Somewhere an evil sadist lurks…
Submitted: Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 13:50
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Mike Harding
Somewhere an evil sadist lurks…
And do you know what this bastard does for a living? You don’t, do you? But you will recognise his work the instant I enlighten you… he designs… the carry bags for tents!
A harmless enough occupation I hear you say – ordinarily; yes. But this bastard designs them 10% too small to comfortably fit the tent into!
The people in the factory who make the tents don’t know this – they use a folding machine which folds the tent to an accuracy of 0.00001mm and having folded it they squeeze the air out with a 6000 ton press and they find the carry bags are perfect for the job because _their_ tents fit into the bag with room to spare. Only now, I sense, is it beginning to dawn upon you what a devious, sadistic and evil mind this man has.
In the
shop, of course, you viewed the tent in an assembled state, you didn’t think to say “How
well does it fit into the carry bag” – none of us ever do! You proudly arrive
home with your new purchase and commence setting it up on the lawn; “Oh good plenty of room in the carry bag” you think almost cutting your finger on one of the folded tent creases.
The following day you start to pack the tent away – will it go in the bag???!!! Will it hell! Eventually, after 6 attempts at folding it in different ways and using your winch to fasten the zipper the tent is in the bag. Trouble now is you are afraid to unpack the damn thing again because you know it’s not taking the tent down which takes too much time it’s the 3 hours to get the bloody thing into the bag which is the killer!
Mike Harding
Reply By: Treading Lightly - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 14:12
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 14:12
Dear Mike,
And then God created a woman (a wife) to fold the tent and place it into the bag.
Then I, being the gentleman, lift it ito the back of the 4WD. Job done.
Since we went on our first camping trip spme 5 years back (and many in between) the wife folds and packs the tent (after I remove the pegs) she refuses to do this job yet. Like you I lost my temper and swore I will never do it again, (fold the tent not loose my temper)
Regards
JD
AnswerID:
120919
Reply By: Brian B (QLD) - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 14:13
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 14:13
Mike,
Great read and yes that evil sadist does exist. It's always a cow of a job getting them back into those bags they come in hey?
In addition the mood is never the best when this generally happens as it usually means it is time to go
home at the end of a trip.
Have a good one.
AnswerID:
120920
Reply By: Vince NSW - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:01
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:01
Mike,
This is why we ditched the tent for the Camper Or swags when we are going to areas where the camper can't make it.
Great read.
Vince
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Member - Wim (Qld) - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:08
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:08
Mike,
I'll give you one more "the self inflating mattress" (queen size). Get that XXXXX back in the bag.
Now there is a job and a half.
Regards
Wim
AnswerID:
120934
Follow Up By: geocacher (djcache) - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 16:12
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 16:12
Roll it up.
Put the plugs in.
Unroll it.
Roll it again until about a foot to go and the last foot will look pretty much inflated.
Undo the plugs & roll the last foot.
Put plugs in and you'll have room in the bag to spare.
.............................
As for the tent, buy a Coleman. Great bags and tent always fits - easily.
Dave
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Mike Harding - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 18:56
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 18:56
Wim, you have my sympathy. I have two self-inflators, one queen size and one single. I have dispensed with using the bags for either of them.
What was even worse than getting them into the bag was getting the damn things out again as my two tend to leak slightly when rolled up and thus expanded to overfill the bag.
With the queen I use an air bed high speed pump in reverse mode to help me deflate it. I found a soft plastic sink plug nicely fitted the valve hole in the mattress and I drilled a hold in the plug to accept the air pump – works very
well and makes it a lot easier to deflate. The single is easy enough to do by hand.
Mike Harding
FollowupID:
376037
Reply By: Member - Blue (VIC) - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:11
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:11
The bag that goes over my box trailer fits nice... ;)~
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Footloose - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:14
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:14
The same bloke makes sleeping bag carry bags !!
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Mad Dog (Australia) - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 17:11
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 17:11
Yeah,
mine got ripped on the last trip trying to force it in.
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Reply By: conman - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:24
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:24
Hi Mike,
I thought you were going to buy a swag!
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Follow Up By: Mike Harding - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 18:59
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 18:59
Yep, have done but discovered I hadn't packed away my tent from the last trip, I had left it in the garage to dry out so thought I would stand up to that bag and force the tent into it today - result: Harding 1 - Tent bag 0 :)
Mike Harding
FollowupID:
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Reply By: Willem - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:24
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:24
And the answer is...............An Oztent (30 second tent). We are so amzed it fits in to the bag every time.
But yeah, previoius tents were a pain :o)
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Mad Dog (Australia) - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 17:12
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 17:12
the cheapo oztrail fits in easily also.
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Bradley- Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 17:28
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 17:28
2nd that , we got the oztent rv3 (2nd biggest) and at the time quizzed wether the extra side panels and front would fit in the tent bag - no they have to go in their own bag , was the answer,
Well bugger me , the tent plus the 2 side and front panel fit easily in the standard bag , it is a heavy bugger though :-((
FollowupID:
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Reply By: Skinny- Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:31
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:31
Well I could not agree more. But frustration leads to growth and change.
