We haven't experienced any problems with the bed feet but wondered if that was because we got a mate to make us up 2 long planks of wood with 3 circular recesses cut into them. This way the legs are flat and solid. Original reason to do this was someone on this forum saying they had a problem with the bed feet sinking on soft ground,they were saying they had screwed jam jar lids to small pieces of wood.We have had our olympe for over a year and have been away for loads of long periods, longest pitched 21 days, and no problems with feet. Hope this helps.
Firstly, Flinstones great video. Found it just before our first trip and it proved useful and reassuring.
We just came back from 2 weeks hols with our new Olympe (non-kitchen version) and we were generally very happy and impressed with it.
From our experience here are the highs and lows:
Highs:
- Better and more comfortable in all respects than our previous Outwell Sun Valley 8.
- Relatively easy setup / take down once you get the hang of it.
- Really comfy beds. First time I managed to sleep all night in years of camping.
- Really heavy duty ZIG.
- Sturdy frame and structure.
- Brilliant middle cabin seating area. Our son loved sitting there with his PSP and it was also perfect as a changing area.
- Good ventilation and never got uncomfortably hot.
- Attractive design.
- Large trailer storage capacity. We had 4 folding chairs, two kids scooters, ZIG, sun lounger, tarpaulin, and various other small items on top, and poles, most of our folding furniture, cooker, and numerous other items in the trailer itself. Plus we have the 300 litre front box as well.
- Very easy to tow for a beginner. However, don't try reversing unless you have either done it many times before or you want to attract a bemused audience.
Lows:
- The beds are really quite heavy to lift and lower.
- The crossbar that has to be fitted once the beds are lowered was a nightmare to attach. It took us more than half and hour of cursing before we got it in and the right way around.
- The instructions supplied were basic to say the least. We were lucky enough to have a sheet with an exploded diagram of the frame and poles which helped no end.
- The stitching in one of the front roof corners went. It looked like it had been poorly stitched in the factory.
- The guy ropes supplied look like packing string. We went to a nearby camping shop and bought proper ones. Should not have to do this with a tent of this price.
- Same problem with front bed leg feet as previously mentioned. One of ours crumpled entirely and the other probably won't survive another outing. Hopefully we can get the new stronger ones before our next trip.
- Bought an under bed tent for extra storage etc. Turns out to be a real pain in the whatever to attach and ended up not bothering with it. Really poor for a tent like this.
- Had a couple of spells of rain. For some reason water seems to gather in the middle section of the little 'roof' that comes out at the front of the awning. This proved to be a pain to drain and to dry out.
Despite some issues we really feel that the Olympe was a good investment and I'm certain that most of the issues we had can be resolved. We're now looking forward to our next outing.
I believe you were struggling with the folding link bar that joins the two bed sections before you raise the tent section up. If so, Black Country Caravans showed us a really neat trick that made it very easy indeed. 1) unzip both of the short poles that are in place, freeing them to move. 2) insert the link pole so that one side is correct, but then reverse the position of the other side so that it goes into the short section on the other side 'upside down'. 3) rezip all sections and the pull the tent over.
It sounds weird but it really does work and it is a simple matter to rotate the section back around correctly once the tent is pulled over. They also said that this was a better time to fit the little front poles, and I agree, we got them tensioned easily.
We also bought new guy ropes. We have also just changed out the central cushions for bench cushions, which we have tailored with zips to fit together. This makes a HUGE difference to the storage. We now have the cupboard back, and the well section too. We can lay the cushions on top of the packed items now, and as a result we have been able to store so much more inside.
Love the Olympe, agree with you that as a flagship model then really there shouldn't be issues, but thats camping!
Many thanks for the advice. It does sound weird but when we first attached the link bar the two sides kept rotating in opposite directions. Part of the time we wasted was spent trying to force the two sides to line up. We'll try your method next time and hopefully save ourselves a lot of time and hassle.
When you talk about attaching the small front poles, do you mean after the awning is raised?
Also can you give an idea of what your replacement cushions are like. I presume that they are much thinner than the supplied ones, which I agree are very thick and use a lot of space.
Those guy ropes were truly awful, we replaced them too.
We got a friend to cover the seat cushions in a more practical fabric ( he has a shopfitting company, so he used the sort of leather look fabric that he uses for bar seats) that we could just wipe clean. We now store them under the transit cover in a plastic single bed bag (got this of the internet, think people use them when moving mattresses), so no need to store them in the trailer part. This also keeps the transit cover raised slightly, so water runs off the trailer instead of pooling on top of the transit cover.
Camperlands told us to do exactly the same as Rich was told by Black country caravans with the keylink pole and it really makes it much easier.
We were told to put the little front canopy poles in just before you walk the awning over, easier to reach at low level especially if you are not tall like me!
As I said before we haven't had any problems with the bed legs but our bits of wood with our circular recesses do keep them flat and they can't move out of the circle, so I assume less stress on them but it could have been a batch problem from Trigano and we weren't affected.
Amazing family weekend with old steam engines, classic car displays, market stalls, and full catering and bar. And camping on site - Save £25 by booking in advance.
Topic: Trigano Olympe - good or bad?
