I love Freecycle. I picked up a tent a couple of years back, and finally pitched it this weekend. I was told it was broken when I picked it up, so that’s why I’ve waited so long to pitch it. I needed an excuse to want to mess with it.
The excuse is that I am dog-sitting my parents dog right now, and this tent is a ‘dog friendly’ style.
The elastic shock cords that hold the tent poles together are completely shot. I’d guess that this means the tent is quite old or was stored in a hot place maybe?
The tent is otherwise like new. I bent the light weight stakes putting them into my recently rain-softened ground than they were already. There isn’t any dirt on or in the tent. A lot of the sewn loops look like they have never been used. I think the tent was pitched once, packed up, and never used!
I am going to make a ring with the tent pole pin and install it to the loop that lacks that device. The poles are going to get spray painted a different color for each pole so I can sort the pieces of poles easily.
I’m going to hose the tent down and see how water proof it is.
Once fixed up, this may become my main tent while the kids are little because that built in play tunnel is just so darn fun!
Do you still have the Creuzer mansion tent, too? That looked like some pretty sweet lodging.
Yep, I still got the big guy. It’s getting tired, I’ve had to re-waterproof it and find a new bag for it. I carried it a mile into the woods last summer. It is 47 lbs. Horrendous to carry out after it rained.
This one packs down to 2/3rds the size bag and weighs less. The kids like the ‘igloo’ door meant for dogs, so I will likely use the Coleman for a few years until I need the extra room that the bigger tent provides.
Maybe I can use the tunnel to connect the two? Interesting idea….