Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations pls

For bongoing parents to discuss issues re: travelling & camping with children.

Moderators: Alison01326, mobilecat

klmwong

Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations pls

Post by klmwong » Fri May 04, 2012 8:46 pm

Hiya,

We have a 7yr old, a very nearly 6yr old and an 8month baby. Now that 4 has become 5 I'm thinking we need an awning but where to start? It would have to be tall enough for us to stand up in. We would be needing it for hubby to sleep in cos he's a snorer and possibly the 7 yr old cos he's a snorer too and we would probably use it as extra space for storage - don;t car seats take up such a lot of room - and possibly doing things like board games when it's raining or for the 8month old to crawl about in. I've seen pictures of those awnings with the tunnels that attach to the bongo. They look useful but you can shut the door with them attached can't you?

Anyway, who has got awnings? What make and model? How many in your family? What do you use it for? And given the chance again what features would you look for in your next awning? And roughly how much was it? And also, can one person put it up cos I reckon it'll be just me and the littlies on our bongo adventures for much of the time. :shock:
dobby
Supreme Being
Posts: 2622
Joined: Fri Feb 04, 2005 8:45 pm

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by dobby » Fri May 04, 2012 8:57 pm

We sold our Khyam Classic awning as it was too small with 2 adults and 2 children (14 & 12). We used to sleep in the Awning and the kids in the bongo but a combination of space and hassle meant we got a big standalone tent instead.

I think there are some really big awnings about - a VW site had one they used to sell.
User avatar
mountainmummy
Bongolier
Posts: 492
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2011 12:30 pm
Location: Stirlingshire

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by mountainmummy » Fri May 04, 2012 9:09 pm

Hi

We've just bought a quechua pop up tent (4.1 it's on offer at Decathlon at the moment £99) as we found our awning too big.

There are 4 of us (my two are 3 and 5) so we all sleep in the van and although we need a tent for storage of car seats etc, we decided it didn't need to actually attach to the van.

Did have a bit of a problem last weekend though when the campsite we stayed in told me I should have paid for two pitches as I had a tent not an awning. Didn't seem to care that if we had brought our awning it would have taken up more room than the tent.

We're thinking about selling the awning now, but are going to wait till we have a few more trips with the tent first.

Good luck with your search.

Sara
Why, oh why did I chose such a naff forum name????
Matt&JoyBongling
Tribal Elder
Posts: 707
Joined: Wed Aug 17, 2005 12:07 pm
Location: Bedford

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by Matt&JoyBongling » Sat May 05, 2012 12:07 am

We have a day tent - like a gazebo with sides. Pretty good most of the time but the sides do not come down to the ground so it gets windy around our feet. I think a tent is more versatile than an awning or day tent.
Underground, Overground, Bongoling Free, the Bonglers of Bedford, common are we ...
mentaliss
Bongolier
Posts: 348
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: West Sussex

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by mentaliss » Sat May 05, 2012 7:51 am

klmwong wrote:Hiya,

We have a 7yr old, a very nearly 6yr old and an 8month baby. Now that 4 has become 5 I'm thinking we need an awning but where to start? It would have to be tall enough for us to stand up in. We would be needing it for hubby to sleep in cos he's a snorer and possibly the 7 yr old cos he's a snorer too and we would probably use it as extra space for storage - don;t car seats take up such a lot of room - and possibly doing things like board games when it's raining or for the 8month old to crawl about in. I've seen pictures of those awnings with the tunnels that attach to the bongo. They look useful but you can shut the door with them attached can't you?

