Tent Waterproofer

[weddingseason]

Am borrowing my parents' ancient, and not used for 15 years, tent for our first family camping trip.

Can anyone recommend a good product to waterproof it - or advise me that it'd be far more intelligent to buy a new, less embarrassing, tent rather than spend lots on waterproofing.

oh go on, buy one, then we can all spend ages telling you what to do!

Fabsil.No question.

and you absolutely have to use the old tent - lots of geeky tenters will come and admire it and regale you with stories of their first camping experiences.

Tis also a good way to get free alcohol!

What a dilemma - free alcohol and geeky tenters with lots of advice is tempting but so is a brand new sparkly not poo brown coloured tent!

Please do tell me what to do because I'm very excited being a novice camper and all but also very nervous. Will be going with DS 3 and DD 1 - what do I need to know?

And what do I need more to the point? As yet we have no 'accessories' whatsoever!

Is it a lovely, properly old fashioned canvas tent or is it an old, slightly mildewed nylon tent?

One is vintage and covetable, the other is not.

Oh god I have no idea. It's a lichfield something or other - that's no help is it? Will have a look at it in the shed tonight and come back to you - need all the help and advice I can get!

Now, just suppose we decide it's an embarrassing crappy nylon one - where do I go to browse tent porn and what would you recommend?

well I'm very much a new and enthusiastic camper, but there have been tons of really good threads about which tents to buy - have a look in the archives.

I've got a Vango Icarus 500 which I will bang on about all day, but there are other equally good choices.

There are some very knowledgeable canvas-dwellers who will no doubt reply to you.

Go OutDoors and Camperlands is a good place to start. There are reviews about various bits of kit on the UK camping site too.

But, as I say, I'm not the most knowledgeable.

Thank you - I feel like I'm stepping into a whole new world - will have a browse and find lots of things we can't possibly camp without!