You could happen to go camping and what starts out as a great weekend or week depending on how long your camping for, the weather could potentially turn for the worst. It does happen and if it does you will need to be prepared, the main change would be it would get windier.
So something you will ask yourself is how to secure a tent in high winds? If you prepare yourself beforehand and incase the weather changes your tent can withstand the high winds with these following steps.
- Correctly setup your tent
- Find an area with shelter
- Always use more guy ropes and pegs
- Use a tarp to cover the whole of your tent
- Use the zip or the cover to prevent the wind from tucking underneath
- Choose the direction to set up your tent
- Choosing a High wind Resistant Tent
- The shape of your tent matters
- Having a high wind material being used on the tent
This post should give you an idea on how to secure your tent in high winds and what else to do to prevent your tent being blown away and what tents to use during these conditions.
How To Secure A Tent In High Winds
When you decide to go camping what you will need to factor in is the time of year your thinking of going camping, as the weather will play either for you or against you. According to some research that has been carried out, the Achilles heel for a tent is the high winds that mother nature tends to throw at us. There are many ways to secure your tent but if you follow the ones mentioned below you should be ok.
Set Your Tent up properly
When it comes to pitching your tent or putting your tent up, I would suggest making sure that you do first put the tent up in your back garden first, to make sure that everything you need is all intact and working order. Alot of people do tend to put the tent up themselves without really following the instructions that are given to them. The problem with this way of thinking and doing is that you might miss out on a pole that you will need but you might not think you do.
I would highly recommend following the instructions given to first put your tent up and to take it down, once you do it a few times you will get it trained into your mind where it becomes second nature. To give you a rough idea what to look out for is the following
- Layout all the equipment that comes with the tent in order so you can see visually everything.
- Use all the poles that come with the tent
- Any tent pegs and guy ropes that come with the tent make sure you use them all.
- When you do use the pegs, make sure that you hammer them into the ground at a 450-degree angle to keep the tent tightly held down.
- When you use the guy ropes make sure they are not close to the tent.
- Make sure any flys that come with your tent they are tied to your poles.
If you follow the basics of setting up the tent by following the instructions, you can not go wrong.
Set Up In A Sheltered Spot
With high winds, the last thing you want to do is pitch your tent in the middle of some fields, only for high winds to come along and blow your tent away. You would want to find a place where there is already some shelter, such as trees, or even a rock circle that will act as a windbreaker so the wind won’t affect the tent as much. So it’s almost as if your hiding behind a shelter that blocks the wind hitting you.
Using extra guy ropes and pegs
The function of pegs and guy ropes is to make sure your tent is securely in place and kept strong, make sure that you do use all pegs and ropes that is provided. You can also buy some more pegs and guy ropes to help secure the tent down alot more. So you will know that you will be safe in the tent.
Cover/Zip
If you have a tent that does have a cover or zip, make sure that you do use this as it will help prevent the wind from tucking itself under your tent and blowing it away.
Use a tarp to cover your tent
The beauty about using a tarp is that it prevents any rain coming onto your tent material as it acts as a waterproof for your actual tent, plus it definitely helps keep the wind out and helps keep your tent secure.
How windy is too windy for camping
There is no real answer to how windy is too windy for camping as it would all depend on the speed of the wind, some people have camped in 70 mph winds which are considered hurricane winds. But the average they tend to say is about 40 mph is seen as gale force winds which are still windy, usually about 8-10 mph winds is good enough, but anything more than that it can get tricky even 20 mph winds can be too much.
The only answer is to keep an eye on the weather forecast before you head out, and try and keep an eye on it as you camp and simply tie the tent down with alot of guy ropes and pegs. You could always wait for the wind to die down before you think about going camping.
How to choose the direction to set up your tent
Picking the right spot to set up your tent is one thing, but just incase you do end up having high winds, you want to make sure that the wind doesn’t affect your tent as much and can allow you to sleep well at night.
When setting up your tent, your best bet would be to set the tent up with the back of the tent towards the wind that way, the wind won’t come into the front entrance of the tent and lift or try and blow your tent off the ground.