I have it on good authority .
1. Buy tent go camping 1hour to set up 2 hours to pack up.
2. Get frustrated buy bigger stuff sacks and modify packing arrangements
3. Go camping 45 min set up 1 hour down
4. get frustrated buy camper trailer
5. go camping and take too much stuff.....
6. get frustrated.... kids leave
home
7 go camping leave it all behind and take a swag
8 Wife complains get frustrated about swag
9. Buy a caravan
10 ????????
Not from personal experince
Skinny
AnswerID:
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Reply By: D-Jack - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:36
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 15:36
Mike
I don't know if you were expecting hints to folding up a tent or just expelling some hatred to make you feel better and stop you kicking the dog, buy we have (don't use much any more because of the camper) a 3m x 3m geodesic design dome tent with huge extended vestible. I tried and tried to get it all rolled up into one - the poles in the middle, the fly all rolled up in the main tent. Did work with a bit of pushing/prodding and thank goodness the bag zippers are tough. But now I just do each seperately and they seem to fit no problems. Just roll them up small and tight and it seems to eliminate extra air trapped when you roll them all up together.
Just remember, the man who makes the bag is probably working with economic limitations. If you pay the workers all of that 40c per hour, you would probably want to save 5c on each bag made to help the huge cost of labour in China.
D-Jack
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Lech - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 16:15
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 16:15
Somewhere an evil sadist lurks…
Thought you were talking about somebody with a speed camera :)
AnswerID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Duncs - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 22:26
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 22:26
They are brothers one makes tent bags and the other operates a speed camera.
The best answer is a stuff sack with compression straps. Fold tent as best you can place in stuff sack and then heave on the compression straps until it fits in its space in the car.
Oh, don't foprget to put the speed cameraq operator in the bag with the tent.
Duncs
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Duncs - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 22:26
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 22:26
They are brothers one makes tent bags and the other operates a speed camera.
The best answer is a stuff sack with compression straps. Fold tent as best you can place in stuff sack and then heave on the compression straps until it fits in its space in the car.
Oh, don't forget to put the speed camera operator in the bag with the tent.
Duncs
FollowupID:
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Reply By: KiwiAngler - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 17:30
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 17:30
And not a lot of ppl know this but the same SB (sadisitic b**tard) puts those 'self erecting'
toilet tent thingies into bags during his lunch break at the tent packing company.
Ever tried doing the 'figure 8" packing method on one of those beggars..I almost lost an eye last time I did :-)))))
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Blackie - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 17:40
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 17:40
A simple
solution is to
a. Have a new bag made at your local Canvas establishment 50% larger all round
b. use the old tent bag to put the poles in
c. Use the old pole bag to put the pegs and ropes in.
d. Throw the small bag away.
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Sand Man (SA) - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 18:41
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 18:41
Mike,
I reakon that mongrel also designed the "pop-up" toilet tent.
Pops up in 5 seconds.......folds down once you get the hang of it!
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Member - Jeff M (WA) - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 18:50
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 18:50
When we used the big dome tent, I took the tent out, carefully placed the bag in the big green bin in the front of the house and whacked a
cargo strap around the middle of the thing. Then put tent in roof rack bag.
Instructions for Fold up chairs.......
1. Take chair out of bag,
2. Carfully place bag in bin
3. Put chair in roof rack bag.
The cheapo second hand canvas tent I use now had a ginormous canvas bag with a draw string, man it's good.
Roll tent up, goes in bag. AMAZING!. Never experienced anything like it...
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Member - Ray - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 20:04
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 20:04
Yeah, He's the son of the bloke who designs the foam packaging you get you VCR or camera or some other piece of gearin. BASTARD, son of P*&%^(K
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Member - Trevor R (QLD) - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 20:06
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 20:06
Mike,
That's a cracker read, and a big reason for the caravan I got. Too much work means so little time to waste on such issues when we finally do get to go away.
Keep up the good reads.
Regards Trevor.
PS still laughing now.
AnswerID:
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Reply By: babs - Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 20:52
Monday, Jul 18, 2005 at 20:52
I bought one of those beach tents for $100 uno the one that you throw in the air and it unfolds best thing untill you have to put it back together. 30sec assemble 45mins pack up. the first time i had to pack it up was immpossible I ended up leaving it in the car park and drove off, the wife made me go back and get it, there went another 20mins. I have mastered it now ...
AnswerID:
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Reply By: Member - Davoe (Widgiemooltha) - Tuesday, Jul 19, 2005 at 03:29
Tuesday, Jul 19, 2005 at 03:29
Was working with a shmbo who always slept in a tent and muggins was in charge of putting it up and pulling it down (dome tent) dunno if it was the bag it came in or not but it was a healthy size and made the job reeeeel easy. (well as easy as putting up and packing away a tent you dont sleep in). Also use it enough and it will develop creases so you know straight away where to fold it making the job esier. (never did figure the best way to fold up the fly)
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