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Hello folks

We have been looking at the folding caravans, in particular at the Pennie (i think thats what it's called !

Looks modern, however a family dispute going on with the pros and cons, i feel it looks like a lot of bother, in particular in the rain.

Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks in advance

If you are buying secondhand you might as well buy a caravan.

I have a gobur carousel

the advantages are

when folded it is much easier to tow than a conventional caravan because with my zafira i can see over the top of it and  along the sides

i can erect it on my own in under 5 mins.

fuel consumption is very good and I store it in my back garden so nobody knows when i go away with it

regards

John

We have worked our way up from tent to trailer tent to folding camper and now caravan.  I have found that the advantages of easy storage and easy towing are far outweighed by the disadvantages of the folding camper.  The problems I have found are as follows:-

Packing it away if the weather is bad, no real storage space in transit, if the living quarters canvas isn't set up just right its difficult to get the canvas to sit just where it should, lots of extra setting up inside with curtains, bedroom curtains and roof liners, no noise insulation (if you have kids like me), set up time is tripled.

We have found that we use our van far more than we ever did the camper because if we are going for a weekend we can pop up the porch awning and have the kettle on/wine open in 10mins, whereas even when we were used to the camper it took an hour and half to set up. 

It is a personal choice and I know people who swear by their campers but just thought I would let you have my views.  Good luck.

It takes us a bit longer than 10 minutes to set up our caravan and it took us quite a bit less than one and a half hours to set up the folding camper we had.  But the van is quicker and has other advantages such as carrying more items and a major fact for us is that you can load it  on your drive easily.  Little jobs/alterations can be done and it can be cleaned just by popping out to it on the drive.  We now have our garage space back.  

Folding campers are great but I think they need to get their prices down to be attract defectors from caravans.

Brian

Hi

I owned two folding campers before my caravan my main problems were the car always seemed full of stuff because it was difficult to preload it the weather was a major factor i tended to worry all the time are we going to get it down before the rain starts or what to do with it if it did get wet how to dry it. The one thing i did really like about the camper was the beds being up all the time and not having to make them each night but having said that does not take to long in the caravan. As Brian said doing jobs on a caravan much much easier you dont have to set it all up each time and when yu get to site it is quicker setting up with a caravan kettle seems to be on quicker.

Samandbensmum

We've had tents, trailer tents, folding campers and caravans, and usually more than one. There are pros and cons for all of them, IMHO, and each has its own particular attraction (I still like them all!).

Folding campers are now referred to as 'convertible caravans', don't you know!  

I don't know which description is more apt; they do offer many of the advantages of a caravan (the main parts are already in situ, with cupboards, beds etc and only minimal assembly required for the cooker, wc, wardrobe etc,)  yet the canvas cabin surely means it is more of a tent, or camper. What do others think on that?

They are easier and less obtrusive to store than a caravan and easier to tow but, as has already been said, they take longer to set up. One drawback, as far as we were concerned, is that you can't just pop in and out to put something in or take something out, it is a case of having to put the whole thing up each time (even if you don't fully pitch the cabin, you still have to roll back the transit cover, open the beds, lift the cabin roof supports and so on...).

We were always worried about packing up wet, too, something you can just about face with a caravan awning but somehow worse with a camper (for us, anyhow, and I realise not everyone will feel the same).

Then there is the expense involved; you can easily pay as much for a good camper as for a good used caravan, and I was always aware that we were still under a canvas roof at the end of the day. We had a brand new Pennine Pullman once, about fifteen or more years ago, and on our first outing to a site in Wales someone decided to light a fire, the wind changed direction and bits of burning debris blew over and landed on the roof of our camper! We were frantically trying to bat them off, from the inside, and it was a total nightmare!

So, as with all things camping, it is a subjective issue. Best to go and take a look at a display and get a feel for them.

Best of luck, whatever you decide.

Thank you to you all again for your help and tips.

For me i would rather stick to our wee caravan, even thought she is an old dear, the family dispute still goes on.

Angela

Pathfinders are great fun and a pretty chic bit of kit. However after a couple of years of rigging them up including the awning etc it's a natural progression to move onto Caravans. I couldn't see us going back but many folk swear by their Folding Campers (Folding Caravans) and wouldn't swap to tin tents for anything! Best feature for me by far is the permanent double beds, great for afternoon naps and for getting the little ones out of the way at bedtime. Although some folk will use their FC's throughout the year generally speaking I would say it is a shortened season as opposed to the Caravan which can genuinley be used in comfort all year round. (Not by me I might add!) I loved my time with our Pathfinder.

davie

Quote: Originally posted by JOHN BYRNE on 18/2/2009

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I have a gobur carousel

the advantages are

when folded it is much easier to tow than a conventional caravan because with my zafira i can see over the top of it and  along the sides

i can erect it on my own in under 5 mins.

fuel consumption is very good and I store it in my back garden so nobody knows when i go away with it

regards

John   must addmit quite like them

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