I just picked up my new 10.0 and have only set it up and closed it a few times at the dealership and at home. At the dealership it seemed like the person showing us how was still struggling a bit tucking in the tent enough to close it. My son and I did it a bit better at home being more careful to close slowly and pull the fabric out as much as possible but the canvas is still folded between the closed bars like an accordian and then the excess is folded over the outside of the bars in which seems like it will wear . I had watched the youtube video but honestly it's not that helpful because they do it fast with no explanation and it appears like the canvas just gently falls into place with no bunching or anything. I read the manual and it says to gather the tent fabric over the bend in the bimini bars then close and then fold in the excess canvas. Says nothing about the velcro in the center. Do you keep that attached? The dealer did. Is that the trick to get the fabric to lay flatter so we can tuck it in better. What's the trick? What do y'all do to make it easier. Or am I doing it right and just worrying too much? I'm thinking if the velcro wasn't holding the canvas to the bar then as we bring them over we could pull the canvas out into the middle better and flatten the excess to the side so when we fold it in it will be flatter and the bimini bars won't actually be in the fold of the canvas. I hope that description makes sense.
You're right to keep the Velcro attached. It just takes some practice. They major thing to remember is to make sure there is no tent material between the bars and the side of the trailer. Bars bouncing up and down might rub a hole in material. Just slide the material on the bars toward the center. Now you have a ton of material bunched in the middle of the trailer. I have learned you can use empty spots in the trailer to pull the tent canvas too. For example when letting the rear deck side canvas, pull the bunched canvas forward over top the sink. It decrease the huge bunch of canvas in the middle. It's hard to explain. We should post our own videos on how we take down our trailers.
Thanks for the reply. We do have material between so I'll try again tonight and see if we can get it in the middle better the bars really should lay flat against each other without fabric between them. I just couldn't figure how it. Obviously the dealer didn't know how either because my son and I got it closer than he did but it still didn't seem right. It would be awesome if there were videos from owners showing the breakdown of how they do it. That video manual is pretty useless to really show it.
Takedown and packing of a Quicksilver is ridiculously simple---IF you know how. If you do not know how and do it wrong you will get rub holes in you canvas while underway. These steps came directly from the factory.
I cannot speak to a 5.0 or a 6.0, but this should work for an 8.0, an 8.1, or a 10.0. And I only know how to do this with two people. I think it can be done alone but would require some workarounds.
Backstory: We were lucky enough to pick up our 2010 8.1 at the factory at a time when personal customer service was still the norm. We camped overnight at a nearby KOA and in the morning discovered that we had NO clue how to properly pack the thing. We had to tow it back to the factory with the bed frames sticking up so they could show us how. Indeed, the factory video is far too fast, and doing this chore right is critically important. Thanks to Mike at the factory we were experts in five minutes. Bear in mind that these steps came directly from the factory. They have worked 100% for us for 6 full seasons.
I'll try to go step by step from memory. In practice you can take a Quicksilver down in maaaaybe 10 minutes tops, not including repacking your personal gear. Key things to remember are that you DO NOT need to undo any of the Velcros or straps holding the bars. I've seen lots of bad advice about doing that. The whole point of a Quicksilver is simplicity---easy up, easy down. It takes far longer to explain it than to do it.
[ol type="decimal"][li]I always zip up all windows and storm canvas to keep it neat and avoid damage.
[/li][li]Remove and stow the center bar/brace
[/li][li]Lower and stow the upper kitchen cabinet
[/li][li]For the rest of your stowage nothing should be any higher than the top of the lowered kitchen or it will interfere with the tent going into the box.
[/li][li]Exit the camper and zip the door flap
[/li][li]Undo all snaps except two, one on each bed end, to prevent the tent from dropping prematurely
[/li][li]I think this tool is beyond price for saving your fingers, your snaps, your canvas, and your sweet disposition: http://www.amazon.com/Ironwood-Pacific-008-1-Top-Snapper-Snap/dp/B00GHU5PXO
[/li][li]Undo the Velcro under the bed frames (if you have it; I understand some no longer do)
[/li][li]When the tent is completely loose except for the two holding snaps on each bed end...
[/li][li]YOU AND YOUR PARTNER STAND ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF THE COACH, RIGHT AT THE END OF THE COACH. This is where the hinge of the bed frame is. There is a vertical seam in the canvas on each side
[/li][li]On a 10 or an 8.0 you should start on the kitchen/hitch end. LL advises that the tent seems to fit better in the box if the kitchen end goes down first.
[/li][li]On an 8.1 start at the "short" end, opposite the kitchen/hitch. The tent fits better in an 8.1 if you remember "small end first."
[/li][li]Undo that last snap on that end, AND EACH OF YOU DRAWS YOUR VERTICAL SEAM AND CANVAS AS FAR AWAY FROM THE SIDE AS YOU CAN. The tent will start to fall as you do so. You are drawing the canvas away so that it cannot become "bunched" in the bars as they collapse. It is completely normal for there always to be some canvas between the bars. You DO NOT need to start poking or pulling. Just let it be.
[/li][li]Proceed to the opposite end of the coach and repeat.
