Tent advice

Kelsey

We've decided to go camping tomorrow and are borrowing a tent from a friend as ours is a little small for the four of us.

If we have to grab a new one first thing tomorrow we're going to need something with two sealable living spaces and enough room for a queen camp bed, a single camper and a portacot in the sealed sections.

Any advice?

mycuppa

K.......sounds like you need a Winnebago ...... Bunnings have tarps for $30  :stir

Kelsey

Oh joy! I'd love to get one of those camper trailers at some point.

derrilex

A trip to the camping shop is in order Kelsey. It seems new  tents pop up all the time with improved layouts. A good 6 man dome tent with fly and annexe should be about the $300 mark. Of course cheaper ones from k mart etc.. Camper trailer is the go but they can be a bugger offroad. Where are you going?

Kelsey

We're off to inskip point. I saw a Bedarra tent that I really liked, but a bit too exxy. But very tall, well ventilated and well sealed.

Lacehim

You nuts mate!  With all the rain around (and more forcast for the weekend) your going camping!?!  The ground will be soaking, wet firewood etc etc. Stay home, watch TV and go next weekend that's my tip.  Try Anaconda (near spotlight) for tents.  If you join as a member (free) they have great discounts.  They are very slow at the tills though!

UNM

Anaconda  have decent stuff. Around  here we also  have BCF (boating  camping  fishing)

Brett H

on 1362136490:

You nuts mate!  With all the rain around (and more forcast for the weekend) your going camping!?!  The ground will be soaking, wet firewood etc etc. Stay home, watch TV...

*LIKE*

Koffee_Kosmo

Thirty (30) years ago we purchased a family tent Used it twice and it's been in storage in the garage roof space rafters It will probably turn to dust if we disturb it So what I am trying to say is If you use the item over and over again - by all means purchase a tent If not then avoid

derrilex

on 1362136490:

You nuts mate!  With all the rain around (and more forcast for the weekend) your going camping!?!  The ground will be soaking, wet firewood etc etc. Stay home, watch TV and go next weekend that's my tip.  Try Anaconda (near spotlight) for tents.  If you join as a member (free) they have great discounts.  They are very slow at the tills though!

Nah, he is just a normal Aussie Lacehim. :stir

mycuppa

Don't worry K. you go ahead and buy a tent because whilst the logic of purchasing something that may only be used a few times may not make sense, what you are buying is an experience that is well worth the $$. Last night I had to book flights, hire car and accommodation in Newcastle for a quick 4 day Easter trip to see my Dad for his 70th Birthday which happens to fall over the Easter period. The trip is likely to cost around $1,800 plus food, etc. Which is about par for any time we travel up there so no big deal. For that I get to park in the country's most expensive airport car park, wait 15 mins for the bus to collect us and 10 mins to travel the 1km to the airport lounge. Then I get to face the utter chaos that is JetStar Melbourne check-in - 50 min queues, self-serve kiosks that don't work properly, etc. Then line up for up to 10 mins to get through security, wait 50 mins for my flight to board, battle for some overhead cabin space to put my computer as most tight-wads don't pay for the $17 per person extra baggage fee, wait for my bags to come out at the other end, wait for my Hertz Hire car, drive to the Hotel, probably wait to check-in and hopefully the room is OK for our stay and we are not subjected to constant false alarm fire evacuations like last time. Of course, then I have to repeat the almost same procedure to return. 10 hrs of less than relaxing time spent commuting. Yep, a few hundred $$ for a Tent, the fun you can have surviving in a camping environment, the peace, relaxation and tranquility is absolutely priceless compared to staying in hotel rooms and battling traffic, parking, airports, etc.

UNM

I am off camping next weekend with older dauughter. $68 for two nights, powered site so can take, heater, kettle, laptop, ipad etc Two queen size beds, so not exactly uncomfortable One thing though about  tents. Ours is a fibreglass pole dome  tent. They cope better with heavy rain than canvas, but the metal frame canvas  tents handle high winds better. On one occasion out tent, normally over two metres high was less  than one metre and for sections of pole were effectively shredded. On that occasion we gave up. Replaced broken sections, tent good as new. It is now over  twelve years old Also regarding tranquility, tents have no soundproofing so neighbouring campers can make a significant difference  to whether you enjoy the experience or not.

