Why tent over caravan ??

[oldmate]

Working full time, three kids in school I just couldn't justify $20k + sitting in the garage just for weekend trips and potentially four weeks holidays.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

That's it mate, and it's the same for most people, wife and myself are in the minority, that we are younger than the average on this forum, according to the age thread, and we don't have kids of our own(I have a son from a previous relationship) with no plans at all that it will happen, so the money the average family would spend each year on kids alone, we put into our trailer. If we had kids we wouldn't have the money to throw at an expensive trailer either.

[Ratbag]

Gidday Steptoey

Well now. It is a can of worms, as others have said.

My camper trailer expands to about 212 square feet of fully enclosed and floored living space, if I want to stay a while somewhere (I've been in smaller bed-sit flats ... ). This is more than adequate for just me, as I will almost always be travelling solo - my wife hates camping ...

Minimum size is just the bed platform on top of the trailer plus the ground floor room (and leave the annexe slung over the top of the tent roof, tied down, of course). This takes a practised bloke about 3 minutes to set up, and takes me about 8-10 minutes; another 5-8 minutes if I bother to put up the annexe. It's small, but more than just adequate.

The very first time I packed the annexe and tent away, it took me a whole 15 minutes. I expect to get better and faster at this ... .

Folded up, the whole thing is just narrower than my car, with the wheels being the same size and type with the same wheel nuts and the same track as the car ...

Off-road, there is nothing to break - unless I pack my coffee mug badly ... There is also nothing that can hang up, snag, bend, scratch. It is a general purpose box trailer. Nothing flash, but all but indestructible.

The top of the camper tent is the same height as my rear window. So it has a very low centre of gravity. I can see over it easily, so no special mirrors that make the vehicle even wider. Trust me, I had truck mirrors on my old LC so that I could see what was behind my tandem axle, dual horse float. Never again.

It is small and light enough for me to manoeuvre and set up by myself.

I see the above as just a few of the reasons. One of the biggest is that so far the entire set up has cost me a bit over $5,000. Totally finished and equipped, this will still be less than $6,000.

[austastar]

My camper trailer expands to about 212 square feet of fully enclosed and floored living space

Hmm!


'Twould be nice.


But....


Ours all fits on a 6'x8' tray (48ft² is a tad more squeezy).


It does suit what we do with it though, and that is the main requirement with what ever layout you get.


cheers

[JD-120]

I should also add from my previous post that when we purchased our soft floor, we didnt know if the whole family was going to like it or not. The missus and I had camped previously (pre kiddies) but it had been a while.

If we were in the market now for a camper, our criteria would probably be different as we know it is not something that is going to sit in the garage unused for 12 months at a time.

We would still have a budget to stick to, but the outcome may be different

[Ratbag]

Gidday AS

Hmm!


'Twould be nice.


But....


Ours all fits on a 6'x8' tray (48ft² is a tad more squeezy).

Cousins on my wife's side managed with one of them for years, and they are both about 6' tall! He's about 6'3" ...

It does suit what we do with it though, and that is the main requirement with what ever layout you get.


cheers

That's it in one sentence, mate.

Mine is about 76 ft^2 with just the minimum.

Beats the crap out of my "Crusader tent" - you know, one of those ones that you nail the floor down and then walk into with your pole in your hand. To be more precise, with its pole in your hand ...      . It is nominally 3x3 m, so around 97ft^2 - in theory - the steeply sloping walls make it much smaller than that, with standing room in the middle of the tent only, in reality! OK 20-35 years ago, when I was a few years younger and fitter ... 
What makes my current set up much better for me is that I don't have to get down to ground level to lie down, and then get up again without pulling the tent down around my ears!

The set up I now have allows me to rest up in relative comfort when I want to or need to. Sometimes, I struggle to get through the day, and then I just need to be able to lie low on a comfortable bed. Can't do that in a Crusader tent ...

[Coastal Camper]

I guess it all depends on what you like to call camping!
It also depends on what you called camping as a child!

I grew up camping in a canvas tent with a tarp over it & Outdoor kitchen.
That was Easter ever year for me! Loved it.

