When you are going to camp for the first time in your life, or you are about to tackle a new challenge in your camping experience, you need to know a few basic things. Setting a tent in the best conditions can be challenging, but getting the basics down may feel impossible in harmful conditions.
How to set up a tent:
- Gather and sort the tent parts into numbered piles for each part.
- If you have a footprint, spread it out and secure it using tent pegs.
- Unroll the tent over the area that you would like to camp on.
- Connect the poles or place the significant stake that your tent has.
- Feed the poles through the sleeves or guides that the tent has.
- Secure the tent poles using the included hardware.
- Push in the last tent pegs.
- Cover the tent with the waterproof rainfly that covers the tent.
It should always be noted that the tent will require much more work than this and that you must prepare everything for the environment. You need to ensure that your tent is secured correctly when setting up a camp on sand, snow, or even harder ground requires a different set of knowledge.
Table of Contents
1. Gathering All The Required Equipment
To set up a tent in your camping area, you need to ensure that you have the right tools, the right spot, and most importantly, all the parts of the tent. We always recommend checking each of these before starting the camping trip.
You will need to have enough tent pegs to put at least two on each spot of the tent, ensuring that you can easily replace it when one breaks. Further, a suitable mallet, tarp (or ultralight tarp!), and broom will ensure that the setup and breakdown of the camp area are as painless as possible while camping.
Having tent pegs that work with everyday dirt, in the sand, or can be drilled into the frozen ground will also ensure that your tents are always properly secured.
2. Clearing The Ground And Making It As Flat As Possible
Once you have reached the campgrounds or walked through the mountains far enough to finally get to a clearing, you need to get the ground ready. Contrary to what many new campers think, you cannot simply place the tent down, footprint, and start enjoying everything.
You will first need to move all rocks, pine cones, and other debris from the ground, ensuring that the area you are camping on is as flat as possible. A clear tent area is the easiest way to ensure that you can easily have a quick setup for your tent and that nothing can go wrong while setting it up.
3. Spreading The Footprint And Securing It
Many people use a tent footprint or a tarp to protect the bottom of the tent. Once the ground has been cleared and made as flat as possible, if you have a footprint, you should spread it across the area. If you are camping with a winter footprint, you need to ensure that the silver side of the footprint is facing towards the ground, thereby preventing the cold from reaching the tent.
However, most people will be using a standard footprint that can just be thrown open and used as is, allowing you to throw it open comfortably. Once opened, secure the footprint with tent pegs to prevent the wind from picking it up and creating a quick and wild kite.
4. Unroll The Tent And Use The Right Tent Pegs
Once the footprint has been fully spread out over the cleared area, you can unroll your tent on top of the footprint and start setting it up. We recommend securing each of the four bare corners of the tent with tent pegs at this stage to prevent the tent from being pulled and twisted by the wind.
Many footprints are made to allow regular tent pegs to be pushed straight through them, with only winter tent footprints having set spots that you need to consider. Securing the tent will allow you to set it up without having the headache of trying to keep the tent in one spot as you move around it.
You should remember that you will have to adjust the location of the tent pegs later, so you may not have to hammer in the pegs entirely at this point.
5. Connect The Poles Or Place The Stake In The Ground
Depending on the tent you have, you will now have to start setting up the poles that will hold it all up.
It is also essential to sort the tent poles into similar lengths and sizes, as most tents require you to use each pole at specific locations.
Non-freestanding Tent Central Stake
If you have a non-freestanding tent, the stake that you have brought with the tent needs to be extended and secured now, allowing you to build the rest of the tent around it. Further, a standard dome tent will only have two of these that need to be threaded into the sleeves as they push together to create the dome of the tent.
Freestanding Steak Tent Poles
Larger tents have much more complicated systems that require several types of poles to be assembled and clipped into place. If you try to build the tent without assembling them and sorting them into sizes, you may create an entirely lopsided tent.
6. Feed The Poles Through The Sleeves Or Connect The Clips
Once you have entirely built and sorted the tent poles, start feeding them into the tent sleeves or clip them into place. Almost like a computer, the specific sizes of the tent poles can only go and fit together at specific spots throughout the tent.
If you are using a non-freestanding tent, you will have to secure the corners of the tent and pull everything taught to ensure the tent is assembled. We recommend securing the tent as you go, ensuring you aren’t losing tension by letting go of corners too early.
A typical freestanding tent that is quite large will have some of the poles connected within the sleeves and clips that the tent has. You need to ensure that everything is appropriately pulled tight and used with the sound clips to ensure that the tent rises properly instead of being short on one end.
7. Cover The Tent With The Rainfly And Pull It Tight
Once all the poles, the stake, and the clips have been secured, the tent should be close to its final shape and ready for your to cover it with the waterproof rainfly. This rainfly ensures that when it does rain that the tent does not leak and that the rain cannot get into the tent vents.
It is important to note that while the base tent material is entirely waterproof, this material is thinner than the waterproof rainfly that goes over the tent. The rainfly also has no poles, rests on the tent’s high points, and is kept tensioned.
We recommend that you do this last to ensure that you have to full shape and size of the tent ready to be covered. We have seen more people than we can count trying to assemble their tents while the tent is safely rolled up in the bag and the rainfly is causing massive amounts of confusion.
8. Secure The Tent And Rainfly With The Right Tent Pegs
When the Rainfly has been attached to the now fully assembled tent, you need to move on to properly securing everything. Using your tent pegs, start with the four furthest corners and slowly move around the tent, securing the sides using the tent peg loops.
After securing the tent, you need to use the guy lines on the tent sale further to secure the tent against any gusts of winds. The rainfly further helps the tent stay secure by providing anchor points that are high up than the tent pegs that are just secured to the ground.
Often, you will find that people are not securing the tents using the guy lines simply because it can be challenging to walk around while camping. However, not doing this can cause problems as the rainfly are not taut enough to allow water to flow off the tent.
9. Keep The Tent Open And Aired Out
Now that the tent has been fully assembled and secured to the ground, you need to ensure that the air inside it is as fresh as possible. We include this because many people are tempted to close off their tents entirely to keep heat in during the day and prevent bugs from getting in.
However, this can be a big issue as mold will grow in the tent’s corners, and the moisture inside the tent will build up, causing condensation issues. We recommend keeping some of the tent’s windows open and ensuring maximum ventilation throughout the night.
