Electric hook up for tents

[walkthedinosaur]

Have always gone camping but never had an electric hook up, but now that more and more sites offer electricity for tents I was thinking about taking this up. Do we have to buy something special or just take an outdoor extension lead and plug it in to the hook up?

It is essential that you buy the specific electric hook up lead - we got one last year for the first time about £40 ish. The have a specific connector and are designed for camping - you don't want to risk fire.

Fwiw I really like having it, the downside is that sometimes the hookup parts of campsites can be busier and therefore noisier.

Message deleted

We use a hookup in the autumn to power our convector heater! We used to have a trailer tent but it broke so got ourselves a Soulpad tent with built in groundsheet, so we could in theory camp in the winter as well, but i would have loved to have had the woodfire option

i don't see the point with tent what do you all hook up?

We are having an electric hook up this time, as we are going for over a week and it will make charging phones, ipods and leapsters easier (we have a 3 and 4 year old). We got our hook up from Aldi.

They are on offer - here

charge things in teh car, 3 and 4 year olds do not need such things! give thema wooden hoop and tell how lucky they are.

and you call yourselves campers?!?!

We have never had a hook till now, but thought that we might have a bit of lux - cold milk and that sort of thing.

We are even taking my laptop as the site has a wireless connection.

I am camping, not slumming it

TheMadHouse why not just stay at home then?

Camping is an opportunity for people to get away from being entertained, just let the children be free and make their own entertainment with sticks.

oh no, controversy on the camping topic - i feel like something inside me has died.

I think you've missed the point of camping madhouse. There is no hope for you

i found myself musing about ehu last year and fantasing about cold milk etc.

i now have a campervan. tis a natural progression. i am preparing myself for the inevitable caravan in 5 years time. i have bought dh his knee socks and sandals in preparation.

Exactly, it's a holiday not an endurance test.

We use it for our fridge, the toaster, the fan heater if we need it and the radio for the surf report each morning.

We don't bother for a weekend, it's only for our main holidays. When you go for a fortnight it's a godsend, especially with the fridge and keeping wine chilled ... oh and the food .

I am certainly beyond hope I fear , but camping can be what you want it to be.

Having grown up camping and caravaning, I swore never to be subjected to it again and here I am with two small boys and have been camping for the last two years.

I remember the cold, the peeing in a bucket, infact getting washed in a bucket and oh does my mother have the phot's to prove it.

And do you know what.............................. I am usually too far gone on pink fizz on holiday to wonder what all the "hard core" campers think of me

'fess up surfermum you are in a van too!

Thanks very much for all advice, I did just fancy keeping things cool and not having to trip back and forth to the supermarket every time I want to cook a meal.

we've done without for years, but I'm very tempted to give it a try this year.

we had one for the first time on our last camping trip. we stayed in my parents camplet (so not real camping) and borrowed their stuff,was bliss having an electric fridge, lights, somewhere to charge the phones,and an electric fan heater meant we could stay up beyond 8pm :-) would def consider one again for non summer camping as we were freezing at night at easter. as others have said,you need a little box thing (aldi have them just now),which has some sockets and a fuse/cut out etc.

Oh yes, the light. That was fab. No trying to play cards under a light that got dimmer and dimmer as the batteries were going or gas was running out. Made playing Uno nearly impossible as we couldn't distinguish the colours.

Deepgoat yes we do have a van too ... but we also take a tent for our fortnight's holiday. The van becomes a day van for going out and about in and the tent is our main abode.

I do draw the line at a TV or DVD player. We managed 2 weeks in the rain in Cornwall and 4 days' driving in France without the need for either, so they're definite no-no's.

I wish I had hook up this weekend. I'm off to the New Forest and it's not available, and I've just realised I won't be able to have ice in my Pimms .

does your fridge not run on gaz? you need to enter the kinky world of the 3 way fridge

Electric hook up is one of things that appears quite pointless until you get one! Then it has a million uses. I camp for 4 to 5 weeks every summer with my 2 kids. Well I can tell you the last 2 summers have been rather grim and I use the word "summer" lightly.

Electric has provided heat - not just to warm us up after trapsing around in the rain but to help dry the endless piles of damp clothing you accumulate on a long wet trip.Not forgetting the towels you have nowhere to air during the day. The lappy came out the bag ALOT last year for DVD watching when puddle jumping and walking in the rain lost its appeal at the start of week 3.

The last 2 years have seen us spend 9 weeks in wet, damp, cool conditions for the majority of our camping trips so this year I am considering taking the slow cooker - for warming stews etc without too much hassle. It will also help keep the cost down on eating out as when its wet we have to spend more taking kids out to do stuff. I think we have fully exhausted all the free stuff for kids in Devon and Cornwall now! LOL

I would say dont knock leccy for camping until you have tried it. We won our EHU ina camping competition on a camping website. I was really negative about using it at first but now I prefer to camp with it than without. That said out of the 5 consecutive camping weeks I have booked this summer only 3 are with EHU pitches.

Camping means different things to different people. No one is right or wrong.

And then there is also GLAMPING!! LOL

I need it for my hairdryer and microwave

We found this nice and tranquil deep forest campside in the lakedistrict in Poland.

I saw tents like I have never seen before. Tents with extensions, tents with gazebos, tents with gazebo with cooker and shelves filled with pots and pans, and fridge and microwave, and carpet. There were arm-chairs. This was not camping. THis was "move your home to under canvas" for a period over summer.

When these guys packed up, a friend with a van and a trailer came to help!

Personally, I prefer wildcamping. I like to have NO facilities, fetch water in the river and cook on open bonfire outside the tent.