Pitching and packing tips please!

[Tomatefarcie]

We have just bought a Tigris 800.

I researched tents quite a lot, and went for this one as all the reviews said "easy to pitch".

Well, it took Dp and I a good 2 hours to get it all up and running (in the garden), and an hour and a half (at least ) to get it down and all packed.

Would you have any tips on how to make the whole process faster? We would love to go camping over a week end, but the prospect of spending so long to get everything up and ready/ back in the car is putting me off (especially with our 3 little DDs in tow).

Thanks!

Yes, you will get quicker with practice, but 'easy to pitch' is not the same as 'quick to pitch', it will always take a while to get an 8 man tent up and down I find it is pegging out/taking in and tying the guys that always seems to take forever on a big tent, purely because there are so many of them, something there is no getting around really.

We have a 6 man but I wouldn't take it for just a weekend, we have a baby tent for quick trips. Of course if their are 8 of you there is not much choice

Well, there are 5 of us, however, the baby's travel cot takes quite a lot of space, Dp too (), and I wouldn't see us in anything smaller really.

WTWTW, you are right, it is very easy to pitch, but good grief it takes forever to put sleeping bags back in their bag, fold bedrooms in theirs, etc etc.

it would be much quicker if we had a huge bag and shoved everything inside (that includes DDs).

(And yes, I can really see us driving along with a huge black sack strapped to the roof, flapping in the wind).