[/li][li]Now you will have the bars and most of the tent collapsed in the box
[/li][li]And the rest of the tent will be draped over the sides of the coach
[/li][li]SIMPLY "FLOP" THE SIDES OF THE TENT IN ON TOP OF THE COLLAPSED TENT.[/li][/ol]
That's it. Done. Done-ski. Simple. There may be a little poking and stuffing to insure that all the tent is inside the box and does not get trapped under the bed frames when they come over, but you DO NOT have to do a lot of that, or if you do you may have done something incorrectly. Most of the tent fabric simply ends up on top of the bimini bars.
Our experience (our VERY LONG experience of years, thousands of miles, hundreds of camps, to this day on Rosie's ORIGINAL TENT) has been that we have NEVER had a rub hole. We pretty much just reverse the procedure to put the thing up, and since we have not undone any of the straps or Velcros holding the tent to the biminis she goes up faster than I can 'splain it. Bed, bed, pull, pull, snap snap snap snap snap snap snap snap &c aaaaaand UP! ::)
Incidentally, if the tent is wet when you strike the camp, go around the inside and smack the tent with the flat of your hand to knock off as much water as possible. If the tent is heavily wet you may want to towel it off when it is collapsed (one end at a time) to prevent water from pooling on the deck. Most of the time I get very little water inside.
If the tent is nice and warm it will go in much easier than if it is cold.
If you have supplemental mattresses or toppers (we do) it may take some finessing to get the beds to lie flat enough to do up the tonneau.
The vast majority of dealers seem to not know how to do this correctly. If you got conflicting advice from your dealer I would honestly question it, as the procedure I've outlined here came directly from the factory, demonstrated hands-on by a fella named Mike, and we have had zero problems for 6 full seasons.
Just try not to forget that the key thing about any Quicksilver is SIMPLICITY. From the beginning we were bowled over by how EASY it was, far easier than any tent on the ground, so that we camp far more than we ever did in tents.
Chuck893,
Nice write up on closing the camper.
Thanks! That helps. I think I am way overthinking this. The main issue would be canvas along the side of the bars between bar and trailer wall. Folds in the top are okay? It doesn't seem like my bars come all the way down into the frame even with no obstruction from fabric. They simply don't want to collapse onto each other. When we flip the ends in it never seats completely in the middle. The fabric doesn't seem to be the issue with this. Will that settle over time?
Quote from: @katemeyer" source="/post/20754/thread" timestamp="1461323738Thanks! That helps. I think I am way overthinking this. The main issue would be canvas along the side of the bars between bar and trailer wall. Folds in the top are okay? It doesn't seem like my bars come all the way down into the frame even with no obstruction from fabric. They simply don't want to collapse onto each other. When we flip the ends in it never seats completely in the middle. The fabric doesn't seem to be the issue with this. Will that settle over time?
Yes. When the tent first comes down it will always "sit up" a little bit. There is a lot of material there, and even some trapped air. The top of the tent is normally "accordioned" between the bars, and both halves of the tent and all the bars
plus the sides are all lying loosely on top of one another, so it's completely normal for it all to be "sitting up." Local conditions also make a difference. If it's chilly the tent will be stiffer than if it is warm. I read someplace that the plastic windows have a "cold crack" around 25 degrees, so if it's really cold you could actually damage the windows, but frankly if it's that cold you don't want to be out in a Quicksilver anyway. :D
The biggest single thing is drawing the sides of the tent well away from the bars as you drop. There will always be
some material between the bars, but drawing the tent away, on both sides (why I think it's best to work with a partner, one of you on each side), minimizes the material between the bars. Still, there's a lot of material and bars and air in there so sure, it won't all go right down flat. The bed frames will start pushing it all down. This is where a little prodding may be necessary just to
make sure there is no tent material trapped between the bed frame and the edge of the coach. The frames are pretty heavy and will start to compress the tent and bars just on their own weight, but I often push them down with my elbows to help the process. We also have a 4-inch topper that replaced our 2-inch factory mattress, so there is an extra 2" that have to be compressed (we leave the mattresses on top). That sometimes requires a pretty good elbow treatment to get the tonneau snaps to align, but the whole thing compresses quite quickly as soon as you start rolling. By the time you get a couple of miles down the road everything should be perfectly flat.
One thing occurs to me, and that is to
always make sure that anything stowed in the trailer is not higher than the top of the folded kitchen. For the tent and bars to compress they have to have someplace to go. We no longer use our table but we have kept the benches (in an 8.1 they are on each side of the coach), and I use the open space between the benches for stowage, but I make sure nothing is higher than the top of the bench cushions. It's probably obvious, but there needs to be room for the tent to go down. :)
Thanks so much Chuck893 :) My sons are 10 and 7 so I kind of have to get comfortable with the process myself so I can direct them as they help me. We opened and closed it a few times last night to practice based on your instructions and it went much better. We seem to have gotten the hang of getting the canvas pulled out like you said. My older son helps with the beds and tent and my younger one gets the support clips set up and is in charge of snapping. Together we can get it up in just minutes. A little longer for take down but your tips did help with that :) We have her all packed up now and ready to take her on her first camping trip in the morning.
Have a terrific time! :)