Nope. Lent my beloved tent to a 'sort of' friend, never saw it again, I'm still pissed off about it tbh!

I wouldn't put myself or my friends in the position of losing or damaging the one we've got now, I'd go fucking ape shit!

[pictish]

No...and a firm one at that.
I have been asked to loan my tent out a couple of times but I politely refused.
I'm not precious about many material things, but I am about the camping gear, and in particular the tent. I wouldn't lend any of it out.

[Lucylouby]

Nope, I wouldn't lend. We are going away with a group of friends for a weekend, one family doesn't have a tent/equipment and have asked us if we could ask another of our friends to borrow their stuff. I said no, I wouldn't even ask. I would feel to responsible for our other friends stuff and I know if the tent got ripped/broken they wouldn't want to replace it to the value that it is worth. So I must be quite anal too.

[Cereal0ffender]

No way!

[CharmQuark]

Ugh, shudder.

This is why I have never been to a festival.

I lent my tent to very responsible good friends and all was well, but it was a relatively cheap tent, not our only possibility for a holiday, and not a festival.

[qazxc]

Also bear in mind that quite a lot of tents get robbed during festivals.
The small ones get carried off and spray painted by the "new owners", the big ones get sliced through at the back and rummaged through for booze/valuables.
As an aside never get a pop up in the "cow" print, unless you want some drunken idiot playing "rodeo" at 4 in the morning.

[qazxc]

For festivals, I use a 2 tent method.
one cheap pop up for all stuff (in black bags as the cheap ones can be not very waterproof)
one half decent (ie waterproof) for sleeping (taking into account that tent manufacturers seem to base occupancy on small children, IME you want about double what they say, me and DP have a 4 man tent).
You put cheap tent on the side that your head is going to be when you sleep, close enough to deter people from walking through so that they don't fall on top/pee on your head.

[VivaLeBeaver]

Did once .never again . $900 tent wrecked

[qazxc]

No, and definately not for a festival.
As a regular festival goer, even in the quiet campsites, people regularly trip over/fall into tents. (not to mention men peeing on them)
Also, no matter how careful they are, people will not have your experience of packing the tent back in correctly.
Do not lend out something that you are not willing to loose or get damaged.

[ForeskinHyena]

Agree about festivals, also if there are kids involved - as much as the adults might take good care of it, the kids won't - I have to remind mine everytime about bouncing on the airbeds and throwing themselves around in the bedroom pods, they've managed to break one of the supporting tabs off. They also come in and out with their shoes on despite me bringing a door mat and a box for shoes that lives in the porch. Grrr!

[TheCowThatLaughs]

Festival tents only cost about £20 anyway

[CarCiKoTab]

I wouldn't and if you want a way to say no then just say, you're going away and need it. I don't like borrowing anything out if I'm honest things get broken and they feel an apology is best suited not, oh I will replace it I'm stood there thinking, shove your apology and give me everything you own!

[SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius]

I definitely wouldn't recommend lending it, if it is for a festival. Apparently, the reason a lot of festival-goers leave their tents behind is because scuzzy men pee up them when drunk!

[gardenfeature]

No. Lent one out once to friends camping nextdoor to us. It was very disturbing and distressing to see their kids use my bedroom air vent windows as "fun play zone mini doors".

[ForeskinHyena]

I wouldn't, not even to DP on his own! I take such care, cleaning it out before putting it away, wiping any damp off and patiently folding it over bit by bit and drying out the base in the sun (presuming there is any sun, otherwise wiping it with towels) and I'm super careful about putting the poles in so that they don't rip a hole (he just keeps on ramming without worrying about guiding them through grr!)

Given that he paid for it and still wouldn't think to do half of this on his own, someone who wasn't a regular camper would be unlikely to see why it is important, as they are not the one who has to open it up a few months later to find it covered in mud and mould. Plus, if they're not a regular camper they probably need to borrow all the other stuff too, cooking equipment, airbeds etc so even more for them to lose or break!

It may sound churlish not to lend it out, but I'm with you I'm afraid, I'd be wary about it and would try to find a good excuse (I'm a bit too crap to say no directly). I think saying that it's your only holiday source should be enough, it's like asking someone to borrow the £3k they've saved up to pay for a foreign holiday and promising you'll definitely give it back to them when they need it - you just wouldn't do it!

[PeterParkerSays]

No from me. I was just thinking last night (our tent is lying in the living room waiting to be folded up after drying because it got wet at the weekend) that our tent was an asset as far as I was concerned because we couldn't afford to go on holiday in school holidays if we didn't have it. I'd be very careful who I loaned our other assets, car etc., to so the same would apply to the tent.

[Slubberdegullion]

No. Not ever.