Mum and dad are in their 60's now and have a caravan so they can still enjoy the camping experience but it easier for them to set up and comfy for them in their older age.
Mind you they tented until their late 50's

Now with kids of my own I want them to enjoy camping the way I remember it!

When camping kids should only be at the camp site to eat and sleep!
They should be it surfing, exploring, riding bikes and making new friends!

So hence why I bought a camper trailer!

I can load it up, hitch it on and I'm on the way!
I can enjoy a great tent setup with outdoor kitchen and a nice comfy bed!

For me a caravan is too cozy!
I know that when I am my parents age I probly will trade the camper for a van!
But that's another 20years yet!

I suppose those people that were bought up camping in caravans would not even consider a camper trailer!

It's each to their own!
They all have positives and they all have negatives!
It all depends on how much you hate those negatives!
5star people want 5star places.

I would say I'm a 3star guy, I've done my time in dome tents in the early days when It was just me and the girlfriend (now wife)

So to me spending $20k on a camper I'm looking to get 15-20yrs out of is worth it to me.

[Elky]

We looked at  some of the jayco pop top offroaders, they seemed to have more bang for your buck than a similar price hard floor ct, in the end size and durability dictated a ct would work better for us tho

Cheers

[steptoey]

Thanks for all the thoughts team. It appears everyone are thinking akong the same line as what I was thinking. I'll onlyhave a few more years with the kids so its time to act, the tent setup just doesn't do it anymore. I'm actyally dissapounted I didnt get a ct years ago.

Cheers

Grant

[Beatle]

Just don't be surprised if setting up the CT takes as long, or longer, than the tent(s).

[Ratbag]

I set my CT up in the driveway today. It took 3m15s ...

Packing it away took about 8 mins, but only because I forgot to put the poles bags on top before I put the travelling cover on, so had to take that off and put it on again.

Did it by myself.

It's only the second time I have erected it ... .

[Coiled]

We were tent campers and I grew up as such. A back injury and a new born were our prompters for the hardfloor camper trailer. It means I don't need to lift a thing, it is much easier to get away with clothes and food all that is required and the quick setup/pack up rounds it out. It will also go just about anywhere we can go without the trailer.
(As an example, Friday just gone I called home at 5pm and said lets go camping. I got home about 6 and we had dinner and were pulling out the driveway by 7:30 without it being a mad hurry at any point.)

I am currently looking at crossover options like the Kimberley Karavan. The long list of added benefits are sweeteners and with very little downside from a capability perspective but the attraction for me lies with the lack of canvas. I love sleeping under canvas but I feel like I have to set it up at least 4 out of 5 trips when I get home to dry it out as it has rained, heavy dew snow etc overnight and it it has dried out fully when packing up. The crossover wouldn't require anything when we get home.

[Bad Scott]

We were tent campers and I grew up as such. A back injury and a new born were our prompters for the hardfloor camper trailer. It means I don't need to lift a thing, it is much easier to get away with clothes and food all that is required and the quick setup/pack up rounds it out. It will also go just about anywhere we can go without the trailer.
(As an example, Friday just gone I called home at 5pm and said lets go camping. I got home about 6 and we had dinner and were pulling out the driveway by 7:30 without it being a mad hurry at any point.)

I am currently looking at crossover options like the Kimberley Karavan. The long list of added benefits are sweeteners and with very little downside from a capability perspective but the attraction for me lies with the lack of canvas. I love sleeping under canvas but I feel like I have to set it up at least 4 out of 5 trips when I get home to dry it out as it has rained, heavy dew snow etc overnight and it it has dried out fully when packing up. The crossover wouldn't require anything when we get home.

Big Shed. 

[GUEY]

I still miss tent and tarp camping and always thought our next step would be into a softfloor. It would certainly fit our camping requirements, and would offer more space than we have with the Jayco.
Most straight forward answer that I can give for buying a caravan camper  is space when setting up at home.
Being that it winds straight up, I can fit it up the side of the house to dry out when coming home from camping wet, or leave up permanently if required for maintenance or if I'm in the shit again. I don't have the yard space to do that with a softfloor. And we quite often seem to packup wet 

The reasons that I wanted a softfloor were mainly, more open undercover area, easier to pack before a trip, lighter to tow even with a higher payload and here is the kicker. Had I have put just a little more thought into it (not my strong point) I probably would have looked a lot harder at a forward fold or rear fold hardfloor instead of the Jayco.

