Tent Care

• Pitch tent AWAY from any heat source (fires, stoves)
• No lanterns in tents -- EVER!
• No food or drinks (except plain water) in tents -- EVER!
• Don't drag things on the tent floor.
• Don't hang or drape things across a tent.
• Keep tent door zippers completely closed when not entering/exiting to keep out ants, etc.
• If tent or groundcloth are still wet when tent is taken down: Take the tent home; Set it up (see procedure below); Brush out if necessary; Wash lightly with plain water if necessary (NEVER use any soap); AIR DRY both tent and groundcloth; Brush out again if necessary; Then take down and restore in tent bag (see procedure below).
• NEVER MACHINE WASH OR MACHINE DRY ANY PART OF A TENT!

• Select a smooth level spot well AWAY from all fires/heat sources
• remove any stones, sticks, etc. from ground area
• lay down plastic tarp
• lay tent bottom down with front (side that will be WITHOUT vestibule) flush with one end of tarp
• stake all 4 corners down (do NOT put holes in tarp plastic)
• identify ridge pole from four leg poles (ridge pole is narrowed at BOTH ends)
• insert narrow end of two leg poles into each of the two plastic joiners affixed to top tent corners. Joints are marked with ables that point UP and RIGHT to help you position it correctly before inserting the legs. (RIGHT means YOUR RIGHT as you FACE the tent.)
• **DO NOT** attach legs to tent base corners at this time!
• insert ridge pole into both plastic joiners. (Make sure ridge pole is all the way through joiners) This should have the frame ridge/legs fully assembled but not yet 'connected' to the tent except for the joint bungies.
• Now, you can position the tent frame legs to tent corners and set them down onto the metal pegs attached to each tent corner ring.
• Now wrap the bungie at tent top corners around the plastic joints
• make sure tent bottom is laying flat (no big stress creases or folds, restake if required)
• attach the clips on front/back seams to tent leg poles
• Position rain fly over tent and attach/insert the ridge pole extension(s) BEFORE securing rain fly to tent corner rings.
• Once fly postioned and secured to ridge extensions, hook rain fly corners to floor corner rings
• clip the rain fly side straps to tent side hooks, pull side strap straight away from tent, and stake down.
• stake down vestibule
• tuck plastic ground cloth corners under vestibule
• stake and pole bags get stowed inside tent bag and tent bag stored in vestibule

• Take tent bag (containing stake and pole bags) out of vestibule.
• Pull all zippers closed (screens as well as side & bottom door zippers).
• Unstake tent, COUNT 10 STAKES! Place stakes in stake bag. Fold doen the open end of stake bag.
• unclip straps beneath fly sides from tent
• unhook fly straps from tent corner rings
• remove fly, set aside (on tent bag)
• unsnap ridge shock-cords from plastic joiners and remove tent clips
• lift the four leg poles out of tent-corner ring pegs
• TENT FRAME POLES SHOULD NOW BE ALL COMPLETELY STRAIGHT AND UNDER *NO* PRESSURE
  Proceed ONLY if this is true. If not true, see what side clips, shock cord or legs are still attached to corners.
• ONLY IF all poles are under NO PRESSURE, remove all poles from the two plastic joints.
• Fold poles and GENTLY place poles into pole bag.
• Put stake and pole bags into tent bag.
• Fold fly in half and place fly on top of collasped tent (fold vestibule end into center of tent).
• Two scouts squatting at each end fold tent corners 2/3rds into tent making tent be full length but 1/3 wide. Then fold tent once in-half lengthwise. Then one scout TIGHTLY rolls the tent starting at the middle fold and working to the ends. (When rolling... you may encounter a plastic joiner turned the wrong way that prevents an easy roll... just reposition the joint within the tent folds to be sideways to your rolling direction then continue rolling.)
• Slide the rolled up tent into the tent bag along-side pole and stake bags.
• Two scouts pick up ends of ground plastic. Fold sides together (keeping full length) making sure that the wettest side (usually the side that was against the ground) folds against itself. Fold length-wise again (making plastic now 1/4 its width and full length). Then fold once length-wise giving one scout all four corners to hold while other scout picks up the new middle fold. Roll middle fold tightly towards ends (this lets any trapped air out) and then slide rolled plastic into the tent bag.