Anyway, who has got awnings? What make and model? How many in your family? What do you use it for? And given the chance again what features would you look for in your next awning? And roughly how much was it? And also, can one person put it up cos I reckon it'll be just me and the littlies on our bongo adventures for much of the time. :shock:
We have a Outwell Drive Away CountryRoad, you can stand up in as long as your not 6'8 :lol: you can open and close the slide door,.... most drive away awnings will have these facility's, the floor area with this awning is just under 3x3m with tunnel. When attached to the van, with the use of the van's space the awning should easily cope with two adults+ there's only two of us and from what we now know from our experience, our awning is probalaly too big! dont forget the larger your awning the more it may cost to pitch:D
Nogob
Bongonaut
Posts: 90
Joined: Sat Aug 28, 2010 3:48 pm
Location: Lancs

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by Nogob » Sat May 05, 2012 8:19 am

I've just cut and pasted a reply I made to an earlier post but if you have any question, give me a shout:

We recently bought the Outdoor Revolution Navigator. We've previously used the Quechua base tents which are very handy, but we wanted something that connected to the van.

We chose the Navigator after balancing reviews and price – Ian writes a very favourable review in the shop or the fact sheets.

We bought ours (new) from ebay and the guy we got it from was offering the optional inner tent for free at the time. It's a very small inner tent (2 man as long as 1 of the men is quite small) that sits in the front of the awning. I was happy to have the inner tent for free but think I might be a bit disappointed if I'd paid for it.

We've used it 3 times now and have been very pleased with it. It's a good size, plenty of room for a fair bit of kit. We had 5 adults and 2 children happily sitting around in it. Quite easy for 2 adults to put up, not as easy as the Quechua obviously! Fits to the van nicely with a figure of 8.

It's an odd shape, look a bit like a fish from above but plenty of doors so you can open it up and get a nice shelter from the oppressive sun we get for a day and a half each year.

We spend a week in Cornwall each year at the end of May and this awning will be ideal for this.

For overnight, weekend stops or touring, I'll probably stick with the Quechua options.

Hope this helps.
User avatar
Muzorewa
Supreme Being
Posts: 5244
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:00 pm
Location: Team Muz HQ, Outer Bongolia
Contact:

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by Muzorewa » Sat May 05, 2012 9:22 am

We use a Royal Traveller Tunnel in conjunction with an Omnistor pull-out awning permanently attached to the van. Under normal circumstances we just use the Omnistor but if we’re going to be on a site for a few days the Tunnel is really useful for dumping all the crap in. There is a bedroom big enough for two adults (which is removable) and the end furthest from the van can be moved inwards one hoop to create a large porch.

Image
The other end attaches to the van with figure-8 strips, either to the gutter if you attach directly to the van, or the casing of the Omnistor....

Image
....or you can have the Omnistor extended and fix the Tunnel to the free end of that....

Image
....but you do need a large pitch to do this.

Image

Image

Image

The only downside with any of these awnings is where to dry it when you get home, spread out this is huge. But on site it is plenty big enough, we are two adults and two kids (18 & 10) and the awning can be used for working on bikes & scooters, sleeping, cooking, normally we’re only on a site for one night so don’t use it but on the few occasions we have needed it, it has been great.
Image
mentaliss
Bongolier
Posts: 348
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: West Sussex

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by mentaliss » Sun May 06, 2012 8:04 am

klmwong wrote:Hiya,

We have a 7yr old, a very nearly 6yr old and an 8month baby. Now that 4 has become 5 I'm thinking we need an awning but where to start? It would have to be tall enough for us to stand up in. We would be needing it for hubby to sleep in cos he's a snorer and possibly the 7 yr old cos he's a snorer too and we would probably use it as extra space for storage - don;t car seats take up such a lot of room - and possibly doing things like board games when it's raining or for the 8month old to crawl about in. I've seen pictures of those awnings with the tunnels that attach to the bongo. They look useful but you can shut the door with them attached can't you?