What does my post tell you? Nothing!! There are sooo many choices out there for a reason. Everyones needs and situations are a little different.

[Darcy7]

As others have said it depends on what you want to do, where you want to go and how convenient you want it to be.

We went from tents to campers to a full caravan.  Reasons too long to list here.  Suffice to say the older we get the more convenience we want. One thing we did do is get a pop up roof top tent for trips too extreme for the van.  There's that word again...convenience.

One thing I would do, if you're in 2 minds, is go and stay at a few popular caravan parks and camping areas and just watch others setting up, living in their rvs but also packing up as well.  Have a look to see how long it actually takes to get themselves set up.  Do they have to make their bed every time?  Do they have a simple tent to erect?  How much room do they have?  How many boxes do they have to take out....the list goes on. 

Our take on it is we don't want to have to spend more than about 10 minutes setting up.  Park...connect up, pull out the chairs and grab a coldie.  Packing up should be simple and I was sick of packing up dirty canvas and needing another shower afterwards.  We wanted to be comfortable even if the weather was lousy for a couple of days straight.  We sat inside a lot of different RVs and thought about all of this stuff. 

Buy with your head.....not your heart...!

[steptoey]

Team

I think I have used my head in deciding which way to go which is the customline, kids are a little to big to pack us all in a jayco for example. I spent the coin on ct i'll have for years to come, hell i can put 10 in it if I wanted. Another point I considered was the kids will have something to use as well that doesn't need a big tow tug. The eldest is 18 so there's a fair chance it will go out without me before xmas. There's nothing that cant be fixed so if some of the relos want a go at it they can, the CT needs to be used and enjoyed as much as possible. I've said it before, life is to short and I'm not prepared to wait any longer 

Cheers

[Brinck]

My poptop (AOR Quantumn) goes wherever my fourbie goes but it was considerably more expensive than a camper trailer I guess. Generally people who are adventurous choose camper trailers over your avg poptop because they are more robust!

[loanrangie]

Same as Weeds, couldnt justify having an expensive van taking up space for the few weekends away.
 Nearly bought a poptop camper but our softy will do us for a while .

[chester ver2.0]

Simple it came down to money and honesty

Money wise i did not have enough to be able to justify a full van especially since i would also have to pay to store it

Honesty i was honest with myself that as we have done a few long term trips i wanted something a bit more homely in size than a soft floor camper trailer so i went the goldstream camper. I was also honest with myself that we do not go that far off the beaten track so comfort took precidence over offroad ability

[Marschy]

Our van will hopefully see a lot of miles before we start looking for a permanent home for it. Not everyone's cup of tea, I know.

I was really surprised when we went to the Blanchetown Caravan Park on the June long weekend with how much of a little community it is. If you've ever been there you'll know what I mean. I used to water ski there when I was in my early teens nearly 40 years ago, so I have some very fond memories of the place.

The weekend we were there, there was a community barbeque, a couple of communal bomfires and a very friendly atmosphere.

It has a high proportion of permanent vans there, probably greater than 50% of the entire park. I would also imagine that the friendly atmosphere can sometimes turn pear shaped with so many permanents, maybe a few more trips during busy times would bear this out.

Getting to my point, our intention is to get some K's on the van in the next 10 years, then start looking for a permanent site for it. Then we can escape to to van regularly without having to tow it everywhere.

[Brucer]

We asked ourselves the same question as the OP... why would anyone want a glorified box trailer with a tent vs a pop-up camper style caravan for around the same $$$.

There are a few simple answers..

1. Ruggedness. A camper trailer is much more rugged. Pop-up campers are not really built for off-road use, at least not for the punishment you can throw at a CT.
2. Camping vs Caravaning. A camper trailer is still "camping". You sleep under canvas, you cook outside, etc. In a pop-up you do all those things indoors. Which is better is just a matter of personal preference.
3. Space. A CT will generally give you more covered space than a pop-up, and that space is not an "indoor" space, so you can see and enjoy the place you just spent hours driving to.

There are a few high end CT's that blur the lines a bit but for most examples, the above is pretty true.