The Camping Forum

[Nunfa1]

Hi all, I never considered camping before but having visited a camping shop yesterday I was taken aback by how spacious modern tents are and suddenly found myself thinking I could spend a week in one of these. Having 3 & 5 year old children with me saying "please buy a tent" probably helped. But I have some issues.
What is the minimum required to camp for a week? We have a saloon car, Volvo S40, which has a biggish boot but no trailer or roof box. The more research I do the more it seems I need.
Do tents stay bug free? I have serious bug phobias which I try and hide from the kids.
EHUs. I've seen one camp site say they will only allow shop bought mains cables. Is this common? I'm an electrical engineer so could easily knock one up cheaply that would comply with all relevant regulations.

Thanks all, I'm sure I'll have more questions if we decide to take the plunge.

[livsnana]

Hi, I had a major mental block about camping but similar to you, change in circumstances dictate that we don't want to holiday abroad anymore. i.e. Cost, dogs, enviroment etc. We had a look around at some tents and I was amazed how nice they were, then I started researching on the net and found this forum and I haven't looked back. Bought our tent and all we needed to go with it and did our first camp last week. I loved it. Cooked every morning and evening on our campstove. Did a BBQ, played board games, went walking, talked, relaxed and loved it.

I can't wait to go again. We bought an electric hook up. I don't know if campsites check your gear but maybe its best to comply. Bugs can be a problem if you leave the tent door open but if you keep the net part of the door zipped up then your fine and lots of tents now have a sewn in ground sheet so you are sealed against bugs etc.

Sarah

[in-a-tent]

A sewn in groundsheet will keep the bugs out. You will be able to fit the essentials in you Volvo I would think. The biggest thing will be the tent so make sure you see the pack size anything you're thinking of buying. Most other things come in various sizes and as there is always a backpacking version of everything you should find something that'll fit.

If you get the bug then perhaps a trailer or a roofbox will be the next thing to get

[PJM]

You could always try to borrow some gear or team up with friends to see if you get bitten, not by the bugs! We spray the tent and close it up for a few minutes last thing to get rid of the biters but otherwise a sewn in ground sheet will keep most of the creepy crawlies out. Until last year my wife hadnt been camping we have been 4 times now and she loves it especially the dawn chorus.

[Wayne]

Hi and a warm welcome to the forum.

You have had some good advice above and I don't want to give you information overload, so won't go on too much

Why a week, I would say try a couple of weekends first, throw in an extra day as well. Turn up Friday dinner and stay until Sunday. Go local, then you can keep nipping home if you forgot something etc etc.

For a basic couple of nights you will get by with the car, we did a week a few years back with a family of four and just a Ford Focus (think we might have had a roof rack with a couple of chairs tied on top .

My BIL was on about giving it a try and I plan to take an extra tent for a weekend and let all 4 of them try that out soon. Do you know anybody who would let you borrow there tent.

As for the Hook-Up, I'm also a sparky and my lead is home made, I also have a couple of 4gang extension leads running to the sleep pods from the main one. I've never had a problem, that said I plan to buy a proper Hook-Up this winter and try and set a good example

Once your into camping and you know where your at with it, there's no looking back mate.

The first thing, if you are serious about giving it a go is looking at what sort of tent best suites you and what budget you have for spending on a tent.

[livsnana]

Sorry don't mean to hijack the thread but question for Wayne....When you say you have a couple of 4gang extensions running, do you mean you have a four plug extension lead running off your hook up? Is it ok to do this, I was a bit scared to run an extension, didn't want to overload it and trip the electrics.

[Alan]

It has taken me ten years to persuade my fiancee (sp?) that camping is fun and comfortable. I think that she had visions of being dirty, peeing in a field, wet, cold .... the list goes on.

We bought a tent and went camping. A two night stay near Monmouth. Then another two nights in the Cotswolds. She is now hooked.

So - we then bought another tent. Outwell, Trout Lake. She just loves it. Warm in cold weather, and cool in hot weather.

A good cooker - you don't want to live on BBQ food and beans. We bought a Coleman twin burner (runs on unleaded petrol, although we use Aspen 4t). The Cobb BBQ is great. We actually did a full Sunday dinner last time. Roast Lamb, roast potatoes, yorkshire pudds, carrots and peas.

