Leaving annex attached while folding up tent?

Mgyver1

Observer
I can't even get my Howlingmoon to fold up completely with my sleeping bags in, let alone my annex. (That said I have not climbed up on it when I fold it up either).

I leave my two 0 degree sleeping bags (Wiggy’s, love them!) that are zipped together up in my Howling Moon 1.4 Tourer tent along with PJ’s for the kids & me. The only thing I carry up before being able to get in bed is the pillows & a fresh change of clothes. I do have my rainfly completely removed which did add some room for closing. With the fly off I can actually see the stars through the stargazer and haven’t had an issue with water getting in, although I’ve only had it in the rain without the fly a couple of times.
 

Tkhawk

Adventurer
Question, how do you cinch down the tent with the annex attached? I've got a CVT Mount Rainier Extended. I bought a rail off of amazon, much cheaper than from CVT, sorry CVT but $40 plus $40 shipping for a rail is a bit to much of a mark up. I installed it last night and slid the annex in without opening the tent up because it was rainy outside. When I went to zip it on, I realized the cinch down straps were in the way. I figure I'll just make a slit in between the zipper and the rail and slide the d-ring thru, but just wanted to check and make sure there wasn't something I wasn't seeing right. I did go ahead and put the cover on and it all fit in easily without the floor, I think the floor would probably fit as well. It does leave the cover a bit lumpy and not smooth like it was before. I do also have 4 sleeping bags in the tent.
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plh

Explorer
I had a TuffStuff RTT with Annex for a while, that annex would be really difficult to keep attached.

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jacobconroy

Hillbilly of Leisure
It'd help knowing what specific RTT you have. :oops:

I used to own an Eezi-Awn Globetrotter and I could collapse with annex attached. It's designed for a trailer top though.

Same here. I have a Globetrotter and leave the annex attached. But, it takes up just enough room that I had to cut down on the amount of bedding that I kept in the tent. Now days I use the globetrotter for a private, concealed bathroom and do not sleep in that tent, so no bedding is necessary. Really easy to set up when the annex is always attached.
 

K2ZJ

Explorer
Question, how do you cinch down the tent with the annex attached? I've got a CVT Mount Rainier Extended. I bought a rail off of amazon, much cheaper than from CVT, sorry CVT but $40 plus $40 shipping for a rail is a bit to much of a mark up.

Link?
 

sabjku

Observer
So realistically, all of this would be a bit easier if Tepui could offer a bigger cover, correct?:)
 

OnBeechRoad

Observer
I have a Tepui RTT with the annex. My annex seems to work the best when the tent floor height is around 80" from the ground. Since I'm only 5'4" the height makes it difficult to set up the annex, so I rarely would. I hated having to remove my travel cover, try to slide the annex into the sail track then affix the other 3 sides of the annex to the Velcro. Usually the weight of the annex would disconnect it from the Velcro and the whole thing would come back down to the ground. Solution... I went to my local tent, boat canopy and awning manufacturer and worked with them. I bought an additional piece of sail track and permanently mounted it to the bottom of the tent floor, into which i slid a piece of fabric with a wide band of Velcro attached, this stays on the tent full time as well as my travel cover. Then the tent company removed the spline from the annex and replaced it with Velcro. Then they sewed in some small d-rings onto which i hooked on some carabiners. The carabiners will hook into d-rings screwed to the bottom of the tent to support the weight of the annex while i secure the Velcro. I hope the pics help with this description.
 

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Tkhawk

Adventurer
I still haven't tried it with the floor yet. I usually leave 4 sleeping bags in the tent, with the bags I don't think it would quite fit, but one day I'll get around to trying it.
 

Scoutman

Explorer
I did it once with our CVT Mt Denali, summit, extended. It wasn't pretty and I probably won't do it again. That fabric is so stinking heavy and bulky that it just sucked. For us it was at the end of a wet and muddy weekend and also the welting was jammed in the secondary track (the plastic version, not the aluminum version). We knew we were just going to come home and open it right back up. We weren't able to fasten the end straps since the other end was inside the annex. The summit series travel cover seems to have more excess room so it technically fit but like I said I probably won't make a habit of it.

You can sort of see here it's packed like an overstuffed sausage. :eek:IMG_20180311_174433813.jpg
 

Tkhawk

Adventurer
Here's where I cut the seam to feed the loop through so I could strap it closed with the awning on. In case you can't tell I cut the seam where the zipper is sown onto the annex.
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Scoutman

Explorer
I am giving this another shot. Using the plastic secondary channel from CVT ended up binding up my annex so I had to replace it with the aluminum version. Note for anyone adding an extra track that the leverage of the ladders put a lot of force on that channel so be careful that it doesn't deform when you pull on the ladders. I will probably add a bumper strip to take that load.

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Sent from my XT1585 using Tapatalk
 

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