Has anyone pitched their tents on an all weather pitch? I presumed they were for campervans etc only. What is the pitch generally made of and will we get our pegs in ok? We have a large Outwell Hawaii set up and our chosen campsite for Easter has offered us 2 pitches, traditional grass and an all weather. Advice gratefully received!
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I'd have no objection to an AWP as long as I had a footprint groundsheet or plastic sheeting of some sort underneath the sig. In fact I can see the benefit, no wet, tiny bits of newly mown grass or mud to get trailed into your tent! Another benefit is your pitch will have been leveled, whereas in many campsites there's all sorts of dips and hollows to look out for (and sometimes you don't see them until you feel it underfoot!)
Depends what the all waether pitch is made from. If it's artificial grass (astroturf) then no problems. If it's gravel, check that it's the rounded pea gravel rather than the sharp gravel.
I have contributed to a couple of threads on this subject because last year we pitched our tent on 4 hardstanding pitches of different types of material from large stones to the smaller gravel and had no problems. We did have considerable protection under the ZIG of our Cabanon Biscaya so there was no problem with the protection of the groundsheet.
You can feel the stones under foot but as we wore slippers it was not a problem.
A point to bear in mind however is the pegs for your tent. Firstly you probably need rock pegs as it is sometimes difficult to get them in and more importantly you need long pegs. Gravel can sometimes go a long way down and does not give the grip that grass does so if its windy you will need extra pegs and long ones to make sure you have the grip you need.
We found it a good experience and would not hesitate to use all weather pitches. They certainly keep the groundsheet clean and in the event of wet weather the drainage is invariably far quicker and better.
Thanks for this thread and the other one with Jakers. We're going to our first AWP in June and I now feel well informed and prepared. We'll have our new tent by then so I will make sure I take at least one decent tarp/footprint! I'm looking forward to not having the squidgy patch by the door which we always seem to get.