As a complete novice who is looking to buy my first family tent im worried that if i buy a big tent i wont be able to pitch it in a regular camp site which has facilities(elec etc) are my fears nonsence or should i go with a max size of tent - if so what size is best??
Apologies if this seems like a daft question but i honestly dont know...:-(
No your fears are not nonsence we have got a fantastic tent, spent weeks reviewing it, going and looking at one in the 'flesh', and then hunted around to get the best price and now its been bought and used several times we absolutly love the tent, it is exactly what we wanted... EXCEPT!!! we now have a problem with quite a few sites accepting it.
the problem lies mainly with its shape, not its size really, there are much bigger tents around but they take up less width on a standard pitch. Ours needs a space of 8m x 8m, and we have found that a lot of sites have a maximum of 5 to 6 mtrs width, the length is not really the issue, its the width that can be the problem.
I am not saying that you wont get on sites with tents like ours, its just that it does limit you to the sites that have the bigger pitch size and if you are like us and need an EHU, then at times it can be frustrating when you find a fantastic site but then they tell you your tent is too big.
My advise would be to find the tent you like, and right for your family, that is the most important part, but then before you buy have a phone around some of the sites you may like to visit and see if the tent is going to be a problem. I doubt that you will have a problem with any tent that is up to 5mtrs wide.
Hope that helps, sorry for going on, its just a subject close to my heart at the moment, thats from someone who has just spent the last 3 days trying to find somewhere for next weeks trip.!!! All booked now though
I have just been speaking to one of my pals who is a keen caravanner and he recomends we get a tent thats not more than 12ft wide due to the very reasons you have stated - so on that basis and after reading about your problems i think i will stick to this guide.
There's another part of the board here which lists loads of sites that except large tents. Might be worth a look, the advice on there seems to be to ask when you ring to book. The small campsite we plan on using a lot of the time at weekends doesn't have a problem with the size of our Outwell Georgia at 8.2m x 6.9m.
Go for a rectangular tent of no more than 7m x 5m (which is huge) though tbh you don't want to have a tent anywhere near that size for weekends. Our 8-man Vango Oregon 800 (which really does sleep the number of folk it claims to) measures 2.8m x 6.8m, takes 25 minutes to put up fully and is big enough for us to be thinking of using it for our long holiday next year, when we'll be moving around a lot. So there's more to consider than "How big?" There's "How long to put up?" and "What length of stay will we be using it for?" and "How many folk, and who'll be sleeping with who?" It's often far more practical to go for a more modest sized tent with an add-on canopy and/or a kitchen tent for longer stays. More versatile.
We rang our campsite beforehand as we have Outwell xxl and were told that it was not a problem.
1 hour after we pitched the tent and were just getting organised, the owner appeared and told us the tent was too big and we would have to pay a further £110 as we were taking up a pitch and a half, or alternatively take the tent down again and move to a double pitch for another £220! It was rather irritating to say the least.
Quote: Originally posted by willybob95 on 28/8/2008
We rang our campsite beforehand as we have Outwell xxl and were told that it was not a problem.
1 hour after we pitched the tent and were just getting organised, the owner appeared and told us the tent was too big and we would have to pay a further £110 as we were taking up a pitch and a half, or alternatively take the tent down again and move to a double pitch for another £220! It was rather irritating to say the least.
I ALWAYS tell the campsite the footprint size of my tent while booking, whether they ask for it or not. If it's by email and they tell me that's okay (I don't often take my big spread dome these days) they can't come back on me for more charges. Even when booking by phone I follow it up with an email whenever possible. Campsite owners can't be expected to know exactly how much room every model of tent needs.
So given that you'd been told when booking that your tent was not a problem (did they ask/you give the footprint size) I'd have argued the point, which I presume you did? What happened in the end?
Quote: Originally posted by Valk_scot on 28/8/2008
Quote: Originally posted by willybob95 on 28/8/2008
We rang our campsite beforehand as we have Outwell xxl and were told that it was not a problem.
1 hour after we pitched the tent and were just getting organised, the owner appeared and told us the tent was too big and we would have to pay a further £110 as we were taking up a pitch and a half, or alternatively take the tent down again and move to a double pitch for another £220! It was rather irritating to say the least.
I ALWAYS tell the campsite the footprint size of my tent while booking, whether they ask for it or not. If it's by email and they tell me that's okay (I don't often take my big spread dome these days) they can't come back on me for more charges. Even when booking by phone I follow it up with an email whenever possible. Campsite owners can't be expected to know exactly how much room every model of tent needs.
So given that you'd been told when booking that your tent was not a problem (did they ask/you give the footprint size) I'd have argued the point, which I presume you did? What happened in the end?
Yes we did give a footprint size on booking.In the end as the owner was getting argumentative and unfriendly, we agreed to stay put on the pitch and a half and meet them half way financially, coughing up an extra £55.
The lady owner who was much friendlier admited to my husband that they were new to the site and had no real idea of how big most tents were and the various shapes and sizes!
We always give campsites the dimensions of our tent too. We have the Outwell Hartford XL, we took it for a 4 night stay at a campsite recently and we had a phone call the night before saying that the pitches for tents were too muddy (yes it was nice of them too warn us), so would we mind a gravel pitch. My husband said that should be ok, but we drove 2 and half hours to pitch our tent in a walled caravan gravel pitch and our door was facing the brick wall otherwise it wouldn't have fit and when we packed away although we had put the footprint down there was little holey tufts of groundsheet where it had been impailed on some of the gravel. We was not impressed as this was only the 3rd time we used our Outwell. I won't be camping on gravel again and next time I phone up I will not only state my tent size as usual but I will also ask if no grass tent pitch available would they be prepared to give a full refund. Oh, and the good news was our Outwell stood up to harsh winds and rain, so at least we know it's all weather friendly! However, the words should we buy a caravan cropped up a couple of times on the way home.
When I'm camping abroad the pitches are generally defined in width and length (10x10m is typical), but in the UK sites are much more concerned about width because it is much more a factor in how many pitches they can fit in.
My strong advice is to go for a rectangular footprint with the largest dimension no larger than 5m. This way you get max interior space for min footprint. Dome tents with pod bedrooms are especially "wasteful" of pitch space and tend to footprints of 7 - 9m and beyond. This will, these days, lead to refusals and surcharging.
My own tent is 3.3m x 7.4m rectangular. No-one has raised an eyebrow and the Vermont range (big to vast) has never been mentioned as a problem, a) because it has no sticky-out bits and b) because sites are concerned with width not depth.
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Topic: Pitch size`s??
we have got a fantastic tent, spent weeks reviewing it, going and looking at one in the 'flesh', and then hunted around to get the best price and now its been bought and used several times we absolutly love the tent, it is exactly what we wanted... EXCEPT!!! we now have a problem with quite a few sites accepting it.
All booked now though 
