Flooded out last night - just gone off camping

[HelplessProcrastinator]

Three year old Outwell tent rain ran through the flysheet completely flooding the tent. Had to drive 2 hours home as no accommodation anywhere. Heading back today with spare tent and the hope we can re-proof the other one, if it stops raining for long enough. Had an attraction booked today and hoping they take pity and let us move it. I wish we had stayed home and done day trips. We are seasoned campers but I have gone right off the whole thing now. Can anyone make me feel better about our soggy start to the holiday?

Oh that’s grim.

A 3 year old tent shouldn’t leak if it has been well looked after. Though it might if it has been in strong sunlight for more than about 8 weeks, had detergent (washing up liquid, laundry wash, bubble mix) on the inside or outside or had lots of solvent sprayed inside (deodorant, hairspray, fly spray).

Seam sealer?

The good news is that the weather forecast is now improving in most places.

Once you are in a watertight tent again OP you will be back in the camping vibe.

Yes, we have a small caravan and the awning flooded this year and the ground was just squelchy and smelly the whole time. The weather is just too awful for camping, which is really only enjoyable in dry weather when you can actually enjoy being outside. We usually only use the caravan for short trips in the UK and a week in France, followed by a week in a cottage there. Cottages in the UK are so expensive that we just did 10 days in our caravan instead and I would never do that long again. It was bad enough in the caravan which although tiny at least remained dry. The awning was virtually unusable so it must be unbearable in a tent in this rain.

The tent has been very well looked after and was only used for 3 nights last year. Our last tent from the same range gave us 9 years of good service and we managed to sell it on. We wanted to change our set up (and I wanted a shiny new tent). The extension that we bought at the same time was absolutely leak free so maybe the tent is faulty. we haven't been in rain like that for years though. Really extreme.

It is brightening up so off to Go Outdoors for tent re-proofing then back on the road. Just glad we weren't further afield.