I'm not sure how many Holtkamper owners are out there? We're a rare breed in the UK!
After 7 years of very happy tent trailer experience we're reluctantly moving to the dark side, and a tin box. Inevitably my middle of the night trek to a bathroom, combined with a desire to camp out in winter occasionally, have led us to a change of outfit.
So we've put a deposit down on an Eriba Rockabilly, and will be selling our trusty Holtkamper (take a look at the ad over in the Free Adverts section if you're curious).
Having owned many different tents, a white box caravan, and now the Holtkamper, I can say that tent trailers are an (almost) perfect compromise.
Quote: Originally posted by SmiffyHK on 06/1/2022
Having owned many different tents, a white box caravan, and now the Holtkamper, I can say that tent trailers are an (almost) perfect compromise.
We had a CombiCamp trailer tent for many years and it would still be my preferred unit for camping in France. I absolutely loved it but we switched to a caravan so that we could extend our season in the UK and we now use the caravan from February to November which we could never have done in the CombiCamp. I really miss it though and look back nostalgically at the great times we had in it!
We had a Holtkamper Astro for many years. It was so comfortable,convenient and towed like a dream.
We experienced 3 inches of snow in the Pyrennes and temperatures of 38°C in Spain. The aeroflow system kept us snug.
Set up was very fast. Our record from pitching up to being in bed was 12 minutes.
The only downside was the lack of an onboard toilet and eventually our bladders made us move to a caravan
You're right the "Membrane Airco Tentsystem" (I think that's the fancy name they give it?), is clever. For those that don't know there's a double canvas roof system. The upper layer can be extended upwards by unzipping round the sides and using short poles to lift the canvas. It creates an air gap which insulates. When you combine that with the fact that it's proper canvas, the comfort level inside the tent is amazing. In hot weather we just open up the multiple windows (leaving fly screens), and the air movement keeps the inside nice and cool. In colder weather we just take a small fan heater and it stays toasty too.
We bought a porta-potti and set up a toilet tent in 2020 when campsites were limiting access to facilities, and that works pretty well, but I confess my bladder has caused our move to an Eriba now.
We went from a Cabanon trailer tent to an Eriba Troll. For us, it meant that we could extend our camping year, but more than that, I no longer have to wait for dry spell to pack for a holiday!