Bell tent time lapse film

Putting up a bell tent is fairly straight forward. Bell tents upto 6m in diameter can be erected single handed if required.

1. Lay out the groundsheet. The long edge of the groundsheet is where the doorway of the bell tent is located so this should be positioned accordingly. At each point of the 11 sides is a tab which corresponds to a canvas tab located at the base of the bent tent wall. These two tabs share a peg. To roll up the sides just unhook the canvas tab. the groundsheet stays pegged down. Loosely peg the groundsheet and then lay out the canvas and hook the canvas tabs over each peg so that canvas is in the correct position. It is a good trick to then walk around dropping a guyline peg approximately one metre away from the tent in line with each tent seam.

2. Push up the central wooden bell tent pole and loosely position the guy lines to stop the pole from falling over. Dont take up all the tension at this point. Fit the A-frame door pole and then do several laps gradually taking up the tension evenly. Always keep the bell tent front door zip closed when taking up the final maximum tension.

3. Re- position groundsheet pegs and ties if required by a centimeter or so to keep them in line with the seams, when happy, hammer them home. Go inside the tent and fold under the base flap beneath the groundsheet and around the ties. To roll up the sides, release the canvas tab and roll securing with the canvas tie and loop.

To watch us putting up a 4m bell tent click here