This has probably been covered loads of times but I am thinking of upgrading from a tent a trailer tent. The main reasons are warmth and having a set area for cooking. Do you think they are warmer? There are five of us two adults two teenagers and one five year old. I was thinking about a caravan but dont fancy towing something so big. Help ??? Pros and Cons????
It isn't upgrading, it's just changing to a different type of outfit. Pro's, having more space and proper beds for most of you plus probably a larger cooking/sink area. Con's longer to put up which can be a bind on shorter breaks. I am sure that plenty of others will be along with their opinions but I would go for it.
Mike
------------- Some people have nothing much to say, but you often have to listen for a while before you realise it!
canvas is warmer, but if it is packed away wet you need the space to be able to set it up to dry, sleeping off the floor is what made us buy one, being able to cook indoors is also a bonus in bad weather, extra inner tents for sleeping can also be added or underneath beds if you want more sleeping area.
We recently bought a folding camper, having previously been tent campers. We have been away for one weekend and it was great, the advantages over a tent is the set up time, to erect the main body of the folding camper is very quick and if the weather is really awful you can wait for it to settle to put up the awning if your using one, we feel it has the comforts of a caravan - sprung mattress, can cook inside if the the weather is really bad, nice and cosy, things can be left stored inside and there is lots of storage space, but is much easier to tow, move about and store than a caravan. The only disadvantage I can think of is if you have to pack away wet, you then have to get it up and dried out as soon as you can, though we packed away in torrential rain and gales, and whilst unpleasant it was still a lot easier than packing away the tent in the same sort of conditions, it was a couple of days before we got it opened up again but it dried out really quickly. We have 3 children, 15, 7 and 4 and they all loved it and think it's better than the tent.
We upgraded from Campus Indiana 8 used with a Sunncamp Royale Day Room for cooking and eating - both of which are made from nylon. Bags of room in both but at night, internal condensation was a major issue - especially if you liked to stay up for a bit of adult time after the kids went to sleep. A few minutes breathing in there and the whole place was damp inside.
We've had a Sunncamp 400SE, a Raclet Sprinter 380 and a Pennine Pathfinder since. All I know is that they have all felt warmer in that time when the kids have gone to bed and we get time to ourselves with a glass of something either chatting or reading. I'm not promising that the chill never creeps in... but there is almost no condensation inside and there is something about seeing water forming rivulets down the inside of a tent that seemed to make the whole place feel cold and damp. You don't get that with canvas and a roof liner!
we have a raclet herald....bit on the big side, but it's great...sleeps 8 easily, infact we had 10 in monday night. we often find ours is the meeting point for a beer or wine. it's more comfortable and certainly warmer at night (you sleep off the gound). as mentioned above the roof liner keeps condensation at bay to some extent, although we leave the heater on a low setting at night.
does take longer to erect than the frame tent we had - probably 2 hours to erect and kit out
They are warmer and more comfy, less stuff to cart out from around the house, as already inside. But they are more expensive, you need a garage to store them ideally, and I used to just worry about it getting wet and how we would dry it, saying that we are looking at what to change to next year, thinking of selling our freedom caravan and going back to tent or some kind of camper/trailer tent! quite like the combi camp.
We now have a Trigano Aperge trailer tent. Main body ready to use in minutes. With awning (we keep it attached) about 20 to 30 minutes. Sleep off the ground, no drafts and plenty of storage, nothing in the car. Easy to tow. After 30 plus years of tenting wish we had done this sooner.
Longer to erect than a frame tent ? the quickness of erection was one reason we bought a TT it takes about 5mins as we aren't used to it & 5/10 to peg it down right. Took us about 40mins to get our kyham tent up right even after a full season.
And we can just about get it up in the garage, if it needs drying out or repairs. Magic
It's a bit of a weirdy when your thinking about the prices. You could look at it like.
Its a **** expensive tent Or its a very cheap caravan.
Thank you for all your replies. We have decided and have gone for a second hand cabanon minstral and we are taking it away at the weekend so fingers crossed for nicer weather tan is forecast at the moment !
Cabanon a wise choice...tho I just selling my Saturn in favour of a folding caravan but a natural progression from a tent is the trailer tent...you wont be disappointed....just a thought!.....
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Topic: Upgrade from Tent to Trailer Tent?
the quickness of erection 
was one reason we bought a TT it takes about 5mins as we aren't used to it & 5/10 to peg it down right. Took us about 40mins to get our kyham tent up right even after a full season. 
