Closing the tent with a Boat Hook

Probably a really obvious tool, but I picked up a boat hook to make closing the tent even easier. No more climbing up on the tailgate and pulling on the tent fabric, just reach up from ground level and pull down on the lip of the cover. It also works well to tuck the tent in when packing it away.

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I’ve been scratching my head on this one for a bit. I’ll offer this mod on the idea as a possible space saving alternative…exercise handle. Might need a slightly longer one but should work. Thanks for being the catalyst for the thought Corey.

I’ve been scratching my head too – I can picture the boat hook (great idea except I can’t visualize pushing in the tent fabric, I have to karate chop it into place) but what do you mean by “exercise handle” - thanks!

My wife is 5’ 0” and recently took our GFC by herself on a couple day trip. (I’ve always been the one to open and close the tent, and she struggled to close it on her own. She managed…but did not enjoy trying.). She ended up attaching a clipless dog leash (basically a small rope) to the pull tab at the top/center and pulled down on it until tension released and she could manage tucking in the sides of the tent before closing. I reckon that’s not the best thing because it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on the pull tab but it’s what she needed to do, since she did not have the height or wingspan to manage it otherwise.

@GFC might consider adding two additional pull tabs (one near each corner of the tent) to distribute weight for people who need a work around like this, or I’m sure there’s another / much better idea to help solve this design consideration for people who may need a non-traditional method to close it.

Dont think those are pull tabs. They are for rolling the windows up. I saw someone’s post where they used it to close, and ended up ripping it off.

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Just add a handle to the top extrusion and clip on a 7’ rope with a caribeaner when it opens and just pull the rope from the ground to close it. You can close it about 80% and then walk around and push fabric in.
Works great!

Great suggestion @karenkreisel , thank you!