Tentsmiths Forester Tent

Very poor customer service. Tent loops too small.

The tent's loops are too small to use a large enough (i.e. strong enough) stick/branch to support the tent. I have asked repeatedly what type of pole is intended and Deborah passes my email to Peter who never responds.

There is no real photo of this tent in use, only a drawing that I tried to emulate, without any success due to the loops being about 2-3 sizes too small. The end effect is that the top of the tent sags, which then causes water to collect on the sides, and the tent looks very sad and dirty.

I am going to try power washing it, cutting the top loops, adding canvas to the loops to make them bigger, and then resetting it.  

You can see in the first photo (the successful setup) how small the sticks have to be to fit. That was taken before the rain. Then it poured while I was away for a week. I came back to a huge saggy mess because the ridgepole was practically a U-shape. I cannot find photo of this. Then I tried dowel rods. You can see where the connection fails. But those are the largest dowels I could use; they fit snuggly in the loops.  

Background

I have purchased two of their other tents, which I have not attempted to set up yet. (I purchases all three at the same time.) I hope those experiences will be better.