Talk about a baptism of fire for her - we were camping in North Wales early July when those gales hit. The tent was rocking! But - undeterred she still loves it. We have just returned from another six night stay, when it rained non stop (well we did get two dryish days). She still loves it. Get the best tent that you can afford. With sewn in groundsheets (or zipped), flyscreens - no bugs can get in.

My advise would be to get a polycotton. They are heavy. But they are quiet in bad weather - the rain doesn't land like it is hitting a drum, they don't make a load of noise if they flap a bit ....

We haven't wasted our money on that first tent - it will do for one night only camps. At the end of the day it is all about money - what isn't? Have a good look round at the tents that are available ...

I suppose that we have spent close to £1,000 on gear setting up. That "grand" wasn't spent all in one go - just gradually ... The great thing is that when we come back from our camping holidays, we still have all of that gear. We used to spend about £2,000 on a foreign walking holiday (with Ramblers Worldwide). We came back from those holidays with memories and photos. Not to say that we won't do them again ......

Just go for it - you will love it

[TheGoodNorth]

We only started camping last year. We're a family of 3 (8yr old daughter) and only have a Ford Fiesta and we manage to get everything we need in without roofbox or trailer! So I'm sure you will be fine with your Volvo!!

Our list of things we take is growing but to get started we only had the basics:

Tent, Cooker, Light and torches, Airbeds, Sleeping Bags, Table+Chairs, camping seats, pans, cutlery, plates+bowls etc and of course our suitcases.

We didnt spend a fortune either. £160 on a 6 man tent (we wanted living space!) and with the rest of the bits probably about £300-£350 in total.

My advice would be buy the basics for your first couple of trips. If you love it then buy more. And if you hate it then at least you haven't gone overboard.

[Wayne]

Sorry don't mean to hijack the thread but question for Wayne....When you say you have a couple of 4gang extensions running, do you mean you have a four plug extension lead running off your hook up? Is it ok to do this, I was a bit scared to run an extension, didn't want to overload it and trip the electrics.

Basically , the cable you plug into the EHU is capable of taking 16A, no matter how many additional 4 gang sockets you plug in, its all protected by the 16A circuit breaker and if you try and take more you will trip it. Don't confuse this with the old style 3way blocks that you could plug into a 13A socket and then plug a 4gang socket into each face and in theory pull 39 amps out of one 13A socket .



This is generally how my set up is and it works well (sorry its so crude, only spent a few mins doing it). The only point I would make is that I am relying on the campsites 16A circuit breaker and it would be nice if my own properly brought EHU set had the 16A circuit breaker also.

If that sounds hard to follow, tell me what bit you don't get, and I'll explain further.
If you do trip your EHU its no big deal, just go and turn it back on.

I'm sorry for thread hijacking as well

[livsnana]

Strangely I think I get it, thanks Wayne for taking the trouble to draw that. I've just shown hubbie x

[in-a-tent]

We need to take a 4-way next time as we run out of sockets at times, funny how everything runs out of charge at the same time

[Nunfa1]

You've made very good suggestions, thanks.
I think a borrow is the way to go first, no point buying a cheap tent in case we (that means me) don't like it then decide we should've bought a better one.

With regard to the electrics I would say it's always best to know how much the site is supplying, I've seen some say 10A and some 16A. Then you can work out how much each appliance will take, they should have a rating label on which will say 2.2kw for example. Take this figure and divide by 240 to give you the amps, therefore 2.2kw would be 2200/240 9.1 amps. That should stop any breakers tripping.

Wayne, I have looked at the EHU's in shops and they do seem to have built in breakers, is your's just a 16A plug connected to a 13A socket?

[in-a-tent]

We have a 'shop bought' one and it's got an MCB and an RCD.

[Wayne]

Wayne, I have looked at the EHU's in shops and they do seem to have built in breakers, is your's just a 16A plug connected to a 13A socket?

Yeh its just a 16A commando with a four gang socket on the end , Its home made. I really do plan to upgrade.

[Rob-merlin1973]

Hi
Welcome to the forum

I think most things have been covered above ... if there are any other questions then just fire away