Campers often think pitching a tent is the easiest part of camping in the great outdoors. It’s true, most are easy to set up—one person can get a tent set up in a matter of minutes, even without a lot of experience. However, the finer points of pitching a tent properly usually do not become apparent until it is too late. When a storm is raging, or after the animals have gotten inside and chewed everything up. This is not the time you want to “fix” what you could have avoided in teh first place. Set your tent up right and have a worry free camping expirience!
If you missed the first part of this guide, you should read it to make sure you are picking and clearing out your camp location.
The Right Way to Pitch a Tent – Campground
Camping: Tent Setup
Now it’s time to set up your tent. Make sure the thicker side is down and that you can see the doors and windows. This might seem obvious but I have seen experienced outdoor campers stake down a tent upside down! In one case they drove the stakes through the top of the tent, ruining it. So make sure you have the right side up!
You want to position the back of your tent uphill and the front door of the tent on the downhill side. If a big storm comes through the campground, you won’t have water flowing into your tent, and you’ll be able to easily get any water that gets into your tent out the front door.
Make sure your moisture tarp and your tent are lined up. Before you start staking your tent down, make sure the doors and windows of the tent are closed. If they are open, you might stake your tent in a way that makes it impossible to close them.
Stake down just the corners of the tent at first, tilting the stakes at a 10-20 degree angle and driving them into the ground under the tent. I like to drive the stakes all the way into the dirt at this angle because it drives the head of the stake into the ground and keeps it from spinning out. Then move to the back and stake down the back side. Try to pull the tent tight on the ground. This will ensure that the tent stands correctly. Ridges or folds in the tent floor can actually divert and trap water underneath the tent. A smooth tent floor will enable water that gets under your tent to easily flow away.
Once the corners are down, put in the poles and raise the tent up. Don’t stake it all down until the tent is erected. Most tents are dome tents, which can be warped out of shape if they are staked down immediately. Just staking down the four corners will hold a tent in place while you work on it.
Once you get all the poles in and the tent is erected, give the tent a little shake. This helps the poles and the tent settle into proper position. This step will help keep rain and snow out of your tent, and help it handle high winds. It will also allow the doors and windows to open easily. You really don’t want to have the front door stuck open on a bug-filled July evening.
That should get your tent up and standing in the right place, ready for any storms that might come your way. If you have set up your tent right the water should go right around your tent. With your tent solidly staked down even the strongest of winds will not carry it away.
Now lets move onto the last finishing touches of getting your tent set up correctly for camping in the great outdoors.
