Family of 5, when the kids were all small(under the age of 8) we could just about manage a long weekend in our Mondeo with a roofbox. Tent, cooking equipment and 5x sleeping bags and roll mats, a couple of changes of clothes seemed to fill all the space, we could forget taking a fridge or any food with us! Only furniture we could manage was a folding table with 4 tiny stools that fit inside.
Once the the kids got older and taller we upsized to an S-Max but gave up on camping because we'd need a van and a trailer. We reckon its cheaper to book a holiday cottage for a couple of weeks a year or budget hotels for a weekend away. Than buy a full size family tent sturdy enough to cope with the wind here in Scotland.
Only one child and a dog (some years ago now) and we would still fill a decent sized estate car to the roof - no bikes or kayaks involved.
It always seemed to rain when it was time to pack the tent away
Life became so much easier when we got a caravan
Life became so much easier when we got a caravan
This. And, a lot of the places we were staying at charge almost the same for a tent with electric hookup as a caravan.
I get around 45 out for my LWB 2 litre Diesel on a run
45 is shit fuel economy, sorry 🙂
Family of 4 here - kids are 2 and 5, plus one old English sheep dog. She goes in the boot, curls up small so we pack around her. Our Vango Icarus 500dlx fits between the kids if I've packed it right, sleeping bags round the kids feet and anything else we can squeeze in there. Everything else goes in the boot with the dog or in the 370L top box. Car is an i40 estate so the boot is huge, makes the dog look small.
Last time we went camping there were a couple of people with trailers which had a roof box on top of the trailer, bikes then on top of the car. Seemed a good idea, doubling the storage on the trailer
Family of 5 with a large dog here. First ever family camping trip at the end of July, only two nights but the amount of stuff is the same for a week
We'll be in a T6 Kombi and two will be sleeping in the van but there's still going to be a lot of stuff! This thread isn't really filling me with confidence
Wasn't planning to take bikes but the tent/awning, plus chairs, mats, sleeping bags etc is going to fill up a lot of space!
This. And, a lot of the places we were staying at charge almost the same for a tent with electric hookup as a caravan.
Costing me £288 for 26 nights at the site I'm on at the moment - hardstanding and hookup. Granted, no loo or showers, but I have those in the van
^dirt cheap
This. And, a lot of the places we were staying at charge almost the same for a tent with electric hookup as a caravan.
Well it should be the same as it's taking the same pitch.
^dirt cheap
CCC Site @ Walton-on-Thames if anyone ever needs to stay inside the ring road of doom/Surrey area
Family of 4 here. We started out with Mazda 5, + roofbox, + towbar bike rack. Now we have a T5 which gets used all the time - just about to head off to a bike race this evening, went climbing with it last weekend, camping at a bike festival next weekend. Perfect vehicle for an active family. Nothing like coming in from a cold trip, putting the heater on for a few minutes and making a brew.
Another caravan vote here. We can chuck some clothes & food in on a Friday lunchtime, leave straight after school, home, unpacked & washing on in half an hour on a Sunday night with no wet tent etc to sort out. Way better for weekends away.
We are off to France with it for 3 weeks in summer. A campsite with kids club costs the same as kids club here, so we'll be working from there for a while.
The flexibility & lack of stress means we have far more adventures than we would otherwise.
I've never been on a campsite that I like that allows caravans
There are plenty of good sites out there, trust me.
Our holiday last year:
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I’ve never been on a campsite that I like that allows caravans
Hold my beer...
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Literally the view from our caravan a few years ago. Three Cliffs Bay, Gower
Where my sister in law is now
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Usually it's a bit more
😗
And then there's festivals - did 2 years of our local large festival in a tent where the weather turned apocalyptic on the next to/last day, then a year (2019) in the caravan, where again, it turned apocalyptic. The feeling of satisfaction sat in the warm and dry with a beer, watching bedraggled festival goers trudge past, dragging their sodden kit away because they'd had enough, was matched in equal measures by the looks of pure hatred towards us, sat in the warm and dry with a beer
No long trek from the car park and endless queues getting in, or having to lug stuff back to the car at the end of the weekend is an added bonus, regardless of the weather
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Our trailer has beds and stuff in it, quite useful really.
