The Camping Forum

[Canadabound]

Dear Camping forum, I hope you all don't mind but I've joined your forum with a very specific query. I'm off to Canada soon (lucky me) and have bought a Coleman Avior x3 tent (2 hoop tunnel tent) as occasional nights camping this Sept/Oct during the trip. All reviews of tent I read have been very positive hence the purchase. Can anyone give advice on pitching it as I am unfamilar with tunnel tents but familar in general with tents. The pitching instruction that came with the tent were pretty useless.
1) I find the poles, front one especially very difficult to get into its ring. Has anyone else found this the case too?
2) I'm having difficulty getting the fly taut all over - its either taut in the main body and not in the rear section or generally rather floppy all over. There are 2 contributing factors to this for me
i) When pitching this tent I find it really hard to get the rear section to be taut in each of the 3 sections, ie it is either taut on both side panels or on the rear panel but not all 3 & there is no lower peging point on rear section to remedy this.
ii) My understanding of guys is that they should be tensioned in the direction of the fixing points on the tent, in this case because the fixing points are small oblong tabs stitched in line with the sleeve for the poles this really only allowing a max of 20 degree leeway either forward or aft of the arch. In tunnel tents is it normal to guy the arches in the same plane as the arch stands (ie perpendicular to the tunnel) or would you normally guy the arches so they pull away from each other so tautening the main body of the tent. However if this is done then there is alot of stress on the attachment tabs & it twists the pole sleeves.

I would really appreciate some advice. I've put up the tent a few times now. Can do it in 10mins on own but then it takes ages phaffing about trying to find that compromise of tautness to ensure outer doesn't touch inner if it rains & becomes windy (which lets face it really is likely to do in the Autumn in Nova Scotia).
Apologies for mammoth post & thanks for any help anyone can offer. Regards.

[buddy]

hi there welcome to the forum,i have the coleman pictor x3 which is similar buy looking at it but to date have not pitched it hence just bought it the members who could point u in the right direction will be back on tomorrow but have a look at in a tents site he has lots ov reviews i will try now have a look at some reviews on your tent and see if any others have had this problem,you could always tale it back to the place you bought it and have it exchanged

[buddy]

http://www.in-a-tent.co.uk/

[buddy]

hello agaim m8, just read quite a few reviews from different sites and could not find 1 that had any problems your r encounting sometimes tents are not made right sounds like u got 1 from what i have found out on here its quite easy to exchange faulty tents with no hassel may i ask where u bought it

[buddy]

amazon is selling the coleman pictor x3 for £99.oo most places 130 + in sale

[Canadabound]

hello agaim m8, just read quite a few reviews from different sites and could not find 1 that had any problems your r encounting sometimes tents are not made right sounds like u got 1 from what i have found out on here its quite easy to exchange faulty tents with no hassel may i ask where u bought it

Hi Buddy - many thanks for the quick reply (I was just about to head off to bed). I bought it from Blacks online store for £70. They don't seem to have it in their stores, although I can return it to a store.

http://www.blacks.co.uk/product/096423.html

Yes I've been umming & ahhring about returning. I thought I'd get a bit of advice in case I'm being stupid before I gave up on it because I was hoping it would meet all my critera ie <3kg, high hydrostatic head (4000mm), small pack size, big enough (just) for 2 & <£75. However if it is a one-off duff then maybe a replacement will still meet my wish list.
Thanks again.

[buddy]

hello agaim m8, just read quite a few reviews from different sites and could not find 1 that had any problems your r encounting sometimes tents are not made right sounds like u got 1 from what i have found out on here its quite easy to exchange faulty tents with no hassel may i ask where u bought it

Hi Buddy - many thanks for the quick reply (I was just about to head off to bed). I bought it from Blacks online store for £70. They don't seem to have it in their stores, although I can return it to a store.

http://www.blacks.co.uk/product/096423.html

Yes I've been umming & ahhring about returning. I thought I'd get a bit of advice in case I'm being stupid before I gave up on it because I was hoping it would meet all my critera ie <3kg, high hydrostatic head (4000mm), small pack size, big enough (just) for 2 & <£75. However if it is a one-off duff then maybe a replacement will still meet my wish list.
Thanks again.

the 1 ive bought is a 2010 model yours is 2009 mine has 5000mm for 15pound worth looking at changing it to the pictor x3 weight is very similar same poles basicly its same tent just newer design from what info i gathered blacks will change it ive been told

[buddy]

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?ie=UTF8&keyw ... 6dtdqpag_b they do the x2 aswell same tent just tiny bit smaller

[Canadabound]

the 1 ive bought is a 2010 model yours is 2009 mine has 5000mm for 15pound worth looking at changing it to the pictor x3 weight is very similar same poles basicly its same tent just newer design from what info i gathered blacks will change it ive been told

Hi Buddy - many thanks for all your hard research. I will look into it. The pictor x3 is quoted as 4+kg & the Avior is just under 3kg. I will take a look at the pictor 2 which is 3.4kg. Pictor seems to have 3 poles compared to 2 of Avior giving a much bigger porch but hence increased weight. Thanks again for taking the time to look for me.

[buddy]

no probs m8 the little extra weight is worth the extra little benefits like porch and opens both side the x3 opens from the front aswell looks much more sturdy to either way yea need to take that tent back