Drive away awning or tent?

[walchy]

Hi weve had our t25 hightop a year now it came with a drive away awning which we've used a couple of times. But it's past it's best really,we have been looking at buying a new one but we are wondering if it may be cheaper to purchase a tent instead to pitch up at side of camper and possibly attach with guy ropes. Does any one else do this find any problems on the sites, do you get charged for 2 pitches?

[ELSwervo]

I didn't have an awning last year, so we used a tent. It was actually quite good. No messing about trying to line the van up and it gave us a bit of "living" space outside the van. We didn't get charged any extra, its the same as an awning, (or car and tent) .We had a good 10 feet between the two and added wind-breaks. No attachement to the van needed, probably not a good idea either, if you forget and drive off!
We just used a driveaway for a short break and to be honest, I think we will go back to using a tent, certainly for shorter times and weekends. The only snag is if it rains, you get wet between the van and tent, or get stuck as I did in a rain storm, with my family laughing at me stranded in the tent!. I havn't yet found an awning that didn't leak between it and the van anyway.

On top of this tents are cheaper! get a second hand one and try it out.

[thechubbsdub]

Some sites will charge extra for a tent and van on one pitch and some will not allow both on one pitch although they tend to be the sort of sites you would want to avoid anyway unless your a fan of rules.

[walchy]

thanks for replying, just ordered a cheapy tent so we will see how we go.

[72BUG]

Some sites will charge extra for a tent and van on one pitch and some will not allow both on one pitch although they tend to be the sort of sites you would want to avoid anyway unless your a fan of rules.

Lots of perfectly nice sites which don't allow tents. I think here on the Lincs coast we have more campsites per square mile than anywhere else in Europe and I can only think of 2 which allow tents. This is because camping in tents comes under a different licence and insurance than caravans and campers and it's simply not financially viable for a lot of the sites to shell out the extra for tents.

The ones that do would definitely charge you extra for the tent, so you would be paying twice for the same spot.

Personally I would buy an awning. It's a lot less hassle.

[Ralf85]

This discussion pops up regularly.

I inherited a canvas driveaway tent/awning with my T2 back in 1984. I never connected them together when camping. I decided that it was a faff and not necessary. I still use this old kit every summer but leave it to stand alone. That saves having to disconnect it and also having to trail dust, dirt and wet over the groundsheet every time somebody gets into the camper and leaves it as a stand alone tent (at least 10 yards away if possible)for my daughters to use as their own space leaving me to sleep soundly and not be disturbed. Selfish maybe but it works for me.

Patrick

[walchy]

We planning a weekend away in a couple of weeks so I will let you know how we get on with trying out the tent.

[walchy]

Thanks for the info in the lisencing thing btw I didnt realise that. So we should avoid sites that dont accept tent camping really. other wise hopefully we should be ok.

[nevill3]

I asked our favourite campsite about their policy regarding using a tent as an awning and they said we could as long as no one slept in the campervan, if they did it would be a double charge for the pitch!!....The campsite in question gets a few new rules each year but is very well run, clean and safe for the children to play in.. I understand why they have an ever increasing list of rules, it's to safeguard themselves and gives them the option of removing unruly or obnoxious visitors if they want to, without any grey areas or unpleasantness.

[roj62]

we have a khayam which is great but can be a bit of stress if its really windy. wifey prefers to have it pitched back from the van as she feels the sliding door is the best thing about the van and what separates us from the lesser mortals in coach built white motorhomes with tiny doors. When its too windy or we can't be bothered as its only one night we have a small 1 person quick pitch tent that we throw up so we can empty the van to free up sleeping space.

Im seriously thinking about one of these 2 seconds pop up things :http://tente.quechua.com/en/tent/r-9,a- ... -full.html seems a good compromise.

[walchy]

Just returned from first camping trip using new tent. Got a very cheap one from sports direct zipped compartment at either side and living area in the centre with a door on each side one which we lined up with camper doors and just tucked the door bit up in the high top during day so we could get in to tent easily. Has been great for extra storage to free up space in camper and for shelted area for me and hubby once kids go to sleep. Not terribly sturdy so wont like to sleep in it unless it was most fantastic weather. Although it was not windy when we pitched by morning the winds were up and was quite a task getting it down with out it blowing away. Definatly great value and serves its purpose well. We stayed at a lovely site Upwoood at Haworth in yorkshire and the owners didnt raise any concerns with us about it being a tent rather than an awning.

[kevtherev]

we used to use a five birth frame tent when on a long stay holiday.
Using the side entrance to the camper