How to put up a Vango Oregon.

I seem to get asked a lot on UKCS how I put up my Vango Oregon! And I`ve got a bit bored with typing it all out, so thought I`d put it here for easy reference.

I have the 2006 version of the Oregon which has a seperate riser groundsheet. The 2007 version has a SIG but goes up flysheet first. These instructions might help with the 2007 version but as I`ve never seen it close up, I`m not sure how well they apply.

Usual disclaimer: I`m not affilliated with either Vango or UKCS, so the information given here is my own take on putting up these tents. Remember to read the official instructions as well (sewn on inside of bag) and check the Vango website for helpful videos showing both the 2006 and 2007 versions being pitched.



This is my Oregon 600. I was on a camping trip in 2006 to Woolfest in Cockermouth. This was a rare trip without my family...I went with my friend Shona, who you see in the picture. I chose this photograph because it shows the 600 being used as a two-man tent, with just the large pod being hung. The large pod has a central divider and can take two double airbeds or, as in this case, a single airbed in each bedroom with plenty of room for personal possessions. The end door has been rolled up, but can also be polled out as a sun canopy. You might notice that the riser groundsheet has not been put down...I prefer not to use a groundsheet if the ground is good. Grass makes a great fitted carpet!

Okay....instructions.

1) Lay out flysheet on ground with narrow end pointing into the wind. (I have a 600 with an end door, can`t remember if the 800 has an end door. If it does, the other end goes into the wind.) Ensure zips are closed and tension straps open.

2)Assemble poles. You should have two short ones and two (3 for the 800) slightly longer ones. The sleeves on the flysheet have coloured edges to match the poles, but the two short ones go on the outer edges.

3) Thread poles through flysheet sleeves. Push, don`t pull.

4)Starting at the rear end, form each pole into a hoop by fitting the pole end onto the pin at the ring and pin system. It helps to have one person at each end. As you form each hoop, lay it on the ground on top of the previous one, to form a concertina.

5)Look at your pegs. There should be four V-profile ones. Take two of these, go to the rear end of the flysheet and find the two D-rings attached to the base of the flysheet by tensioning straps. Make sure these straps are loosened and peg down the two rings, ensuring that the edge of the canvas between them is smooth and taut. (NB:taut means taut, not drum tight.)

TIP here for solo erectors! Have a wee think here where the other end of your tent is going to be, once you walk the flysheet out. Go and put your mallet, the other two V-profile pegs and a couple of plain pegs at this spot. It`s about 16 feet for the 600, 20 for the 800.

6)Useful to have two people here, but you can do it with one. Stand the pile of pole hoops up on edge and start walking away from the two pegged points. Try to walk out straight, lining the bases of the hoops up to make straight side walls. If the flysheet looks wrinkly then you`re going squint. Try to keep it true. If you alligned the bum end of your tent into the wind then this will help push it upright too.


7)Once you get to the fifth pole, get your helper to hold everything upright untill you get the two corresponding end D-rings pegged with the second two V-profile pegs.

TIP for solos. You need to hold that end hoop up while pegging the two end D-rings. There will be a guyline at the top centre of the last hoop. Undo it and peg it down to support the hoop. Yup, that`s why I suggested leaving your mallet and two spare pegs there!

8)Once you`ve got the four main pegs in, take a moment to fiddle around with the hoops to get them nice and straight. Smooth runs of canvas between them. Then peg them down through the rings.

9) Tighten up the tension straps at the rings and the end points about halfway. Once again, taut not tight. Check the doors will unzip. You might need to tweak the poles an inch or two here.

Peg out the guylines. Yes, ALL the guylines, one peg each. Guylines run out from the tent in line with their pole, meet the ground at an angle of 45` and the peg goes in at an angle of 45` with the point going towards the tent. Bang the pegs in fully. Snug up the sliders...taut guylines.

10) Peg everything else you can see...loops along the flysheet edges etc.

11) Go inside, fit groundsheet, toggle in inners.

HTH. It should take 20-30 minutes once you get the hang of it.

Khyam Canopied 4-Pole Windbreak

I bought a Khyam Canopied 4-Pole Windbreak from Outdoor Megastore last week. At the same time there was a discussion going on as to the merits or otherwise of this on UKCS so I decided to give it a trail run in the garden (as you should will all new tenty things!) and write up a little review with pictures.

Disclaimer! I`m not connected with either Khyam or UKCS in any capacity other than a satisfied customer, and as such the opinions expressed here are purely my own, okay?

