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so i'm curently using a driveaway awning with the vw campervan but its not big enough for the expanding family and a pain in the bum detaching the awning to use the campervan during the day.

i'm looking at trailer tents which would appear to offer numerous benefits and tick most of the boxes for what we need.

i'm working to a budget of around £500 to £800 and need the a large trailer tent - what can you suggest.

looking at a few forums the better quality ones seem to be conway/cabanon (i'm aware cabanon used to make them for conway).  looking at prices on ebay/conway owners site it looks like within my budget i'm probably looking at ones that are several years old which isn't a problem.  i'd rather go with an older/better quality TT than a newer/cheaper/poorer quality one.

any suggestions?  looks like the conway classic trio comes into the price range and several cabanons crop up on ebay such as the mistral.

what issues/problems do i need to be looking for on a 10-20 year old trailer tent?

any suggestions welcome, thanks.

I owned the Conway Oxford, the largest trailer in its time i believe?.

We had the Oxford for 10 years, and it was everything we wanted for a family of 5, easier to put up than some other TT's, even though the awning was a lot larger. It has two seperate awning sections, and can be zipped on to the cabin as one or as a seperate unit, giving you one very large awning section, or one average awning section, and a large sun canopy area.

Ours was a 1996 model, but the canvas is so strong and well made on the older Conways, and never let us down.

These do come up now and again on e-bay, and seem to go for £400 to £600, (although i have seen them overpriced at £800 to £1000) try and find the best one you can if you do have a look.

Good Luck 

I've had 2 Conways,the older one was of a much better quality than the newer. Nothing much wrong with Raclet, trigano,cabanon etc,but for the money,I'm with Phil above. Sunncamps are a fair bit cheaper age for age some say they do not have the quality of canvas that others do,but there are many happy owners out there. You should probably buy the cheapest that you can,you may hate it,so you won't lose too much that way. Think about if you want a kitchen or not,they are good,but heavy.

i've got my eyes on a Conway Oxford at the moment - it's a 1993 model.

anything i should be careful about with this model: it seems to be pretty much what i'm after.

Not really, i had no specific problems with mine over the years, apart from the zips, we did replace a couple, check these are all working, as one awning zips on to the cabin, and then the two awnings zip together, also check the front window/door section zips on okay, as this has to be removed if you use just the one awning section, cost about £60/£80 to replace the zips. Make sure you see her up if possible, so you can check the canvas. there is two seperate lots of poles for the two awnings, these should be in sepearte bags, (nightmare if they are mixed together, as there is loads of them) make sure they are all there. The Oxford has corner steadies, so make sure these are working okay.

They do also tow better than the smaller TT's, as they have a slightly wider wheel base, and do not snake around as much, and you can load them up to the hilt, loads of middle storage space, and the beds are a lot wider as well.

Lastly check the kitchen units legs, especially the back two that are open to the elements, these can rust a bit, so make sure they are okay, unscrew them and drop them down to make sure there is no hidden rust, if they are rotten it will not hold the unit, as it is very heavy.

Good Luck

Just had a look at the one on e-bay, looks good in the pictures?

This will probably end between £600 to £700, but well worth it if she is as good as it looks.

that's the one i'm looking at, the only downside is it doesn't appear to have the kids beds/storage which i do need.

i've also seen a couple of early (2000 and 2003) Conway Classic/Trio's- these seem to be popular and i think replaced the Oxford:  anything to look out for on these?

thanks for all the comments and keep them coming!

The original conway bed pods do come up quite often on e-bay, or new ones for £22.50 +pp (230834089220) they are universal.

Im not familiar with the Classic and Trios, let someone else tell you about these.

the Conway Oxford is now £620 and still could go for more - too much for me if you add in the price of the pods.

not in a hurry to buy so will see what else comes along - still interested to hear from Conway Classic/Trio owners on what to look out for.