Question about ARB RTT

[Victorian]

WE love our ARB tent, used it many many times since we bought it last January. But we have one question we haven't solved and are wondering how you guys are doing it:

When you are folding the tent, how do you prep it?
Here is how we are doing it: Fold mattress in half (sleepingbags/pillows all out of the tent), attach bungies, close all zippers and fold together.

I'm always hearing people saying that they leave "everything" up there... How on earth are you getting the cover on? With pillows and sleepingbags there is no way it would fold small enough. Also, do you leave your mattress flat before you fold? I'm worried it would fold over the bungies and eventually putting on too much stress on them especially when setting up.

Cheers

 

[VictorSmalls]

I do not do anything to the mattress, just even out the double sleeping bag. So far I do not have any issues with closing. Have not tried to keep pillows up there yet.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

I commonly left two sleeping bags (lighter size) and two small camp pillows in the tent. We would distribute them equally around the center of the landed portion (non-folding floor) and leave ~6" around the perimeter of the 3 zipper sides to allow tucking in the material as the tent folded. It helps to have a second person "stuffing the guts" as you close it to tuck it nicely and not have it billow out but I did it a hundred times or more solo and could always work through it.