Tent storage

[mackerella]

We came back from camping last week (me, DH, 2 DCs) and promptly bought a much larger tent in the sales - a Vango Orava 600XL.

However... the new tent was delivered today, and it's bloody massive compared with our old one! The package is 31kg vs 15kg for our old tent. It's also a lot bulkier. Our old tent lives in the loft, together with all the chairs, cooking stuff, tables, kitchen unit etc. But there's absolutely no way we can lift the new tent up the ladder, so I was thinking of keeping it in the garage. Is this madness? I've read dire things about mice, but I was hoping it would be ok if I put the tent on a shelf and/or in a plastic box.

Where do you all keep your big/heavy tents?

The tent itself is great and I'm really looking forward to using it (possibly before the end of the season if we can find a weekend free). It will also be great to have 3 bedrooms so the DCs can be split up (this was the thing that motivated us to get a bigger tent after 4 years in a Eurohike Rydal 500 with 2 bedrooms...) If anyone else has got a Vango Orava (or the Taiga, which is the same tent with airbeams), how have you found it? (And where do you keep it? )

I have a small shed in the garden that all my various tents and equipment live in problem free. Also mouse free !

Bottom of my wardrobe.

We always kept ours in the garage.

I think a garage would be OK-ours would, a plastic box is a good idea.
Do you have space to air it when you get back from trips if it's so much larger than your previous tent op? We tried a bigger tent for a while, but the drying and airing was too onerous.

Sounds as if the garage would be ok - phew! I hadn't thought about the bottom of the wardrobe (currently have some rather rickety Ikea Pax ones that have moved house with us a couple of times), but I'll also consider that as a backup plan.

Would I need to air the tent after use? I've never done that before, but our current tent is a bog-standard polyester-skinned, 5-man job with only a small living area and no porch. Also, we've always been lucky that we've had dry weather when packing up and it's never been too muddy underneath. (With the new tent, we've really pushed the boat out and bought a carpet and a footprint so I'm hoping that the latter will keep the underside of the groundsheet fairly clean and dry for when we pack it up.)

We keep our caravan awning and small tent in the garage, have done for years.

You could try separating the tent to lift it up- poles etc.

Just don't forget to take it all.....

Oh god, no, I'd never live it down if we arrived to find we'd left some vital part behind because I'd separated it all for storage I might split it up just to get it into a storage box, though - we tried lifting the bag yesterday and both DH and I were shocked at how much heavier it was than our old tent...

Ah, maybe I've stumbled across the 'how often do you wash your towels/ do you wear clean pjs every night' controversy of the mumsnet camping topic?
I did suddenly realise that maybe not everyone airs their tent after use!
My mum was a stickler for proper camping etiquette, Guides as a teenager I think, and all tent pegs had to be cleaned and straightened, tent brushed down and dried etc after every trip. To be fair, I still have her tent and it's in brilliant after 30 years.

Ah, maybe I've stumbled across the 'how often do you wash your towels/ do you wear clean pjs every night' controversy of the mumsnet camping topic?

If it helps you place me on that particular spectrum, I do have a loo brush and I only change the sheets once a fortnight week

I'm not a complete slattern, though! We always take a dustpan and brush with us and scrupulously remove all dried grass/crumbs/dead insects from the inside of the tent before packing it up! This time the ground was muddier than usual, so we also gave the groundsheet a going over with the brush and some baby wipes before packing up. So maybe I'm not completely beyond help...

As I said, we've been extremely lucky with the weather, so it's always been completely dry when we pack up. Would that be alright or do you reckon that we should still air it when we get back? I'm thinking about condensation, maybe?

Kept our tent in shed, mice are bits of it 🙁
DP decided to peg it out to air (it was cleaning and dry) then it pissed it down, then never really dried out so got mouldy and had to be hosed down and scrubbed, what a palaver. Not sure if that made it more attractive to the mice

Our 8 man inflatable vango is absolutely huge so lives in the shed. No problems so far. And we only 'air' it if it had to be put down wet.

Our tents always live in the shed or garage - we have never had a problem with mice, just make sure the shed is dry and the tent is properly dry before you put it away.

Another vote for shed here

I’m not sure how much more airing a tent would need after it has been pitched in the fresh air fir days

One thing I have started thinking about when I pack up is checking for condensation between the bedroom pod floor and the SIG when I fold it all up together.

But in all the years I didn’t think about this, I never had a problem.

We have this tent and love love love it. I keep it in my wardrobe. My in-laws have theirs in the garage and it’s been ok but I’ve lost some pools to mice in the shed so wouldn’t risk it. We have the footprint and carpet and have only ever had to wipe the odd spot for packing away after a heavy downpour.

My tents and camping stuff all live in the cupboard under the stairs.

I spent far too much money on an inflatable canvas tent which is massive and heavy. It lives in a box in the garage but I keep mothballs in the box to keep mice away. The tent smells odd when we first get it out but so far nothing has nibbled it

You will have to air it if you have packed up in the wet though.