Why the 18x24 tarp??
Because the tent is over 10 years old and is stuffed. It leaks like a sieve.
We went OK for the setup. Probably about 2 hours. The first 40-60 minutes of that is the tarp. It's a PITA, but it saves us from the weather. It rained most of Sunday and we were good. At one point we had 11 kids and four adults in our tarp and it was perfectly fine. No-one getting wet, everyone enjoying themselves. Dam, 11 kids are LOUD though!
We can get the tent done in about 25 minutes. Up, fly, pegs, etc. The rest of the time it's the kitchen, benches, et al.
We got packed up just as quick as the camper trailer guys (tow other families). We have the teardown pretty much wired. From everything setup to completely packed up in a little over an hour.
FYI - Some friends we go with bought along their newly purchased Camel (ex Demo model). Nice. Bastards :-)
So I'm doing a LOT of reading regarding this. We won't be buying any time soon (damn finances), but hopefully before the year ends.
My main item is setup time. I'm even considering OzTents, but the missus really wants a camper (and to be honest, so do I). I would love to be able to turn up on a Saturday late afternoon (Sat morning = kids sport) and be setup really quick for a single night's stay. As others have said - setup time when we're going somewhere for a week will and does take longer, but it's also not the end of the world. It's the short one nighters I'm aiming to make a lot easier.
PS - I also caught up with DaveR (see post about going to Bigriggen). Was good to meet a fellow MySwagger!
