Ok, have upgraded the tent now I want to upgrade airbeds & coolbox, lights- ideas?

[scanner]

A small fib, we are about to upgrade the tent having done tons of research once dh gets paid on Thursday we'll order a wolf lake 7.

So, we have inexpensive airbeds, which one by one have been deflating and dh says he's not prepared to go camping with me again without a new one. Aparently I'm a 'little' grumpy after a bad nights sleep . So, camping folk, what would you say was the creme de la creme of beds? camp bed, double height airbed? something else?

Also we've always used a bog standard cool box with ice packs, but have decided to get ehu and are wondering if we should upgrade to something more practical. The fridges look small to me and we've also seen some large coolboxes that say they last for 5 days - can't quite remember. What do you think?

ahem, sorry scanner.

To answer your OP we have thermareat base camp self inflating mats which are superb. V comfy and warm and roll up quite small.

Can't help on cool box. DH he say NO to EHU.

well your dd liked the the Thermarests anyway slubber - as she upchucked on them

yes indeed . I do worry that she is developing an allergy to camping. Three trips, three pukes. At least she is consistent.

The vom did clear off the thermarests a treat scanner. They don't put that sort of thing in the promotional guff, but it is a valuable plus point.

Lucycat

We are going to Coniston this year! We will get gales or bitten to death by mozzies!

Guess what...first weekend this year we used the caravan. Too windy to tow it home yesterday!

I saw a Biscaya on ebay yesterday, it was £850. I haven't seen one, so not sure what the big deal is. Anyway the Lakey is being ordered first thing on Thursday, I might have to wait for the airbeds, depending on what happens when we dig out our existing ones this weekend. I'm fairly sure most have leaks.

I wish we could go camping right now, but dd's have a few things in over the next couple of weeks, so we're stuck at home.

Oh yes, I was also thinking about luxury of luxuries - a heater light that you hang in the middle of the tent. Outwell do one.

We've never had ehu, or anything like that and I must be going mad.

On the coolbox/fridge front - Make sure it will fit in your car.. we brought a 3 way fridge and it doesn't fit in our car (VW Passat saloon) so we are not going to take it on holiday in the summer (which we brought it for!)

BY A FRIDGE NOT A COOLBOX!!!

Seriously coolboxes only go about 18 degrees below ambiant temperature - eg if it is 28 they go down to 10. Fridges are far better.

We have a 3 way frdige which fits between our car seats (we take out teh middle seat. it is fab, we are going to get extra gas this year as we are going to a non-electric piitch (again 3 way fridge means you are not a slave to electric and you can still have cold white wine and fresh milk)

ours is like this

Thats what ours is like.. won't fit between car seats either Agree that is very good and does keep food cold like a fridge..

Wow that is huge - I'd have to leave one of the dds at home to fit that in!

it is a shame it doesn't fit in teh car, I have never had a saloon style car (are they the ones with separate boots?) so it wouldn't have occurred to me, any way of putting ON the middle seat??

We have a front opening 3 way fridge and it's fab.

Mr Duck - you are quite right, most environmentally unfriendly I'm having an internal debate about that. Part telling myself that it's only the odd camping trip and I am v v environmentally friendly most of the time.

Crunchie - I like your fridge, but also agree with Lucy in that it looks big. We have a people carrier and with three dc's, new huge tent and other camping stuff may have to strap myself onto the roof.

dh is considering a solar pnel for nore environmentally sound heating / fridge etc (well not more- we dont use ehu but the outwell is for somereason colder than the khyam and we may need to start).

costs over £300 for adequate power though, so i said no way.

We got hook up for the first time last year and the fan heater was brill just for taking the chill off the tent, having put it up in a downpour, on the first night.

I used to think that hook up was for wimps, but now that we go for a fortnight's holiday I decided that I wanted to be comfortable. It's a holiday not an endurance test!

This was mentioned earlier on, but for a comfortable night you need a Fat Airic from Alpkit. Cheaper than Thermarest but of similar quality and better than those you can otherwise get in the shops.

Just got my Fat airic in the post its fab, considering getting more for the rest of the family.

Am I being dense? Fat Airic doesn't look that fat to me, thinner than a standard airbed.

Fat Airic is a foam and air bed. Try it and see ... much comfier than an airbed. In fact DH says he is very comfortable on the smallest narrowest lightest version which he uses when he is bivouacing in the Scottish mountains.