Trailer tents - anyone have one or able to advise?

[saintlyjimjams]

I'm always trying to think of ways to take our family (3 kids including one who is severely autistic) camping. We had a trailer tent when I was younger but I can't remember all that much about it.

Can they be put up by one person (sort of a necessity for us). And are they super quick? (Another necessity - sort of).

I have been looking at HolkKampers and dreaming (need lottery win for that!).

Any suggestions/tips/advice very welcomed.

I don't know what a talker is but can you get a solar charger? So you can power that up during the day and charge the talker overnight?

I have a base seconds which I can get up and down on my own and it's super quick - very useful for escaping children because you can zip them into a bedroom while you're faffing with everything else :o

you only need hook up cable to access electric...you can do this easily and still be in a tent....look on ebay....you want hook up at one end of cable and hook up to elec socket for the other...from there you can plug in a 4gang socket and have all the power you could need....

Although some camping sites I've been looking at are saying you need special camping appliances which the talker isn't. :confused: i'm not worried about power for anything else, just the talker.

???...appliances???.....not heard of anything like this and can't imagine what is meant by this .... maybe worth phoning the site you are intending to go to...find out what they are ok with, etc...maybe it's surge protected socket's??...you can buy them easily enough....

?? from me too. We use ours for charging all sorts.

oh okay - it was on one of the UK camping websites - said don't use standard appliances buy special camping ones

The talker is a 6 grand piece of equipment so I don't want to fry it

I suggest that you lock it in your car out of sight...especially during the night as condensation and dampness when camping is a given....maybe keep it in it's protective bag and use those little silica satchet's to ensure it is protected from dampness....

Also I wouldn't allow this out in view of people either...not when it is such an expensive piece of equipment....

is it itemised on your insurance...esp when away from home...just incase???? I'd be checking this too

Well it's always attached to ds1 (except when he's surfing when it stats in the car). It needs to be charged overnight- ideally - as it takes a while to charge. Although the manufacturers seem to be saying it can't be charged via hook up (although they seemed to think I was trying to attach it directly) so that might have spannered ideas of camping anyway.

We have a canvas tent currently which doesn't seem to get too much condensation (any?)

Hmm trigano and camplet brochures arrived today and I am lusting after a trailer tent again. :rolls eyes:

Hi, we have a Camplet, it really is really easy to put up and down, much easier and quicker than other trailer tents, but it is also much smaller than lots of trailer tents so probably no good if you have more than 2 kids. The tent bit (excluding the bedrooms) is just big enough for us but not massive IYSWIM

My views after 3 years of use - quick to pitch although we still spend ages faffing around setting up the inside, my husband can and does put it up by himself sometimes, but there is a fiddly bit with a pole that i struggle with. If its raining though it can be up and watertight in 5 minutes, the rest is inside and then pegging. Sleeping on the trailer rather than the floor - 2 double beds and its very cosy and comfy. integrated gas hob, the kitchen just swings out from the end of the trailer. Storage - you can store some gear inside it, we have all our pots, pans, plates, cutlery etc, water carrier, larder cupboard, table, clothes airer, laundry basket, ground sheet, carpet and toaster in ours. Still need to have bedding, clothes, toys etc in car, and we strap the chairs plus 2 bikes to the roof of the trailer. We also have a storage box on the frame of the trailer that takes the fridge, gas bottle, and a load of other stuff so basically all the camping gear except bedding is in or on the trailer.

Easy to tow, very stable at 70mph (although naturally we never go that fast...) The tent itself is very good quality and we have noticed that being canvas, we stay cooler inside in the mornings for a while after people in synthetic tents have been driven out by the heat. Designed to cook in 9proper ventilated kitchen area is a bonus.

Remember to factor in insurance to your cost calculations.

If anyone wants to know any more just ask....

Thanks - that's really helpful!

We sold our Camplet last year. I was hoping to love it, but it never really liked it. We have 3 children aged roughly 6 to 10 at the time, and they could all fit into the larger double bed. We did have the annexe which helped in terms of storing stuff.

There were things I liked, the fold out kitchen, very comfy beds. I disliked the lack of drainer in the sink, lack of fitted groundsheet and length of time putting it up with the annexe and sun canopy, (and the badly designed canopy). We have a folding camper now which I love.

I second the canvas preference, much nicer to be in than nylon.

Are you able to put a camper or trailer tent up at home to dry out? We can put ours up on our driveway, I think it would be impossible if you didn't have somewhere to fry them off after a wet camping trip.

Well put up our Stratos this WE and really like it although there are a few issues more to do with it being second hand rather than a Stratos. It's still time consuming to put up BUT not difficult IYSWIM? It did take us 2.5 hours to put up but that was first time and we made a few mistakes even following instructions. I am rewriting the instructions for our next time.
It's lovely and roomy for the 5 of us.