How To Put Up A Tent

A lot of us enjoy going on a camping trip, however, the task a lot of us don’t enjoy doing is putting the tent up.

When it starts to get cold and dark, you will want to escape into your warm tent, therefore you need to make sure that you put it up correctly. The last thing you want is for your tent to go down in the middle of the night.

Before you go on your next camping trip, it’s best that you learn how to put up a tenet correctly. In this article, we will go through how you can put up a tent.

Setting Up The Tent

Begin by laying your tarp down before you start doing anything with your tent. This is because you should have a barrier between the bottom of your tent and the ground.

The reason for this, is that this barrier will prevent any moisture from entering your tent. While also, the trap provides you with some extra comfort, so you aren’t laying on the direct ground.

Typically, a vinyl or plastic tarp will come with your tent when you purchase it.

You want to fold a tarp into a similar shape that your tent will be. However, make the tarp slightly smaller than the base of your tent. This is because you don’t want the tarp to hang out over your tent.

Otherwise, if it rains, the tarp can easily collect water, which will then make your tent wet. Therefore, any longer edges should be folded underneath.

Check Your Equipment

It is important, before you start assembling anything, that you make sure that you have all the equipment that you need. This should include all the components of your tent as well.

For a lot of more modern tents, you will notice that they are made with all in one poles and stakes in a lightweight nylon material. Compared with some older tent styles that have much more complicated poles and a cloth covering.

You need to make sure that you have the tent and all the poles that you need to be able to put the tent up. Alongside that, you also need a way of being able to keep them up as well, this normally in some form of stakes.

Get Your Tent Out

Begin by laying the tent on the tarp. Try to find the bottom side of the tent and match that up with the tarp.

At this stage, make sure you have placed your tent in the way that you want. For example, are your doors and windows facing the ways that you want them to be.

Once you are happy with the direction and orientation of your tent, you can open the tent up.

Connect The Poles

At this stage, it depends on the type of tent that you have on how you will be connecting your poles to the tent.

In some models, the poles may all be connected with a type of bungee rope.

While in other models, all the poles are numbers, and you have to connect the poles to each other in your tent, yourself. You want to connect all your poles together, and lay them flat across your tent.

After that, you can insert the poles into the flaps of the tent. In a basic tent, there will be 2 tent poles that at some point will cross over one another and to produce an X shape. This is what makes the basic shape of a tent.

To fit them into the tent lining, you have to put each end of a pole into an eyelet. These eyelets are found in each corner of the tent, then you slide the pole through the small flaps near the top of the tent.

At the top of the tent, the poles are attached with plastic clips.

However, not every tent is the same. Therefore, you should look at the instructions that come with your tent when you purchase it. The instructions will tell you how your poles fit, as all tents are designed differently.

Raise Your Tent

This step can be a little tricky, but if you have someone to help, it will make the process a lot easier.

After your poles have been inserted, the tent will naturally start to take its shape.

The poles will be naturally bending, however, you may need to give it a hand to coat it to straighten up and raise the tent so that it looks more recognizable as a tent.

To coat the tent, all you need to do is pull the corners so that they square off. However, make sure the poles have been properly inserted.

On some models of tent, there will be a plastic hook that you can use to hook the tent poles into place. You may have to add some other structural components to help the tent to stand up properly.

Staking Your Tent

Once your tent has been raised and square on the ground, you can use your stakes to secure it into the ground. Stakes are normally made from metal, and they fit through the small flaps found around the bottom corners of your tent.

Fit the stake through the flap and push the stake into the ground.

If you are on hard or rocky ground, you may need to use a hammer to push the stakes into the ground. Although, be careful, as some stakes are weak and can bend easily, making them useless.

Conclusion

You have now successfully put up a tent. After you have followed all of these steps, you have a secure tent to sleep in. You can add a rain guard if required, but these come with their own instructions on how to install.

We hope you have found this article useful, and can now put up a tent when you next go camping.