Message Forums

With a folding camper you can just put the main cabin up as there is usually a fridge, cooker & sink inside, along with the beds & a seating area.  From this forum I gather that some trailer tents can also be used without the awning but they're not so self-contained inside - you'd need to cook outside which is not a problem unless its raining.

Ebay is a good place to look for ideas but you can only really decide what suits you by looking at as many as you can.  For example, because of price we were looking at Raclet trailer tents but we werent keen on them. We also looked at an old Conway Corniche trailer tent which was very roomy but in the end we were thrilled to get a Conway Countryman Folding Camper which suits us very well.  Although trailer tents have bigger awnings I like our F/C because we have two very usable living spaces,

Homebird

When we had our trailer tent (Sunncamp 400se), we never used it for overnight stops as Homebird says it is not self contained. We now have a Pennine pullman and we have used that on quite a few overnight stops as everything is ready in 15 minutes.

KArende 

For a overnight stop without the awning have a look at Combi-Camp tt's. Expensive brand new but see what is available 2nd hand.

The problem with a TT for overnight stops, if you have one with a kitchen is that you have to take the kitchen unit off and leave it outside so technically someone could come along and have it away with it in the night.( although I can't see why anyone would as they weigh a ton, but my point is it would be outside and could get wet if you didn't cover it up).

Definitely go for an FC if you want it for overnight stops the smaller ones, Conway Challenger or Pennine Aztec aren't much heavier than the TT's and you don't need to peg them out like you do with TT's (Combi camps may be a bit different).

Have a look here  on the Conway Owners website it gives you loads of info. If you scroll down to the bottom it gives you sizes layouts etc and there's loads of brochures to download (a tip - try and do one at a time and do it in the morning as the site has a restricted bandwidth).

I have a very old Combi Camp, that was new to me via eBay last year, once unhitched it takes just seconds to flip out and no pegging.  It is more than adequate for me, in fact I didn't have the awning up last year at all.

The kitchen is fastened on the towbar and I keep it there, I can't shift it myself. But I have an Argos Utility tent that I modified (split up the back) to drop over the towbar and kitchen. Obviously that needs pegging out but it is straight forward and light.

With this set up I lived in it for 2 weeks last year, excellent!