The windbreak is a standard 3 panel design. Each panel is 175cm across and 140cm high. There is a clear viewing strip in each panel at viewing height while you`re sitting down. The roof section is stitched to the top of the middle wall section and is 125cm square. There are four awning type poles, each 160cm approx long, that are made up of three standard slot together sections, with a pointed end on the bottom section and a guyline spike at the other. There are also two longer poles made up of four shorter sections for the roof canopy, eight guylines with sliders and eight pegs.

No instructions, but it`s all fairly obvious. You assemble the upright poles, slot them into the windbreak channels, put the eyelets at the top of the fabric sections over the spikes, loop the guylines over the spikes and guy out. If you were using this just as a windbreak I would recommend not trying to do this in a straight line but in an L or U shape instead, to give stability.

The clever part comes with the roof section. If you arrange the side panels into three sides of a square, you can put the eyelets on the front corners of the roof onto the two front windbreak poles and make a cube.....well, a cuboid.

Yes, it`s a bit low if you`re tall. I`m 5`4" and I`m scraping my head. It`s pretty sheltered though and would be a pretty good place to cook. There are little velcro tabs along the tops of the side walls and the roof which hold the edges together. I`m not sure how they`d fare in a howling gale, but they`re not bad.
Also, because the roof is low, I`m not sure how I`d feel cooking on a standard height kitchen unit. I have a three-tier beanstalk though so I`ll use two sections of that. Or you could use a cooker with short legs.


To get more height of course you can tilt the canopy up, to 175cm at the front.

I`m not sure I`d use this arrangement for cooking in the rain, but for cooking in a fine but windy day it would be very pleasant.

If you wanted to add a sheltered but roofless dining area...



Or you could open both sides up to form a shallow curve and use it as a normal windbreak with a bit of shade attached. Or even roll the canopy back and clip it to the top edge of the windbreak.


All in all, very versatile piece of kit.

Ah, but is it sturdy? Well yes, as much as any of these tall thin nylon windbreaks with thin poles are. It`s better than my old Khyam windbreak with the fold over knuckle joints, certainly. The poles are just standard awning pole-out poles, but they can be guyed out very firmly. There`s only six guylines for the main windbreak though...two for each end pole and one each for the centre poles. I would add another couple of guylines here in very windy weather. I`ll reserve overall judgement untill I`ve seen it out in a good wind.

Another bad point, if you`ll pardon the pun, is the spike point on top of every pole. Now apparently if you attempt to pound the pole into the ground by hitting this spike top with your mallet, the spike will vanish into the pole. I didn`t do this though as I had read an inspired suggestion by "chrisowen" of UKCS who suggested putting a wooden cotton reel over the spike section before you started hammering in the poles. This worked like the proverbial charm and allowed me to hammer the poles solidly into the ground. Incidentally, if like me you get dizzy trying to hammer in awning poles taller than yourself, take a section or two out, hammer the lower sections in then reconstruct the pole.

What else? Oh, pegs. L-shaped pegs. I hate L-shaped pegs because given half a chance ie soft ground or not hammered in properly they rotate and the guyline slips off. I threw them into the junk peg box and replaced them with some good workaday crooktop wire pegs. Or you could use Deltas, I suppose?

I bought this windbreak/canopy because the campsite I`m going to next weekend doesn`t allow auxilliary tents of any type hence I can`t take my kitchen tent. I don`t like cooking in my main tent and I also don`t like cooking outside in a howling gale and tipping rain either. So I wanted something to provide me with a bit of shelter. I could have used a tarp roof plus a windbreak, but this looked a more elegant solution. So far, it`s living up to this.

How does it compare to a kitchen tent like my Sunncamp? ? On the plus side, it`s considerably cheaper, it packs to about 1/5 the size and it takes about half the time to put up. And I wouldn`t expect to be charged for it on site either. On the minus side it`s not got a door, it`s smaller and much lower and it`s not going to be as weatherproof or sturdy as the Suncamp with its internal frame.

But as a cooking shelter I think it`s going to prove very useful. I can see me taking this with me for lighter weight camping...I could see it working very well with a couple of pup tents for an overnight or weekend stop, or with a smaller weekend tent. Not everyone has space for a kitchen tent and a big windbreak in their car, and this would be a useful compromise..

Final verdict? Well, I`ll wait till I`ve taken it out next weekend for that. But so far it looks well worth the £22 approx I paid for it.

Introduction.

Hi, my name is Val, and I`ve created this blog to keep track of a lot of things to do with my love of camping.

I`m forty-eight years old, married to Hubby and have two kids, a boy aged ten and a girl aged five. Camping is a big part of our summer.......we go to France every second year for an extended camping trip of a month or more, and in between we have as many camping weekends as possible here.