Tentipi Varrie VS The Rain

[Ciaopaddy]

Howdy all,

I picked myself up a 7 person canvas Varrie last year in Bodo when biking around Norway and it's generally been excellent, but last night was the first time it's been in proper rain and fairly strong winds (amazing considering I live in the west of Ireland!).

All stormcords were fully deployed as well as some local rockery to help hold down the edges, but it was still nervewracking watching the centre pole bend into a lovely banana shape and the whistling from the lines kept us awake all night, but it all held together.

The main problem is I noticed that the main raising and lowering cap (for smoke exit) isn't actually long enough, as in the green nylon-type stuff is in areas still raised above the main tent canvas material and doesn't appear to be water repellent. The distance can vary from as litle as a few mills to nearly an inch but it's enough to let the rain **** in.
Tugging the cap down on one side by hand merely raises it on the other so about six plastic bags were gangpressed in to stop us from becoming submerged.
The question is has anyone else noticed this problem and, if so, have you managed to sort it and how ?

I've had the tipi up dozens of times and retried it several more times today when testing so don't think it's just a matter of erection technique (ahem) and am finding it tough to imagine it's a common problem on such an expensive piece of kit so suspect I might have a dodgy one, but confirmation would be nice.

Thanks in advance,
Paddy.

 

[Wayne]

Not sure which model you have. Varrie 7 canvas?

I have an Arran 5 nylon. It has withstood every the british winter can throw at it rain snow and hail. driving rain has never been a problem although the zip did leak in a particulary spectactular storm that caused local flooding and several roads to be closed.

No problem with the top capping being too short.

 

[led]

I'd guess this is a one-off problem. Mine has stood up to pretty awful weather (last autmn's North Meet for example). I'm absolutely certain that if you talk to tentipi they will sort it out for you - they take their quality control very seriously.

 

[antwerpman]

I have a canvas varrie 9 and was camping between 15 and 20th of may on the Dingle peninsula in Ireland, having the worst camping weather I ever got there. It was windforce 8 going up to 10 ,pooring rain ,and I was staying in a very exposed area near the beach. The tent pole was occasionally bending as you described and a small bit of rain was pushed through the top cap at the wind side but this was not really a problem since the whole tent stayed mainly very dry. You can put more tension on the ventilation cap by the elastic lines outside. I contacted Tentipi about the tent pole and they said that since a couple of years they use a new construction that is much stronger and they didn't have any problems with broken poles .

 

[Ciaopaddy]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the replies. Yup, the bendy pole was a bit of a concern when I first noticed it, but I relaxed a bit when I realised I could swing it around in a circular motion by hand and it was fine, though it take some serious whacks to break the thing apart the next morning such was the pressure that had been exerted on it.

Antwerpman, sorry to hear the weather was crap when you were over here, it's been fairly rubbish right up until the last week or so. Also, I hadn't known I could adjust the cap using the strings on the outside so I'll have a look at those next chance I get at the weekend. Fingers crossed

Ciao!
Paddy.

 

[Abbe Osram]

You should really contact the company, the picture I have from them is that they want to know and you never know what they come up with for you. You might even get a new pole or other stuff fixed.

cheers
Abbe