Using A Tent Instead Of Drive Away Awning

D

Dave Leaning

Member
Having got the conversion completed and used for several short stays we recognise that for longer stays a bit more room would be useful. The obvious choice would be a drive away awning and the Vango Gallic looks fantastic but does anyone use an air beam tent and, if so, how have you got on with it? Tents such as the Berghouse 4xl look tempting at half the price on offer at Blacks.

Grateful for your thoughts any experiences.
 
I was recently in Abersoch and the family opposite had an airbeam. The weather on the last night was windy to say the least, when I went for a pee in the night the airbeam tent was all over the place - my steel frame outwell was solid as a rock. I have toyed with the idea of inflatable as alot quicker to put up but that night made my mind up.
 
We were at Camp Bestival this year, where they cancelled the last day because of the storm. Surveying the fields of flattened tents the morning after, it struck me that the air tents seemed to have fared pretty well. Lots of the cheap decathlon air tents were looking fine.
 
That was the night a flying wind break pole from the pitch next to ours took a chunk out of our van. :(
 
PukkaT6 said:
Festivals are full of cheap tents thats why.
Click to expand...

Yep, no doubt quite a few of the trashed tents were cheapies. I was still impressed on the whole by how the air tents did though - especially the cheap decathlon versions.
 
They may look fine but the occupants were most likely dead inside after being suffocated ha

The cheap decathlon one i saw looked fine in the morning but was almost flat in the wind in the night and it had knocked all the tables over inside and created a right mess.

Obviously we rarely have storms and people rarely go camping when we do.
 
PukkaT6 said:
I was recently in Abersoch and the family opposite had an airbeam. The weather on the last night was windy to say the least, when I went for a pee in the night the airbeam tent was all over the place - my steel frame outwell was solid as a rock. I have toyed with the idea of inflatable as alot quicker to put up but that night made my mind up.
Click to expand...

I suspect they didn't have it set up or inflated correctly, my Galli II when set up correctly is rock solid.

Dave Leaning said:
Having got the conversion completed and used for several short stays we recognise that for longer stays a bit more room would be useful. The obvious choice would be a drive away awning and the Vango Gallic looks fantastic but does anyone use an air beam tent and, if so, how have you got on with it? Tents such as the Berghouse 4xl look tempting at half the price on offer at Blacks.

Grateful for your thoughts any experiences.
Click to expand...

The Galli is probably a bit OTT if you just want a bit of extra space, there are plenty of smaller driveaway awnings that would cost less but still give you some privacy and cover when getting in/out of the van.
 
Decent air tents and/or awnings will stand up just as well as, and in some cases better than, metal framed tents in stormy conditions - where you see them flattened will usually come down to them being incorrectly set up and/or not making use of the design features such as storm straps, extra pegging points, etc.. I’ve seen plenty of both struggling in storms; at least if the air beam gets flattened it will most probably live to fight another a day but if a metal frame gets buckled chances are you will have to replace parts of the frame but there is also a good chance the damaged poles will trash the material and/or damage your van.
 
We have camped for many years with all types and make of tents.you cannot beat the airbeam tents in strong winds there is nothing to snap. I have had metal poles fibreglass poles both have at sometime broke. We now have an airbeam for week and longer with the campervan and an outwell 3x3 tarp for weekends
 
seantomtom1 said:
We have camped for many years with all types and make of tents.you cannot beat the airbeam tents in strong winds there is nothing to snap. I have had metal poles fibreglass poles both have at sometime broke. We now have an airbeam for week and longer with the campervan and an outwell 3x3 tarp for weekends
Click to expand...

And most likely you are now going to learn how to fix punctures as well :)
 
We camp in a 5m canvas bell tent, lovely to sleep in, roomy, doesn't get as hot in the morning like a nylon tent, easy to erect (one pole up the middle and peg out). The only downside is drying it out when wet, they all need drying out but can be a hassle because they are heavy.
Oh and stands up very well to bad weather, high winds and rain no problem, very sturdy.
 
Last edited:
We use a tent rather than an awning as we very much enjoy cooking and being outside and find an attached awning a little closed in (yes we are a bit weird)
So use a weather proof quick slide on shelter & a cheap and small when packed up base tent. (£79 Decathlon)

Find we can drive off leaving something on pitch containing chairs etc and in extreme conditions all sit around a table and eat in.
To be fair we use it like a storage shed once on site to put all the "stuff" in boogie boards, chairs, wetsuits, Cadac etc.
We also have used a canvas bell tent when my children have brought friends for them to camp in, but agree it's a great bit of kit but heavy and large when packed up.

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