Tents are your home away from home and your personal castle in the campground. They come in many sizes, prices, shapes, and materials too. They provide a shaded, insect resistant, and hopefully waterproof refuge at the end of the day.
Ground Cloth
Don’t skip it. It keeps moisture from migrating through your tent floor, as well as keeping your tent floor cleaner. That all helps your tent to last longer, as well as keeping you dryer.
While expensive foot prints are available for middle to upper tier priced tents, they are not essential. A lightweight tarp (or multiple tarps for large tents) will work quite well.
Just remember to tuck any excess tarp protruding out from under your tent back under itself until it is no longer protruding from the edge of the tent. If you don’t, you will actually cause water to run under the tent floor, increasing the amount that will migrate through your floor and end up dampening bedrolls and anything else in contact with the floor.
Keep the weight down when backpacking by using Tyvek Homewrap for a footprint under your tent. It’s lightweight and waterproof.
Holes
Buy a package of adhesive ripstop nylon patches and keep them with your tent. Holes can appear for a variety of reasons, ranging from something rubbing on the tent while in storage to a flying camp fire ember, and are best patched immediately, when possible.
The adhesive patches may not exactly match your tent, but they will restore its usefulness as your shelter. Follow the directions on the package, but most are simply a case of peel off the backing and adhere to the tent fabric.
Seam Sealing
Buy a container of seam sealer every spring and make it a habit to seal the seams of both the rain fly and the tent itself before the first camping trip of the year. Always seal the seams of a new tent to prevent leaks on its debut voyage into the great outdoors.
Spare Tarp
Many a camping trip has been salvaged by the ready access of a spare tarp. The spare tarp can become a rain fly when your old standby suddenly starts resembling a sieve by simply putting it over the tent, and using paracord and stakes to secure it on top of the tent.
It can also become a quick windbreak, provide shade on a hot summer day, or provide shelter for cooking outdoors when a rain shower decides to arrive.
Tent Stakes
Tent stakes are not all created equal, and almost all new tents arrive with crappy tent stakes.
Buy better ones, and remember that different ground conditions mean different stakes are necessary. Very loose, sandy ground means long V or Y shaped stakes to grip securely, while rocky, hard ground fares better with the wire-like metal stakes.
Extra tent stakes are handy too, in case one bends or breaks. Don’t forget the stakes for securing your rain fly properly either.
Heating
Tents can be heated safely with electric heaters when electricity is available. Small forced air units with fans or oil filled radiators are both good choices.
Place the small forced air units on a raised surface to ensure that sleeping bags and other bedding do not come in contact with the heater (crates work great and are also great for carrying smaller objects along) and keep them away from tent walls and other flammable surfaces. Propane fueled “buddy” heaters are also available, but are riskier to use in a tent due to the presence of actual flame.
Fans
Summertime heat can turn a tent into a sauna during midday, making napping difficult or impossible inside. Often, temperatures remain high even after sundown.
Opening windows helps increase air flow to cool the tent, and a fan may also be necessary. Numerous models of battery operated fans, often with integrated lights, are available. When electricity is available, any fan from home can also be used.
Can’t take the heat? You don’t have to switch to a travel trailer or motorhome! Some tent models have a built in port for a window air conditioner, and others can be modified to have a port for the air conditioner. Small units, typically 5000 or 8000 BTU units, are best suited to cooling a tent.
Some people increase the efficiency of the air conditioner by laying a space blanket on top of the tent and under the rainfly to help keep the cool in and the hot sun out. The air conditioners typically rest on a raised surface (often a milk crate) to keep them above the ground and low in the tent. Be smart and only run the unit when you are using the tent.
Electricity
If electricity is available at your campsite, you’ll want to bring along the things you need to enjoy it. This will typically include a heavy duty extension cord rated for outdoor use and a plug in strip to allow multiple things to be plugged in. Bring the cord in through the e-port on your tent or the door if your tent lacks an e-port.
Replace your guy lines for your tent and rainfly with reflective cord to prevent tripping over the cord at night. Reflective cord is available from many outdoor gear suppliers.
Other Tent Tips
Want a little bit of luxury in your tent that helps keep the cold at bay? Bring along the interlocking rubber foam play mat pieces, which measure 24” square, to cover the tent floor. Great insulation & cushy surface that packs up into a stack of squares.
Hate muddy paths leading to your tent? Beat the mud and rain with a portable walkway. Buy 1×2” furring strips, cutting the 8’ long boards into 24” lengths.
Next, using a staple gun, staple poly straps or thin cord to the bottom side of the strips along one end, leaving ½”-1” wide gaps between each board. Repeat on the other side of each board with the cord. Now, you have an easy-to-roll portable walkway!
Never Cook Inside
Never, ever cook inside of your tent, as the scent of food will permeate the entire tent, attracting hungry animals even when there is no food in the tent on future trips.
For foul weather cooking, have a canopy with sides to block the wind. Choose an easy to set up model, and don’t forget to use the guy ropes when setting it up, as it greatly enhances the stability of the canopy, especially in rainy weather with gusts of wind. Adding screen sides can keep insects at bay during fair weather, providing shade for both dining and cooking.
Put a piece of old carpet or floor mat in front of the tent door to help keep debris and dirt out of the tent.
Put a camp chair outside your tent door to sit on while putting shoes on, leaning on while getting in or out of the tent, or holding small items that you don’t necessarily want inside the tent with you.
If you have a small freestanding tent, empty the tent first thing in the morning, before cooking breakfast, etc. Tip the tent upside down in a sunny spot to dry the floor before packing the tent up.
Stake it Down
Stake your tent down, even if it is a freestanding tent. Without the tent stakes to keep things taut and in place, drafts will make the tent colder in cool weather. In rainy weather, your tent is more likely to leak. If gusty winds come up, even with items inside the tent, it can blow over or even blow away, damaging poles and tent fabric.
Practice with Your Tent
Always practice setting up a new tent at home before leaving on your camping trip, even if you are an experienced tent camper. Setting up the tent allows you to seal seams, inspect for flaws or damage, and ensure that all parts for the tent are present.
Shopping for a Tent
When shopping for a new tent, always read reviews from consumers as well as ratings from outdoor pros. Consider the guarantee, company reputation, customer service, etc. as well.
Sometimes, what looks like a bargain may turn out to be a nightmare. One way to find a good bargain is to buy a close out model or last year’s model of tent—manufacturers update tents each year with new fabrics, colors, or slight design changes. Close out models and last year’s models come with the same guarantees as the new model, but often with a substantial discount.
Pay attention to tents when camping out, you may see something appealing. Besides, it is a great ice breaker to ask another camper about their tent. Find out what they do and don’t like about their tent, as well as the brand and model. They may even offer ideas as to where to find the best price on an identical tent.
Let kids, even the very young ones, help set up and take down tents. Give them age and skill appropriate tasks, even if it is just a case of “hold this stake for me”. It makes them feel like they are an important part of the camping project and gets them involved.
Kids can also help unload and load to and from camping trips. Give them items to carry appropriate for their size, even if it is just having them carry their own toy to the vehicle. By letting them help when they are young, they will grow up naturally wanting to help.