The dilemma of the ever expanding family

Have a look at the range of OZ Tents, they have internal frame quick erect, the also have Station Wagon Tents that become an annex to the back of your wagon.

A second tent. Just a small igloo and face the annex towards the opening of the other.... Plenty of families use a few tents instead of one.

G'day mate,

yep, I've got four and depending on the gig, I will take a small dome and have it for the 5 & 8 yo facing the other tent (Oztrail Tourer 10 plus) on the other side of the tarp in between them. Otherwise, we all fit in the tourer, portacot included !

happy families Leroy!

Bring on the trailer !

We had 3 kids so I went and bought a cargo barrier so I could fill up the back end safely but now No. 4 is on the way so its trailer time.

We have a huge 3x6 three room tent (my wife wouldn't go for 2 tents as she was worried someone would carry the kids away in the night - I didn't bother with the arguement of one quick knife slash and the bad guys would gain entry anyway).

This tent takes about 30-40 mins to erect so its a pain for one night stopovers but at least it keeps SWMBO happy !

Anyone near Canberra interested in a 90 series Prado cargo barrier ?

Cheers....Taz

Hi Leroy,

We have a 1yo and a 5yo and use a large dome tent which takes about 25-30 minutes to set up. I can live with that as long as we are staying two nights or more.

We have a cargo barrier and space is a real issue. Unless you take the bare essentials you need a roof rack especially, as mentioned above, if you go for an Oztent.

We managed to do without a portacot as they take up considerable space in the car and in the tent. For sleeping arrangements we put the bub on foam or small mattress between our mattress and the tent wall so there is nowhere to roll to.

There is also the Black Wolf turbo tent for easy and quick set up but I have no personal experience with them and don't know how big they come. Easy enough to look up on the 'net. Here is one site to get an idea Site Link

No problem at all Leroy. We've been using a Freedom family tourer over the past 13 years with our 3 kids. The porta cot is ideal for babies at camp, just get an elastic fly net to pop over the top & store it on the back floor. While the kids were all young the 5 of us fitted in neatly sleeping on Coleman mats but I take a swag now for myself to give the girls some extra room. While they are babies it all fits in the car but when they hit 5 or 6 you'll find yourself shopping for a roof rack ;-)
Cheers Craig...........

Hi Leroy,
We went through exactly the same dilemna, have a 2 y/o and a 6month old, we upgraded from the Southern Cross 4 peg centre pole to the Southern Cross Ultimate, now have PLENTY of space for the 4 of us plus more and that is with the collapsable travel cot, and still only takes a few minutes to set up.
Do yourself a favour and buy an enclosed trailer to store all the camping gear on trips, it will make your (and especially SWMBO) life a WHOOOOLE lot easier than doing it the way we used to do it by trying to pack everything into the back and onto the roofrack, (missus has to put the bub down to pass things up and the crying/screaming starts etc. ) with a trailer you can pack it yourself if you have to, you will also have more room for a few extra toys to keep them occupied.
I was about to put our off road 2 shelf enclosed trailer on ebay for around 600 if your interested give me a yell.

Avagoodn
Pezza

"The dilemma of the ever expanding family"

Worked out what causes it yet????

Seriously, Thought about 2 Oztents facing each other? Not cheap and not all that convenient to get up onto a roofrack, but you could have a "home" in about 5 mins (8 pegs, 2 guyropes and 2 collapsible poles), giving you a bit of distance to the new baby (O/N feeds/nappies/etc) without disturbing partners, and room as they grow up.

Also frees up a bit of room in the vehicle for the extra babycare pieces (increasing amount of toys in future years, etc) from not having to carry the tent in the vehicle. Ever packed up wet tents into the vehicle? - you WILL appreciate this fact...

Leroy,
was scanning for stuff in the archives and cam across this post. for what its worth...
I have had 2 tents = 2 much work. Looked at two Oz tents - not as quick as they say when you put the fly's out and 2 on the roof is v. heavy. Ended up with an OzTent micro fast. Needs a roof rack, but quite pleased to date. Less the 15 mins to put up or take down. Only down side is it is not a 'stand up' tent.
Paul.

I got 3 under 9 with the youngest now nearly 6... Believe it or not they all wanted there own tents..!..???

So we all have those cheapo dome tents as we typically camp in one place for a week at a time that works fine. Kids seem to switch around tents etc, really doesn't bother me as they aren't leaving mine open for the bugs or filling it full of dirt and mud :-)

With a Troopy we all easily fit in with no trailer and generally no roof rack. Must admit there isn't even air passing through the back once i've finished packing :-)

Can someone explain why when we pack up it always seems to grow by 10%...?

Matt

I found the two ended Dome Tents pretty good.

One for you , one for the kids , a decent space in the middle , but all under one roof.

Cheap enough , solid enough for a few days , pretty easy to put up and doesn't take up too much space.

Yep.

Tie a knot in it!

Haha!