Help packing up my Tarptent

Nah, no folding. I would either roll it — or just stuff it. Completely harmless either way. Just make sure that the tent is thouroughly clean and dry — if storing.

Here's the procedure we use to ship it. The goal is to fold the tent body so that it assumes the same width as the top strut and then roll everything up around the strut.

1) Lay the tent out and fold it in half, long edge to long edge. The top end will be a little awkward because the strut prevents the apex from folding in half.

2) Now fold the fabric back on itself at the midline axis. The tent will now be folded in quarters with the netting door at one end and the midpoint of the tent at the other (folded) end. Roll the strut over so that it lays on top of the fabric bundle.

3) Fold again in thirds along the long axis–the axis perpendicular to the strut. The width of the folded fabric should now match the folded pole length and the strut will be perpendicular to the long dimension of fabric.

4) Place the folded poles at the closed/folded end of the fabric and roll the tent body tightly toward the end with the netting door and front strut. The air will squeeze out through the netting as you go.

5) When you finish rolling all the way to the end, slide the tightly rolled bundle into the stuffsack, twisting as you go.

Voila!

-H

On a tangent…

Henry, having the cross pole on your Rainbow makes it a breeze to roll up and slip into its stuff sack. To me, it's just about the easiest tent to pack up. A joy to use.

I do not use the stuff sack for my Gossamer Gear Squall Classic….I store it loosely in a large "airy" container in my closet which is in the long run easier for me, since when packing for trips it simply gets folded/stuffed in the external backpack pocket.

Cheers,
Christopher

“How do you pack up and put away a Tarptent Rainshadow. I had a really tough time getting it back into the stuff sack. Is there a special way of folding it?”

The regular Rainshadow, that I have, is the hardest of all tarptents to get in the bag. This is the biggest tent for the same size bag as the others. I fold it in fourths and roll it up around my poles; letting the poles be the stiffener as I roll it. I also throw my stake bag in there initially. If I put the stake bag in last, I risk poking holes in the highly stretched material (tent and bag). Then I do as Henry says and twist and stuff into the bag. It helps to have some music going when you do this :).

This stuffing process puts me in awe of the material used with the GG Squall classic. That spinaker just slips and slides— almost drops into the stuff sack.

-Barry