Setting up a new tent in the dark took me two hours when it should have been twenty minutes

I got to the campsite at Lake Tahoe just as the sun was going down. I was tired and just wanted to get my new 4-person dome tent up fast. The instructions were a single sheet with tiny pictures, and my headlamp battery was dying. I spent forever trying to figure out which pole was which, and the color-coded clips were impossible to see. I had the whole thing inside out for a solid thirty minutes before I realized my mistake. By the time I finally got it staked down, it was completely dark and I was just done. Who designs tent instructions you can't use at night when you actually need to set up? Has anyone found a good, simple light-up guide or a better method for this?

3 comments

3 Comments

shane_ross3mo ago

My Coleman had glow-in-the-dark tabs... saved my sanity.

the_val20d ago

Setting up a tent in the dark is annoying but people act like it's some kind of life or death emergency. It's a tent not a space shuttle. You messed up the poles for thirty minutes just turn on your phone flashlight and look at the picture. The glow in the dark tabs are nice but honestly you can just feel the clips with your hands. Maybe try setting it up once in your living room with the lights on before you go camping. Saves you the whole dramatic ordeal at the lake.

ivan2113mo ago

Oh man, I feel this. I had the exact same thing happen with a new tent last fall. The poles were all the same silver color and I swear the diagram was for a completely different model. I got one side all clipped in before realizing the door was facing the wrong way, into a bush. Had to take the whole thing apart in the pitch black.