Kelsey

Almost there, just at a rest stop. Outside Gympie. Decided to just stick with the 4-midget dome tent we already have. Borrowed some poles and ropes and bought a big thick tarp for additional protection. My brother in law on the other hand decided that this was too much like roughing it and went and bought a used Wicked Camper off eBay. Puts the idea of purchasing a new tent in perspective! I suspect we'll be doing this a fair bit, I plan to get some thing tall, big, multi room and sturdy before the next outing.

derrilex

Time to get the 4x4 Kelsey and see the best country on earth. :thumb:

UNM

on 1362210116:

Time to get the 4x4 Kelsey and see the best country on earth. :thumb:

Better to wait and buy one when he gets there. :stir

JamesM

on 1362192358:

I am off camping next weekend with older dauughter. $68 for two nights, powered site so can take, heater, kettle, laptop, ipad etc Two queen size beds, so not exactly uncomfortable

It's amazing what people call camping these days. Laptop, ipad, heater. seriously?

Brett H

on 1362228747:

It's amazing what people call camping these days. Laptop, ipad, heater. seriously?

HEY, I went camping recently and it was tough!  The room-service stopped at midnight and didn't resume until 6am!  :rofl:

Koffee_Kosmo

I like the look and design of a folding tent into a trailer

Brett H

on 1362271719:

I like the look and design of a folding tent into a trailer

They do look good KK but you'd need to use the service elevator of the camping ground to get it up to your camping suite :rofl: Okay, I'm done. A Brisbane company converts 6x4 trailers into camping trailers.  My friend has had this done recently and says its brilliant. I'll find out the details...

Kelsey

Please do Brett! Can someone with access to my Facebook feed post the eventual solution we went with? Tapatalk still has photo issues.

Ol Grumpy

Two Saturdays ago one of my boys (15 yo and already 6'4") who plays local Rep. Basketball played against Noosa and the game was an 8.30pm start at Tewantin... Anyway, we made a trip of it by camping the night at Boreen Point, right on the edge of Lake Cootharaba. We drove through constant driving rain to arrive at around 10.00 pm and fortunately had enough break in the rain to set camp. Me; in my trusty swag and my boy in a small 3man dome which he still hangs out of; lol. It rained hard and steady all night and at one stage I awoke to the swag swinging back and forth so violently I called out in my stupor, "Corey, cut that out and go back to bed...." I will just blame it on the couple of 'Beam's best' I had as a night cap! Apart from a couple of times hearing the really pounding rain, right above my head, I slept like a baby, snug as a bug in a rug... Luckily, the entire camp ground is on sandy beaches on the lakes edge... so it was wet but not muddy and boggy when we broke camp at around 7.00 am... We did a run up the back road to Rainbow Beach via Counter Rd and I can tell you- the reputation of Counter Rd as a teeth-rattler is spot-on... We arrived in Rainbow Beach to the steady beat of rain on the car roof... By his stage my boy had the hunger grizzles so we hit the main strip coffee shop for the Ultimate Big Breakfast- eggs, sausages, hash brown, smokey baked beans and ample rashers of bacon and toast.... H'mmm I can still taste those delightful smokey baked beans.... Coffee- well I'd love to boast how I pulled the Portapresso out and made the best dam camping coffee you ever had, but alas, it didn't happen- not on this trip anyway.... So, after breakfast I pulled out the most desirable camping tool that everyone in the coffee shop strip seemed to share- my iPad.... Using Sygic as my gps-route finder... Well it has a facility where people can upload their own photos of interesting sights as well as the mainstream POI's... Pulled up the weather app. And saw on the BOM radar just south of us was clear of rain... So I dialled in POI's and found an uploaded photo of this most intriguing looking tree that I will simply call the 'Urinal Tree', right near Carlos Blow just a couple of K's out of town... Having piqued Corey's curiosity- he insisted it was a Photoshop Tree... Well we heads down to Carlos Blow.... A short drive and a short hike through the National Park... Along the track we came right across this magical Urinal tree.... And a little further the track opened up into Carlos Blow- a natural phenomena that was named by Capt Cook after one of his crew- Carlo Well as we walked, stumbled, rolled, slid and cajoled around the blow we were constantly being shadowed by this massive great low we could literally see directly off the coast in front of us... We watched as sheet after sheet of rain was swept in to Rainbow Beach village, right in front of us. It was one of those natural wonders where we had a clear birds eye view of the Lighthouse some 14 Klm's  away to our right, but barely 800 metres to our left was hardly visible through the driving rain... Anyway, after getting back to the car and having a further look around we started to head back home... 3 1/2 hrs away in Brissy. Corey fell asleep about 30 seconds after getting back in the car, to head home, so I took a detour back through Gympie and did the Gympie Tourist Drive "route 40", I was constantly amazed at the natural beauty, history and how frequently I was looking "up" at the dirty brown tide line in the trees, etc, left by the Australia Day floods.... Well anyway it's only a couple of weeks later now, but in those two weeks we have come to learn that big rain low we were constantly skirting around off the beach at Rainbow Beach was in fact ex cyclone Oswald that in these two weeks once again flooded Gympie, northern NSW, etc.... The moral of the story.... Well this was nothing more than a night away with my boy for a basketball game... Now it has become a family story and treasured memory that will be woven through the fabric of our family for many years to come... Cost: $200- Value: Priceless