45 is shit fuel economy, sorry
I suspect you are drinking the koolaid 😁
All this crap is for me and MrsRNP and Bert the doggo for a ‘quick’ weekend away in the lakes.
I'm glad its not just us.
Two kids, no dog, and still manage to basically fill a FullFat transit to the extent that within 10m of the van is a minefield of plastic boxes, cooking stuff and folding chairs.
We can sleep 4 at a push though, and its only an L2.
Gonna get an event-shelter on order, just to give us some walls to load out stuff against.
Usually it’s a bit more
It often is yes. But I don't stay in those places. Alternatives are available.
When I was young we had a Mirror dinghy, pile all the camping stuff in and put the cover over it. But don't do what our Scout leader did and put a full size Calor cylinder directly in the bottom of his.
When our lad was young we put light stuff in the kayaks (which was OK for roof load as they were lightweight boats) then we got a box trailer.
same dilemna here year before last, already had a passatt tried half roof box, 3 bikes on carriers on roof, dog and camping stuff plus 2 kids in car. couldn't fit paddleboards was going to go down the trailer route as others but got a deal on a T5 Kombi so now we can take as much as required. inflatable tent + awning, 4 bikes, 2 paddleboards, associated paraphenalia, 2 kids and 2 dogs now! bikes on a 3 bike towbar carrier smallest bike in the back, everything else in the back. It has removed a large amount of stress out of packing and travelling if not a cheap vehicle to own and run. Cant go back now so hope the van lasts!
We managed a weeks camping with a 6 man tent & gumpf in an Alhambra plus Thule fabric roof box. Also took my sons manual chair and walking frame somehow.
Bit stymied last year when he got an electric chair- that and the ramps fill the boot so we had to get a trailer.
Only drawback is the 300 mile drive from Kent to Cardigan at 60mph
I’ve never been on a campsite that I like that allows caravans
I get that sentiment. And agree that I wouldn't want to be parked up where your view is spoiled by a bunch of other white boxes, and you sit out on a small square patch of gravel.
There are, however, stunning campsites that also accommodate caravans. 3 Cliffs Bay, on the Gower, as above. Chlachtoll, up in Assynt, to name 2 places we've been.
Anyway. Family of 4 here, with 2 teenage girls and a dog. Skoda Roomster for a few years, latterly with a clapped out trailer I bought locally and built up the sides on.
Last year, swapped that out for a Ford Grand Tourneo Connect. Tons of space. Not ideal as an urban runabout, but the 7 seats are handy for daughters' friends, our elderley parents etc.
get that sentiment. And agree that I wouldn’t want to be parked up where your view is spoiled by a bunch of other white boxes,
It's funny isn't it as I just don't worry about the view in that way from the site for family/luxury camping. Give me good showers and bogs, neighbors who understand noise etiquette and rapid access to the trails/water and I'm a happy camper. A nice view on the site is just a bonus.
Wild or lightweight camping I kind of get that view/lack of white sheds thing being more important. Those are some stunning sites up there though. 🙂
So I have picked up a mini camping trailer from a neighbour, erde 101 for a relative cheap price. It’s a 110x90x30
Now trying to work out what accessories to buy. Sadly they don’t do a hard top for it, so the plan of a hard top and load bars is out of the window. I need 50cm of depth for the tent.
I’m thinking you can get mesh sides and a cover for it for a sensible price so that gives the depth. Now I am trying to work out how to carry the bikes.
Choice seems to be fine some load bars to fit (google is failing me) or maybe I use my saris bones on the hatch and the trailer on the tow.
We will still have a roof box and space for one bike on the roof.
Is that a stupid idea? Any idea where you can get load bars from that would be extendable enough (erdes won’t work)
erde 101
You may be worth keeping an eye out for a bit bigger trailer. Once like that are so small adding racks and hard tops will be tough as they are only made for minimal loads and would be horribly unbalanced with anything stacked up. Bigger tows better as, I don't mean massive but just say 1.5 m ideally closer to 1.8m and wider would make all the difference and still able to stand on end out of the way.
Bigger tows better
And easier to reverse
I'm kind of on a budget so couldn't be too choosy I knew it was the smallest trailer they do. for the what I paid hopefully I can pass it on for the same after I give it a bit of tlc maybe more.
anyone know of a place that does custom load bars? I'm quite happy to put some holes in it to fit
Someone just bought our old roofbars and bike rack to do exactly that. They have literally just drilled trailer and clamped on with U-bolts.
