Having camped way back in the 80s this year was a reintroduction, mainly because we camped at the Cropredy Festival with a fairly cheap tent with various mats, bags etc we already had in the loft (mainly for kipping at friends houses back in the day). Decided to upgrade tent to a Vango Lomond 500 and added a porch door(meant for the air tent not our poles version) and better sleeping kit and give it test. We picked October for 4 days when it was cold and very stormy!
One broken pole during very windy gale force sleepless night, torn porch door extension but rest of tent was fine.
No problem keeping warm for sleeping with a 100cm SIM and a reasonable 3 season sleeping bag and a couple of fleece blankets above and below and a set of Decathlon thermals for sleeping in. EHU and a fan heater for mornings and going to bed. What was miserable was early dark and cold evenings, from around 5pm. No fun sitting in a chilly tent eating dinner! Best option was to go out to a pub to eat, campsite had a bar with log fire so return there and drink more beer till bed time then back to tent put on the heater whilst you jump into bed then try and sleep with the wind lashing at the tent.
So I’d do summer camping with long light balmy evenings when you can wrap up even if it’s chilly and sit with a glass of something but I won’t be doing autumn let alone winter again!
------------- Hypercamp Alaska
Vango Force 10 mk3
Vango F10 Helium 1
Coleman Cobra Pro 3
Coleman Cobra 2
Naturehike Star River 2
Eureka! Solitaire
Dutch army goretex bivvy bag
I used to camp in all weathers but like you, I can't now see the point of sitting outdoors in the cold and damp. If you have a good tent with a sewn in groundsheet (I prefer metal poles because I feel they are more stable in wind) you could leave the fan heater ticking over on thermostat while you spend the evening in the pub, then return to a nice warm tent...or you could stay home with the central heating on as I now do. I am considering renting a static or something similar this winter though.
I don't do car camping in the winter. The only camping I do is up the hills. You are walking all day, then pitch the tent, do dinner and get in the sleeping bag and sleep. Next day, strike the tent, brekkie and walk again. Not much sitting around and cooking and eating can be done whilst in sleeping bag. Toasty.
------------- Hypercamp Alaska
Vango Force 10 mk3
Vango F10 Helium 1
Coleman Cobra Pro 3
Coleman Cobra 2
Naturehike Star River 2
Eureka! Solitaire
Dutch army goretex bivvy bag
There are several metal foil backed, bubble insulation wraps, used in the construction industry , that are ideal for insulating layers over ground sheets.
Amazon market Dripex and you can get 6 square meters of this for just £15.99.
It's on a 600 mm wide roll.
You can make up a mat to cover your ground sheet, taping the joints with Gaffer tape or for a really good joint, try that Gorilla tape. I've used it on my car mats and it really is bomb proof.