derrilex

Where is the counter road OG ? Ive never heard of it. The Coolooa way is a absolute shocker. "Interesting" in a 4B, mostly impassablel in a car and closed in the wet

Ol Grumpy

On my map, the real rough gravel section (through the pine plantations) of the Cooloola Way is called Counter Rd... Yeah, I was in my ute- unladen and with override springs- so zero suspension 'give'... It was quite interesting... I'm a bushie from way back so sideways on gravel is no big deal.... My boy let the 'F' word fly a few times though... Specially when I hit that cattle grid a bit fast and got airborne and sideways.... :chuckle What was I thinking???

Brett H

Post of Kelsey's setup - WARNING: not coffee

Ol Grumpy

First thing I saw was the trench to divert water away from the tent.... Smart man, right there... :thumb

Ol Grumpy

Guess what... Just inspired myself from the lounge stupor... Leavn in about 10 mins- all of us (5) goin down the coast for fish and chips in the rain... Gonna see what all the fuss is about with the Gold Coast beaches... Where - dunno- Broady, the spit, Currumbin rocks... Who cares... See Ya...

derrilex

Nows that's a baby makin' chamber if I ever did see one Kelsey  :rofl: :rofl:

derrilex

on 1362282865:

On my map, the real rough gravel section (through the pine plantations) of the Cooloola Way is called Counter Rd... Yeah, I was in my ute- unladen and with override springs- so zero suspension 'give'... It was quite interesting... I'm a bushie from way back so sideways on gravel is no big deal.... My boy let the 'F' word fly a few times though... Specially when I hit that cattle grid a bit fast and got airborne and sideways.... :chuckle What was I thinking???

I shudder to think what it's like today. Heaps of tossers go in there and tear arse around when its wet - get caught and fined by the rangers. I went on it once just after the grader had gone through and we did Fraser to Brisbane in just over 2 hours. Awesome. Still, its much quicker and better to drive up the beach from noosa

conikal

:o What is all this  ? ! Queen bed dual chambers heaters etc I thought you guys were true blue ? Take a lesson from OG and use the Swags ! ( and a tarp' if you are soft ! ) Best way to see this great country of ours

UNM

I used to go camping on the bike - all up less than 12kg equipment including tent, tools, stove, sleeping bag and clothes - had to keep it light for up to 150km a day in the highlands of scotland.  Actually, I still have my ultra light Mafac tool set from those days - just checked and they are still available on ebay but considered 'vintage' Nowadays, being 'vintage' myself, I am quite happy to have home comforts and chuck plenty of kit in the truck as we stick to sites you can drive to. I did consider packing projector and big screen, but decided it was overkill for two. Some cremas even take their angle grinder and commercial espresso setup when camping. I prefer to travel light and go turkish or pourover.

derrilex

KISS is always best although the fucken camping nazis are getting their feet in the door in places. Like no open fires in the Simpson Desert or Fraser. WTF is that all about. I love it up north where you basically just drive off the side of the track until you find somewhere good, preferably near some water  :thumb: