Murray Felstead s modifications to Mark 3 Murranji Tvan to simplify re-assembly. I think all Tvan owners would agree that you do need a fair amount of upper body strength to fold up a Tvan. Lifting the canvas up into the lid section, especially if the canvas is wet, can take a bit of effort. Also, as we all age, we might find the re-assembly progressively more difficult, and we all want to be able to keep our Tvans, don t we? If we have trouble in later years with the re-assembly, we may have to sell it. With this in mind, I have made a couple of simple and fairly cheap modifications to my Mark 3 Murranji, to significantly aid the re-assembly. Firstly, I took my tropical roof to Bartletts, which is the company that makes the canvas for the Tvan. I m lucky I live in Ballarat, where they are located. However, you should find any saddlery store should have the industrial sewing machines to make the modifications. All they did, was add five extra straps with a double loop on each to the tropical roof. (I subsequently realized that the double loop is not required and all one needs to do is just have the five extra straps.) Three, each next to the three clips on the section of the tropical roof that clips to the rings on the tvan roof at the hinge and one on each side of the tropical roof, again next to the clips that clip to the side rings when the tent bottom rear has been pulled up to the side carabiners. These straps will make the process of pulling each clip towards its ring much easier, when the straps are firstly pulled through each ring and then pulled down. I also added a quick grip spring clamp, one extra carabiner to clip on to the carabiner that is permanently attached to the left side of the roof, plus for the pulley system, two extra carabiners, an awning pulley and a few metres of stretch cable, enough to go from the middle of the rear outside floor of the tent, under the tent and up to the centre ring in the roof at the hinge, plus a bit. Five to six metres should be more than enough. And two rings, one ring to pull the cable up and the other to hold the opposite end carabiner in place. The cable has attached a carabiner at one end, and the other end of the cable goes through the pulley and is tied off with a ring. The second carabiner is hooked through the hole in the pulley. See the photos. Most of the photos have an explanation of each component. But basically it does make the whole reassembly process much easier, and the pulling of the tent up into the pocket can be done sitting down on the seat, so it would also be useful if there is bad weather outside. When you arrive in camp, this pulley system will be sitting in the pocket under the lid with the tent, so when letting the tent drop, also watch out for the pulley and carabiners coming down. You don t want them hitting your head! This whole modification was done after one cold, wet morning when I had trouble pulling the clips up to their relative rings. I thought there must be an easier way. This is my solution.
This photo shows one of the five extra straps, sewn just next to each of the straps with the plastic clips. The beauty of these straps is that when you are trying to pull the clip up to its ring, it can be difficult to do it without this assistance. Instead, I hoop the strap through the ring that will have the clip attached to it, then pull down on the strap, and simultaneously I can push the canvas tent up to assist getting the clip closer to its ring. This is the simple pulley system. The gold carabiner has a ring attached to it, then this ring has one end of the elastic cord. The other end of the cord loops through the pulley, and, you can t see it clearly in this photo, but there is a ring at this end of the cord. The pulley then has the pink carabiner through its ring. The pulley was bought from the big green hardware store.
When in camp, the pink pulley is hooked on the metal bend next to the number plate so it is out of the way. When in camp, the gold end of the pulley sits on the black tvan cord at the back of the tent. The cord in between the gold and pink carabiners is pushed to the side of the floor, so when we walk on the floor inside the tent, the cord cannot be felt.
This picture shows the three straps sewn next to the three clips on the section of the tropical roof that, when folding up, attach to the three rings near the hinge of the lid. c I m right handed, and I found when I pull the two rings from the rear top of the tent around to clip onto the carabiners on the side of the lid, the first one (I do the right side first) is easy, but to clip the left side takes a lot more strength. I solved that by adding a second carabiner in line with the carabiner on the left hand side, so that the second ring does not have to be pulled up as far. I don t see a problem here because it is the zips that will soon take the full strain of holding the tent in place. These carabiners are only here to assist to keep the tent up at the lid and to create the pocket for the rest of the tent to placed inside.
After attaching the rings to the side carabiners and creating the pocket, I then attach the pink carabiner to the middle ring near the lid hinge, as shown in the photo. I then pull this ring down, remembering that the other end of the cord is attached to the rear middle of the tent, and this process then pulls that other carabiner (the gold one) up towards the location of the pulley, and in the process, pulling the centre bottom of the tent up. During this process, I am sitting down on the seat, just under the rings near the hinge. This avoids the process originally suggested to me of having to grab the corners of the tent and throw the tent into the pocket under the lid. Now, I have pulled the cord as far as it goes, bringing up the gold carabiner which is at the rear centre of the tent, and I use the spring clip (also available from Bunnings) to temporarily hold the assembly in place. I then, still sitting on the seat, push the two bottom corners of the tent, which were dragged behind the gold carabiner, into the pocket, just under the lid. I then remove the spring clip, and allow the middle bottom of the tent, where the gold carabiner is, into the pocket. I then unclip the pink carabiner and also put that into the pocket. I then pull the three straps through their rings and attach the three clips to each ring, and then do up the side and top zips.