How to Choose High wind resistant tents
If you decide to go camping and it is during the time that weather conditions are not so bad, but out of the blue the wind tends to pick up, and you find that your current tent that you do have, caves in or the material tears up due to the strong winds your going to struggle and not have the best of experience.
If you want to be on the safe side I would highly recommend that when you do go to buy a tent, make sure that you invest in a tent that can withstand high winds, so that you know that you have confidence that you will be ok.
I’ll cover below what to look for when you’re looking to buy a tent for those windy conditions, you will need to look at the material of the tent, the types of poles etc. Take a look at the sections below to understand:
The poles and the deigns
With any tent especially when it comes to using it for windy weather, the pole design would be vitally important due to the fact that it strengthens the design of each pole. This will be down to the number of poles being used, and the number of times they cross over each other. The number of clips that you use on each pole would make a big difference and the material that you use to attach to each pole.
When it comes to pole design using the right materials to strengthen each pole vary from either using aluminium or carbon fibre. Carbon fibre can be quite strong, but depending on the particular type of aluminium that is used for the poles will depend. The common material used with the aluminium pole is called DAC Featherlite NSL green, the reason for this is because the strength of the material to produce the poles can withstand harsher weather conditions.
Single wall or Double wall
When choosing which tent to buy for camping during windy conditions make sure that you do check to see if you would need to invest into a single wall tent or a double wall tent.
Single wall tent
With a single wall tent, you will have some advantages the main reason to buy a single wall tent, is that when your ready to set up your tent you can pitch it in some small spaces, the weight of the tent won’t be too heavy either as it’s alot lighter to carry and pack. In simple terms, they are alot more compact.
A Double Wall Tent
If your looking for a tent to really do well with windy conditions is a double wall tent, they tend to be alot warmer because of the walls having a double layer. One on the inside and one on the outside of the tent. The outside layer is there to protect you from the rain or snow and wind, whereas the inner layer of the tent will be keeping you warm, plus they are alot stronger so they can handle high winds.
The shape of the tent
With high winds and camping the shape of your tent makes a huge difference, there are many various tent shapes on the market these days, but knowing which one that you need to look into does matter. When it comes to camping the tents that work the best are the tents that are smaller and lower to the ground, the simple reason for this is because as the wind blows, it’s alot harder for the wind to tuck itself underneath your tent to blow it away.
Other tents where they are shaped more like a cabin type can easily get blown away by high winds, as stability is weaker.
Ventilation
This is important when it comes to having a tent, as vents tend to help reduce condensation then say for some breathable fabric tents. So if your tent has more vents it would be a better option for when it alot more colder such as high winds.
To avoid getting condensation on your wall you have to understand that airflow within a tent is vital to take out any water vapour. Our breath releases warm air, which in a small area will condense and freeze up due to the cold weather or high winds. So controlling the condensation having windows or air vents in a tent will work well.
Guyline loops and guy lines
Using guy lines to secure your tent is important, they tend to attach to the rainfly and then staked into the ground to secure your tent and keep it from allowing in water to drip into your tent. The main purpose of the guy lines is to strengthen your tent by taking the strain away from your poles that make up the framework of your tent. So in high windy conditions, the guy lines would be able to take the strain of the high winds not so much the poles otherwise they will snap and your tent will collapse in on you.
It’s important that these guy lines are placed in the middle of the tent along the seems of the tent so it would strengthen it and hold it in place with high winds.
The Material of The Tent
During high winds when you are camping the material that is used to manufacture the tents makes a difference in strength and allowing the high winds to come through. You get two types of materials that are used to produce these tents, one is nylon which is alot more common but alot more durable and holds it’s strength.
The second material used is polyester its slightly weaker than nylon but still holds its strength. Both of these materials will still need a layer of waterproof coating they will come with the coating on them but over time you may need to apply some more. You want to keep an eye out for the fabric of the material whether it is thicker or lighter. The thicker the fabric the stronger it is, whilst if the fabric is less thick then the less durable the material of the tent. Always read up the specifications of the tent to see this.
If you’re looking to go camping soon and you might think that you may want a tent that can handle high winds, or just wind in general then check out these tents that I have researched for myself that I would say are suitable for high wind conditions.