Anyway, who has got awnings? What make and model? How many in your family? What do you use it for? And given the chance again what features would you look for in your next awning? And roughly how much was it? And also, can one person put it up cos I reckon it'll be just me and the littlies on our bongo adventures for much of the time. :shock:
You may be interested :wink: there's a Outwell country road in 'for sale' here on bongo fury
mentaliss
Bongolier
Posts: 348
Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2011 7:42 pm
Location: West Sussex

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by mentaliss » Sun May 06, 2012 8:09 am

Muzorewa wrote:We use a Royal Traveller Tunnel in conjunction with an Omnistor pull-out awning permanently attached to the van. Under normal circumstances we just use the Omnistor but if we’re going to be on a site for a few days the Tunnel is really useful for dumping all the crap in. There is a bedroom big enough for two adults (which is removable) and the end furthest from the van can be moved inwards one hoop to create a large porch.
Blimey! Muz how on earth do you transport all that stuff, have you got a secret compartment in your bongo :lol:
User avatar
Muzorewa
Supreme Being
Posts: 5244
Joined: Wed Sep 19, 2007 6:00 pm
Location: Team Muz HQ, Outer Bongolia
Contact:

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by Muzorewa » Sun May 06, 2012 9:16 am

mentaliss wrote:
Muzorewa wrote:We use a Royal Traveller Tunnel in conjunction with an Omnistor pull-out awning permanently attached to the van. Under normal circumstances we just use the Omnistor but if we’re going to be on a site for a few days the Tunnel is really useful for dumping all the crap in. There is a bedroom big enough for two adults (which is removable) and the end furthest from the van can be moved inwards one hoop to create a large porch.
Blimey! Muz how on earth do you transport all that stuff, have you got a secret compartment in your bongo :lol:
Image
:oops:
Image
campervanfolk

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by campervanfolk » Sun May 06, 2012 11:08 pm

We are 2 adults & 3 little ones (6,4,1) and have a Kyham Driveaway Sleeper. It was great for our main holiday & had lots of room but we haven't found it that easy to put up. We posted a message on the 'camping equipment' section asking for advice and it seems like it should be quite easy so maybe you'd be okay with it. Half of it is a bedroom so this was good when our youngest was waking during the night and not always that easy to settle. I slept in it with 2 of our children and there was easily room for everyone if we'd wanted. There's lots of room for storage too - toys/wellies/scooters etc.
Another thing to maybe consider is that the fibreglass poles haven't been great. They broke on a very windy trip away and we couldn't use it at all (a lesson to take spare ones with us!).
Good luck with whatever you decide to purchase.
klmwong

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by klmwong » Mon May 07, 2012 2:55 pm

Thank you everyone for your replies and photos. I will have to persuade the hubby to take all the littlies out for a couple of hours so I can google all of the options and see what they look like. At the moment I seem to be spending a lot of money getting ready for our bongo adventures in the june and summer school hols so I'll have to do lots of research now cos I don't want to make any expensive mistakes. Thanks all.
nik68

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by nik68 » Mon May 07, 2012 4:26 pm

hiya,
wera family of 4 but with 2 older children so have gone with a kyham quick erect drive away awning...a little more expensive but hoping to get our monies worth. it has 2 bedrooms and plenty of family room. we are planning on using it for longer trips but if it is easy to put up may use it for weekends too...good luck looking...i spent hours...lol :D :D

nik and crew
hatris
Tribal Elder
Posts: 503
Joined: Fri Jul 13, 2007 11:31 am
Location: Formby Merseyside.

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by hatris » Mon May 07, 2012 4:33 pm

There is one for sale on facebook called a quatro reduced to £250 which seems huge. Believe the seller is the bongo shop. No idea if this is easy to handle or what it is like inside but it is huge.
minidaz123
Bongolier
Posts: 105
Joined: Mon Feb 20, 2012 3:33 pm
Location: Cambs

Re: Awning suitable for a family of 5, any recommendations p

Post by minidaz123 » Fri May 18, 2012 4:39 pm

Quite a handy post :)
We've also been spending far too long looking at a selection of awnings for our family of 4 ( us and 2 boys aged 4 & 9 ).

Quite tempted with the Quechua 4.1 family, as it looks like it has a decent space and nice and easy to pitch. I think the only downside would be that it doesn't attach to the Bongo ( which isn't really an issue ), but i'm sure something could be knocked up to work :)

Hoping to get something sorted in time for the Bash, so still got a bit of time to decide tent or awning.
Post Reply

Return to “Bongoing with Children”