But the beauty of a Day Room or similar, Paul, is that all the sides can be rolled up so it is like a gazebo if it is hot, or they can be rolled down to make it more weatherproof. Or you can just have 1, 2, or 3 sides open.
------------- Caz
If you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, just keep going till you go round the bend.
I just spotted a bargain at the weekend BIG W are selling the posh gazeboes (the self erecting ones for less than £30.00 (that was in the store in Edinburgh) didn't ahve any £ or Card with me so chances are probably all gone
We bought ourselves a gazebo a couple of weeks ago, from Argos, a pop-up version, and have used it with the caravan for the past two weekends. It has been great, giving us shelter, but being erected in just a few minutes, rather than the anything up to an hour which a complete awning can take. (Our van, having a front door, is not suitable for the Panorama-type of porch awning). We are, however, conscious that the gazebo, not being attached to the van, is not safe to be left up if the weather turns rough. When I read on here about the Sunncamp Day Tent, I thought that sounded like a long term solution. But I have just looked on the Sunncamp website and find that the Day Tent in fact looks exactly like a gazebo! Now, am I missing something? Does it have features that would make it more stable than our existing gazebo? What are they? I would love to know. If I can find a better product than we have already, I would go for it, but at the moment, I am sceptical.
The Sunncamp Day Room is a proper tent made by a reputable tent manufacturer; it has 2 pegging points for each corner instead of one, plus the pegging point at the bottom of the legs. The poles are the same type as used in tents, not heavy steel tubing that fits together with flimsy plastic fittings. The sides are part of the tent not bits of material held together by a couple of ties, and there are 4 pegging points on each side (which gazebos do not have). It packs up smaller and is lighter to carry than a gazebo.
2 of the sides are windows with "curtains" so you can look outside or have privacy if you wish. The other 2 have flyscreens & external covers.
All in all it's an excellent piece of kit compared to a gazebo. We have one which we use instead of the camper awning as it is quicker to erect & take down, is lighter & takes up less room, and if we have to break camp in the rain it will dry out quicker.
There are others that are similar to the Sunncamp one.
------------- Caz
If you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, just keep going till you go round the bend.
Thanks for that! Although it seems to have a few extra pegging points, there does not seem to be much else that you mention that differs from ours (not a flimsy plastic fitting to be found!). But if we decide in future to keep the present one for the garden and buy another one for the caravan, we will certainly a look at the Sunncamp.
Agreed on the Sunncamp day room. We bought a cheap (35 Euro) gazebo in France to give us some shade. We spent the entire week fiddling with the thing to persuade it to remain stable in beautiful conditions with a very slight breeze! We added guys to it but it still became unstable at the slightest puff of wind - as far as I could see even if you pegged and guyed the thing absolutely solid you'd just buckle the poles when the wind blew!
We bought a Sunncamp dayroom on our return and pitched it on the side of a hill in fairly strong wind the other day - the fabric of it would have made a pretty good parachute and it took four of us to hold it down it was so windy! Once the thing was pitched it didn't move an inch the four days we were there. In the same four days there were a large number of collapsed and broken gazebos. I'd rather spend the money once on a day room and be able to leave it on a site with the confidence that it would still be there on our return!
The least stable gazebos seem to be not the very cheap ones but the quick erect ones with concertina type "poles" - there is a lot of weight at the top because of the concertina things and they appear to break quite easily under strain. I've rescued a few.
------------- Caz
If you can't see the light at the end of the tunnel, just keep going till you go round the bend.
cheapo quick erect gazebos are as bad as the flimsy poles ones.
I have a steel 'concertina type' that simply will not bend. Australian made and cost a fortune. However, it's been on top of Welsh Mountains in winter and in East Anglian gales in summer and never gone anywhere.
I use four of those cheap ratchet straps instead of guys, and Delta pegs.
When we have the caravan it makes a nice shady place to sit with friends and when I am on my own with the tent it gives me some space to cook and sit in the rain.
I also have some cheap tarps which can make sides when the rain is horizontal!
With my hi gear umbrella tent and the quick erect gazebo I can be pitched and have the kettle on within a couple of minutes.
------------- best cheers
Frank
Range Rover Vogue SE LPG TAZ
I would just like to re-iterate the above post about tying down a gazebo properly. Recently we (friends and ourselves) put a gazebo up between our tents. It was a lovely bright sunny day but suddenly a gust of wind came a overturned the gazebo with amazing force (even though it was fairly well secured). As it overturned it ripped a large whole through our tent which was really upsetting as it's farily new. Luckily we were on the edge of the campsite and nobody (or other tents) were affected. It just brought it home to me how dangerous a loose gazebo can be - it could have been somebody's eye that got damaged or worse!
Have just come back from buying a Day room/Tent. Following your recommendations Bordercaz, we went for a Sunncamp. Although more expensive than many gazebos, we think it will also be useful for OH to sleep in - he gets very hot and sticky and the idea of sleeping in the Day Tent appeals to him. Plus he burns very easily - he's such a joy!. We will be trying it out very soon...
On holiday back at Whitsun, I saw several blown over by the high winds. I went to tell one person his was about to take off & was almost told to mind my own business. I don't know whos insurance you could claim off of if someones Gazebo blew away & damaged your kit. We got fed up taking ours down so we'll revert back to leaving it here in future.
We use a large gazebo a folding one for car shows. we use 6 rachet straps and 6 dog screws,We have camped in all weathers and its never moved. but freinds have bought the cheap ones used once straight away blown over.We after be carefull at car shows as some of these cars can never be replaced.
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Topic: Gazebos