To get more depth My old man just built a square frame out of ply that sat on top of the metal work and made the trailer a foot deeper by 2ft. Which meant the frame tent bags could go in vertically
Wouldn't be hard to make a hard top for that .....and bolt on bike racks.
Anything you can do to make it taller /visible out your window will make it easier to reverse as by the time you see those erdes in your wing mirrors it's too late to do anything about it.
Just watch your payload (about 250kg) and also your tires .... They don't do many miles so tires rot out from UV exposure before they wear out.... Most folk find this out when they explode on a trip......
I learned trailering with one...... It was hell due to the short draw bar and narrow width it would snap left and right so quick. ..now I have an ifor Williams gd84 - it's about 14ft long and compared to the erde I can put it anywhere I want with precision....even on the back of a 23ft van I can get it in my driveway which is only 2ft wider than the trailer (and off a single-track road)
Just cheap square bars and unbolts through the rim of the trailer worked when I did this.
How’s everyone getting on with fitting summer holidays into vehicles?
We were ok for a camping trip with two adults, three kids and a dog. But we have a van. Didn’t take bikes, would need towbar rack or similar for that. Didn’t take SUP but that would have been fine too
Now on normal holiday in an AirBnB house, no bikes but SUP and beach stuff. Piece of cake in the van thankfully, would have been a struggle in the previous car (e class estate with roofbox), actually maybe not even possible
2 adults, 2 kids, 4 bikes, tent, stoves , clothes, bedding (inc. duvet & pillows), beach stuff (inc. shorty wersuits), 4 chairs (v. compact lightweight type), picnic table, kitchen unit, cool box, towels etc will fit into or on a Kia Ceed (just).
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Saw a similarly overloaded car on the A30 a couple of weeks back. It was upside down on the grass verge.
@slowol how much does that lot weigh and are you over the max load capacity of the car? My guess is yes, by miles.
its pretty hard to overload a car with small kids on board. my zafira tourer is 1680 unladen and has a gross vehicle weight of 2350. allowing 150kg for the wife and I, and 50kg for 2 kids, there's no way I'm able to put over 500kg of kit inside/on top of it. Stuff might look big, but it weighs a small amount.
looking at the ceed, it has a 440kg allowance for people + stuff, take 200kg off for people, I doubt you're loading on significantly over 240kg, but I might be wrong
That load is almost certainly less than the max load. Tent is heavy at 30 kg, bikes and racks maybe 60kg. Most stuff is relatively light. Although the 360litre roof box is full I estimated 30ish kg as roof weight is max 60 and there is a bike too. Kids are also not heavy (both together weigh much less than 1 adult). The boot is nominally similar volume to the roof box, so not big!
Even though I misjudged a speed bump and had to drive some rough tracks it never hit a bump stop.
Yes it's full, yes it finds hills even harder work for the 1.4 engine but I don't think it is over max weight and the engine never got warm journeying through mid Wales and has more power than our old T4.
The issue with smaller cars is most often purely one of physical space!
You have reminded me that I forgot to check whether I left anything in the spare wheel well though!
I thought I'd replied to this thread but apparently not...
Anyway here is how we currently do it:
Big trailer thing is a folding caravan which holds our beds, some outdoors seating, stoves and hookup cable, plus wellies, waterproofs, and flipflops in the front box.
Car boot holds coolbox, clothing (in the grey plastic boxes), hard foods (in the blue box), car toolkit. So it's mmostly stuff in boxes, and I then pack the nooks and crannies with the inevitable bits and bobs.
Roof box holds bedding, blankets, raincoats. That stuff isn't heavy but is bulky so is good up top.
In the cabin up front we usually end up with a massive pillow bag in the central seat (FR/V is a six seater in two rows of three) plus drinks and snacks for travel and soft food.
I have no idea how I will add bikes into the mix but that's the increasing refrain 🤣
its pretty hard to overload a car with small kids on board.
It depends on the car - payload allowances vary a lot as I was surprised to discover.
New Kia Ceed is 440kg max payload according to their site, so not too bad.
