alright, back for help.

Tried pitching my new 2010 Double Rainbow for a 2nd time this week.. this time in light rain. In both my attempts, I had two problems:

1. The floor develops a half-arrow that Franco once said is a sign of something being wrong. I do have all 4 corners staked out as tight as possible and have those 4 outside bottom clips on the floor material clipped to the stake-out points.

Is even the central line of the arrow a problem? (I mean the fold in the floor fabric that runs in a straight line between the ends of the aluminum pole.)


(the above are pics of the same end of the tent).

2. The rain porch -- if I want to set up one hiking pole to hold up the rain porch, I seem to get very little clearance to enter the tent -- the entry way is pretty low but more importantly, there is little space between the guy line holding up the hiking pole and the stake holding down the other vestibule door.

Moving the hiking pole further away from the other door seems to make it unstable and the tension in the rain porch goes away..

Edited by longhiker on 07/10/2010 09:36:10 MDT.

more pics of the overall pitch in case I got somethings terribly wrong here..

this last pic shows a good tilt towards the rain porch.. i think it wasn't leaning this way before I pulled the rain porch tight using the hiking pole (just to the left edge of this pic). Also, the arrow in the floor material was there before I set up the rain porch.

Edited by longhiker on 07/10/2010 09:30:44 MDT.

3. I'm puzzled by the rain porch -- it seems like water would flow through the gap between the two flaps that are velcroed together to make the rain porch . I'm talking about the right edge of the V shaped central flap in the porch pic below..

I had this set up in light rain and water just beaded up on the tent.. but if water was flowing, I'd think it'd run through the opening there.. am I setting this up wrong?

Edited by longhiker on 07/10/2010 12:50:29 MDT.

Unless the rain is really pounding down, rain doesn't really flow through that gap as long as the flap is velcroed tautly. You might get a few drips, but nothing crazy. That's my experience with it.

Hi Don
Glad you are pondering over the finer points of tent pitching..
Un-even floor.
That crease going from the front to the rear right end corner indicates that that corner (rear right side) is pulled out further than the front right corner.
To verify that, just sit inside the tent and push out the front right corner a bit with your hand and the wrinkle will disappear.
Part or all of this is (in your set-up) is caused by one pole end not being spread out.
Right side on the Gen 4 picture.left side in the Porch shot.
Rain porch
This is meant to be there as rain protection if you are stuck inside the tent during the day/afternoon.
So not ideal for ingress/egress as you do lose headroom but still allows some extra air circulation and views whilst waiting for the weather to clear.
Franco

We always pitch the rain porch using two poles. This makes for a wide and easy to use entrance.

There is not such a crease that i get with mine that looks like yours. there could be a crease when pitched in the uneven terrain, but not a consistant shape. Try setting up on perfectly flat ground and if the crease is always there this might indicate a defect. When you pitch, try looking at your set up from both ends to make sure that the 'rainbow' shaped pole looks as straight as possible and adjust corner stakes if necessary. (the top horizontal short pole should be parallel to the ground). make sure you stake out the fly not the floor. the floor should be tied to the stakes that are holding the fly. then tie up the floor from the inside to make a bathtub like appearance.

Porch-we almost never set it up (too lazy)