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?

2 comments

2 Comments

shane_ross7d ago

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

ivan2117d 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.