An awning alternative

[Anseo]

Awnings are great, small, medium or even huge, but I don't really care for carrying and putting them up and putting them away for anything less than a 4 day stay.

And of course they can be heavy and take up quite an amount of space in the car or caravan.

More and more I now take this:

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/base-seconds-pop-up-camping-shelter-id_8208602.html
Add in extra heavy duty pegs and a hammer etc. and & 7kg should be a fair estimate, so pretty lightweight by comparison to even small awnings.

I do a lot of car camping, and I have used the Quecha Base 2 on numerous occasions, tall enough to stand up in comfortably, space for 4 people with table and cooker etc. very adaptable for use as a sun shade or wind break, and most importantly, very robust in bad weather.

On 2 occasions I pitched the base camp and it endured very severe conditions, so severe that I full expected to be sleeping in the car as I thought it would be wrecked by the gale force winds, when camping I have my camp bed inside and it is my tent for the duration.

Very quick to erect, much quicker than awning, 10 pegs to hammer in. Taking it down is a bit of a black art, but with reference to some YouTube guides (and a little practice) it becomes surprisingly quick and easy to store away, there are other videos to view, but this gives some insight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rOtLhuS5bk

It is my go-to kitchengazebosun shadedormitory store etc, for shorter duration stays.

The newer ones apparently do not come with a groundsheet, but a cheap tarp from Toolstation sorts this out nicely. I have had mine for 3 years now, wonderful piece of kit that I recommend highly.

Downsides, well it does not give a rain free enclosure to the caravan door, there is a small learning curve to packing it away, it can flex a 'lot' in very high winds (but always returns to shape very responsively) other than that I cannot think of anything else.

Edit: another video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8nNUh0M_ZA

And another: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOqXF--9fno

Anseo

 

[Mel]

Daughter has a 4 man quencha pop up tent and we used to have a 2 man pop up that we used in the awning as spare sleeping accomodation. Both brilliant. Daughter has the tent down and in the bag with a couple of flicks of the wrist. Don't know how she does it. We just stand back.
Mel

 

[VicMallows]

Anseo,
I fully agree with you that a smallish tent to provide extra room/storage (instead of putting up a full awning) makes a lot of sense when only staying a couple of nights. My concern is that some sites (especially 'Club' ones) seem to object to (or charge extra for) a separate tent, even though it is much smaller than a a full awning would be.

What is your experience in this respect?

 

[Anseo]

Anseo,
I fully agree with you that a smallish tent to provide extra room/storage (instead of putting up a full awning) makes a lot of sense when only staying a couple of nights. My concern is that some sites (especially 'Club' ones) seem to object to (or charge extra for) a separate tent, even though it is much smaller than a a full awning would be.

What is your experience in this respect?

Vic M,

I'm sorry, but I really don't have anything much in the way of experiences on what different sites would charge (or not).

I phone up and ask them if the price includes an awning, whatever the answer, I ask if a "shelterstorage" tent is included in the price if I do not have an awning, so far, the "shelterstorage" tent has been accepted free of charge, I explain that it takes up no more room than a 'windbreak'.

But I guess that some sites will charge you for whatever they can imagine is worthy of a charge, like breathing in the air perhaps :dry:

Not the most helpful answer Vic M, but I guess putting the question to the site owner (in advance) can tease things out to your benefit.