Folding campervans/trailer tents - advice needed

[jessebelle]

So anyone know anything about folding campervans/trailer tents? I have done my share of camping but while I enjoyed it pre-kids I never liked it once I had my first and I now have two. With a lot of 'camping' opportunities coming up I'm dreading this summer. But I think an element of 'glamping' would make me feel better about it all again - ie, 'proper' beds and kitchen and stand up space etc. I'm on a reasonably small budget though. Anyone have any experience and advice/recommendations for which type to go for etc etc?

I hated a trailer tent.

Tried it once and never again. It was slower than a tent to erect and heavy and hard work. It also peed with rain and tent being canvas took forever to dry and needed to be taken to my parents larger garage to be semi erected to dry out.

We gave kids the inside beds (can't remember why but possibly because they were single? or felt safer or some such nonsense) so we had to crawl into the floor level beds. No head room. Sex was impossible due to lack of space.

The cooking facilities were no better than a free standing tent and space seemed less. It's obviously a bigger item to store and more expensive. Costs more to take abroad and slower on roads. It's just not as convenient in my view and the benefits/home comforts were negligible compared to the rest.

You need some kind of folding camper, not a trailer tent. They're completely different animals. A folding camper is half-caravan, half-tent, with the top bit being tent. Ours is a Pennine. It's great - you sleep off the ground, it's got a built-in cooker/sink, with soft seating and takes only about 10-15 mins to set up the main cabin which you can sleep in on it's own if there aren't more than 6 of you. It's got built-in cupboards for everything so you don't have to pack stuff in the car. DC don't have to sleep under anything, in fact, there's nothing for them to sleep under.

There are cheaper makes, you'll just have to look them up as sorry, can't do links. Trigano is one make, there's Holtcamper, too, but don't know about the prices for them.

I have a trailer tent and love it!

There are good and bad points about it though, i'll try and summarise.

Its got two decent comfy double beds raised off the ground. We have camped when its been really cold outside and never felt cold at night. Its night and day to sleeping on an airbed.

The trailer part of the tent is really easy to assemble, it is quite heavy but you only need to open up both sides and thats it assembled really.
The awning part is massive, about 4 metres by 3, so there is plenty space for a table and chairs and a cooking area. The awning bit did need a bit of practice, but essentially you put the poles together and pull the canvas over, after a few attempts its pretty easy.

The ground sheet is not attached to the sides, so you can get insects in the awning area.

The canvas is really waterproof, however if you are unlucky enough to have to pack up in the rain you have to dry the canvas out (but you need to do that with any tent).

Once we arrive home we put the trailer in the garage and thats it, none of this emptying the car and putting all the camping stuff away.

We have 4 children so going camping in one car is always going to involve some sort of trailer anyway. We bought ours (a raclet marathon) from ebay for £500.

Sorry for late reply - but thank you so much for the advice! As we don't have a garage and as it doesn't seem to make a lot of difference perhaps I ought to rethink and get some advice for Top Tents! Need to sort out pretty soon as we're camping on 23rd of July and I am determined not to be slumming it (not too much anyway!).