help from canvas/bell tent peeps please

[millenniumfalcon]

drying a large canvas tent - say the size of a 5m bell tent - at all possible in a small terraced house with no garden of which to speak, or an utterly foolhardy endeavor?

we have a (small) spare room which is largely empty and one of those heated airer things. alternatively we could take it down the park if the weather was good, but this thing will be heavy, with a SIG too.

No - we yearn for the stove! We have got a fire pot that sits in the middle when we're winter camping!

our friends have yurt. A red one. I am more jealous than you can imagine. However, I can carry out tipi - they need a low loader for their yurt!

lol the weight issue is a fair one with the one i'm after, am planning to get one of these for any distances further than about 10 ft

what's a fire pot?

I WANT one of those trolleys - and practically everything else on that site!

I've tried to find a picture of a fire pot but I can't - it's like a giant tin can lined with clay that you fill with hot coals like a sort of brazier. You can cook on it - particularly good with woks - and use it as a heater. Comes from Thailand. We have two - they are wonderful.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooh millennium that is a PYRAMIDE

hurrah hurrah you can be my Pyramide sister, if you get one, which you shouldn't

Check out my profile. We have the Cabanon Guadeoupe which is so utterly marvellous and perfect I am almost brought to tears when we erect her (mild hyperbole).

So which one are you looking at? I know a bit them now having spent nigh on 2 months choosing between the guadeloupe or the barbados, and having lurked for ages on the Dutch Pyramide Appreciation Society thread on ukcs.

They are brilliant, utterly brilliant

BUT

if you get one with a sig you'll need to errect it to dry it out, or it will shrink and you'll have a hell of a time getting the central pole up.

sorry

ok, have just read your post that says you don't need to repitch it to dry it out.

okey dokey

if it's well used and loved then it's not a problem

but, when you wash a pair of jeans, even on cold, they shrink a bit, well they get tight, this is all fine as you can do some squat thrusts and stretch them out a bit, no worries.

With a canvas with sig it's like a giant bag, one into which you are fitting a VERY tight fitting pole. When I put the central pole up in ours it really takes some effort to pull it up into position. This is as it should be as it needs to be tight and snug.

If I tried to do this with a few mms of tigtness from the canvas all round, well I think I would be either
a) unable to do it
b) at great risk of tearing a hole in the ground sheet with the metal foot of the central pole.

Go ask on ukcs. It's a contentious issue, and can be rectified with re-wetting it and stretching it out into shape by re -tensioning the guys, but that would be a shiester of a job, really it would.

I have done my research on this

Don't know if you are near Worcester but this beauty is going for a song and is a non sig pyramide. Looks very like the current Cabanon VI.

we take ours to the common.

have borrowed a tentipi a couple of times, it was ok. well ok, it was lovely. BUT it was not worth 10x my bell tent.

There's a site called something like Mad Bear Outdoors or Mad Dog or something - he sells very similar tents that he calls lavvus, that you can use with a stove and flu inside, that are sort of medium price point between a bell tent and a tentipi.

come in canvas as well

oh slubber that it lovely

[adds to watch list]

Isn't it MrsB. If I lived nearer I would have to cut the plug off the computer to stop myself from bidding on it.

it is less than 2h from me

we do not have space for it

we do not need it

we have sworn to do ready-pitched for at least the next 4y

if we ever really needed one we could have PIL's ancient 6-man

we are skint

dd adores camping

I love it

[sobs]

it's a de waard slubber

the owner said he's dried it flat before and it hasn't caused problems pitching the following time, we're going to put it up with him, so can see how easily - or otherwise - it goes up.

omg omg omg a De Waard

Oh bloody hell, I couldn't resist a De waard. No way hose. They are the BEST tents in the whole world ever imvho . Well if it goes up OK and he's dried it flat then I guess you could risk it . Which one is it. I have their home page bookmarked [saddo tent nerd]

How much does he want for it? (sorry nosey Q, feel free to ignore)

MrsB, did you read the questions at the bottom? Looks like you can zip out the whole front panel of the cabanon, so you could have the main body of the tent as just a sort of canopy during the day. Perfect for hot days camping in France.

And SO much cheaper than doing pre-erected in the long run.

I really am the most unsuitable person to dissuade anyone from buying canvas pyramides.

I have concerns millenium about you falling out of love with your tent when you come to re-pitch it and it's a mare. A De Waard expects, nay demands the love.

Ok just scrap everything else I have said previously.

You must go and buy the De Waard.

And then you can tell me how marvellous it is and then I can drip-drip-slowly-slowly-catchy-monkey tell DH how marvellous it is and then I can buy one too.

[delusional]

And Mrs B you need to bid on that Cabanon aswell as it is fabulous and bonus bonanza bobby bargaintastic atm.

But I reserve the right to say I told you so if you dry it out flat and then can't get the mo-fo little bastard up again next time

it's an albatros ( apt? ) and he wants less than the new price of an equivalent sized cabanon but more than we could get one for on marktplaats (but avoiding the whole international shipping issue).

i figured if we don't get on with it the resale value of the de waard should make it worth a punt.

in fact, slubber, i'll give you first dibs

[fingers in ears]

[removes fingers]

could one pitch it alone, do you think, slubber?

a two-man pitch with a 6mo and a 3yo to keep an eye on aint' going to happen (next summer, this is)

Oh the albatros is so lovely. One of my faves. In fact when I asked to play fantasy dutch pyramide on ukcs the real de waard owners picked out the albatros for me.

What sort of canopy does it come with?

I think, considering how much they are new, then if what I think he is asking, he is asking, then it's worth it. Cabanons are beautifully made, but the de waards are just that bit more beautifully made

yes please to fist dibs though

Mrs B, I can put my Guadeloupe up single handed in 20 mins, from lifting out of the car to last peg in. They are so easy to pitch it is quite laughable really. There is just one point in the process (putting the front door poles up) that is easier with two, but apart from that it's a one man job.

Mrs B, I've just seen on the ebay Qs that the seller has seen the label saying it's a Pyramide VI

Here it is to buy it new.

It really is a bargain. I wonder if people will be put off as it is 20 years old, not that matters one jot as it's been actually used for such a short time.

I got it wrong about unzipping the front panel, you can open out the whole of the front section, by unzipping the doorway fully and rolling up each side to make the front completely open. I'd love to have this feature on my Guadeloupe, would really help cool the tent a bit more when it's super hot (like that ever happens in Wales ha de bloody ha)

ooh I am tempted

I do have a good record - used to be able to pitch a Black's Stormhaven in 10min with only a pair of (admittedly well-trained) 10yos

actually maybe I should just get the Stormhavens out of the church basement - bet someone could make hanging inner bedrooms for them and there are three

gwan gwan gwan

you know you want to.

You won't regret it.

The church basement tents sound a bit dodgy, and the making of bedroom inners a gigantic faff.

When did you last smell Cabanon Canvas?

It's goooooooooooooooooood.