Matting for outside caravan door
Submitted: Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 15:01
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live4theweekends
Hi All,
Anyone got any great ideas of what to use as some matting to put outside the caravan door under the awning? Just want something for when you are in sandy etc areas. Need something light weight that can be folded up to put in front boot.
We use indoor/outdoor carpet in our annexe when we go somewhere and set up for a week or 2 but dont want to cart this around touring.
Have seen a product at our local caravan dealership that is a bit like the grip mat you put in your cupboards but at $55 per metre means it would cost $220.00. Have thought about shade cloth and putting eyelets in the corners to peg it down.
Anyone use shade cloth or have you all come up with something else brilliant???
Cheers :-)
Reply By: Member - Cruiser (NSW) - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 15:13
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 15:13
With our last 2 camper trailers and our current caravan, we have had made up to size and eyelets fitted to it for pegging out, and it works a treat.
My wife made the first one using her sewing machine and a mate has an eyelet punch, but when we bought the van we wanted a different colour so we bought the shade cloth and took it to an upholsterer who used an industrial sewing machine to make 1 piece to go on ground and 1 piece to go into the roll out awning. He then fitted reinforced eyelets to them for pegging down and only charged $60 for both.
For short breaks at the beach especially in summer they are grat.
AnswerID:
229608
Follow Up By: Member - Cruiser (NSW) - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 15:17
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 15:17
Typo error there, should read
"With our last 2 camper trailers and our current caravan, we have had shade cloth made up to size and eyelets fitted to it for pegging out, and it works a treat"
Bloody gremlins.
FollowupID:
490407
Reply By: Derek from Affordable Batteries & Radiators - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 15:54
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 15:54
Hi
We have also made our own with shade net and eyes. Try get the proper brass eyes as the cheaper ones rust. We did not stitch ours but rolled the edges over 3 times and used the eyes to hold the edges in place. Ours has shrunk about 2 inches over 3 years so make it a bit bigger then needed.
Camec sell a nylon flooring but very expensive.
Regards
Derek.
AnswerID:
229609
Follow Up By: live4theweekends - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:23
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:23
Great. Thanks for the tips about the brass eyelets and the shrinkage.
Cheers
FollowupID:
490424
Follow Up By: Member - Crazy Dog (QLD) - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:50
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:50
Yo derek!
How are the
tv antenna coming along?
Grrr!!!
FollowupID:
490428
Follow Up By: Derek from Affordable Batteries & Radiators - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:58
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:58
I have a new sample that I will be testing over the next few weeks.
The last sample as not great with digital TV.
Regards
Derek.
FollowupID:
490430
Follow Up By: Member - Crazy Dog (QLD) - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 20:46
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 20:46
Fantastic.....
Grrr!!!
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490468
Reply By: dags666 - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 16:05
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 16:05
shade cloth or hessianis very good dags
AnswerID:
229611
Reply By: Member - Doug T (W.A) - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 16:09
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 16:09
Had some people in the next van to mine here in
Perth and they had like a rubber mesh mat , about 10 ft long and 6ft wide , was light and rolled ok , don't know where they got it but was ideal
AnswerID:
229613
Follow Up By: live4theweekends - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:22
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:22
Thanks Doug. This sounds like the stuff that is $55 a metre. You are right it is ideal...just expensive when you want 4 metres!!!
FollowupID:
490423
Follow Up By: Blaze - Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 00:09
Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 00:09
Thats great stuff Doug but as live4 states pretty expensive if you want to cover the whole area. I use what most have suggested above except I'm a tade lazy and you buy them now made to different sizes, example 12' X 8' (like mine) or smaller or larger, usually 8' wide though. I believe ours cost about $30 with reinforced eyelets already sewn in and a bag to carry it in.
FollowupID:
490497
Reply By: Member - David A (QLD) - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 16:36
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 16:36
If you're just after something smallish for outside the door, we use the oztrail foam mats. 4 in a pack cover just under 1.5m2. Individually, at about 60cm square, we find they make a great door mat, or under-fridge mat for the ct . Not overly expensive from memory (c $20 for the pack).
Cheers
AnswerID:
229619
Follow Up By: live4theweekends - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:26
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:26
I know the mats you are talking about. We actually have a couple of these for our shower tent. Would be a bit bulky to cart around though as we need to cover about 4m x 1.5 to 2m. Thanks anyway.
FollowupID:
490425
Follow Up By: Member - Arkay (SA) - Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 09:27
Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 09:27
You can get the foam mats with or without holes in them. Get the ones with holes in them so the some of the sand (and rain if it ever comes!) can drop through. We have these, but for an overnight stop we found that the good old wired rubber strip door mat for the first footprint outside the van door was best. You can scrape the bottom of your shoes, or at least you visitors can because we just use some type of fip flops (e.g those new yuk colourful Croc things with covered toes and built-in holes, can be worn with or without the back straps activated) around the
campsite and drop them off outside the van/tent when entering. Use the mat to stand on whilst kicking the flip-flops off.
FollowupID:
490521
Reply By: blue one - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:35
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:35
Mate,
Shade cloth is great.
If its dirty then give it a shake.
Cheap and it dries out quickly.
Cheers
AnswerID:
229624
Reply By: Member - John C (QLD) - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:40
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 17:40
Hi!
We were going to suggest the 'lock together' foam mats which if you look around are about $14-15 per pack of 4 BUT got snookered when your 'just outside the van door' turned out to be about 12 foot by 6 and a bit. The shade cloth suggested above works like a dream.
Regards
John & Michelle
AnswerID:
229627
Reply By: awill4x4 - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 18:50
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 18:50
We use the same "grip mat" type stuff and find it ideal, it is really comfy underfoot even with no footwear on compared to shade cloth. We had it cut into 2 pieces and it covers the entire floor area of the annexe/awning and it folds up easily and neatly into the front boot of the caravan.
We bought ours from Clark Rubber and from memory it was around $40 per linear metre.This was a couple of years ago now though.
Regards Andrew.
AnswerID:
229647
Reply By: Member - Pedro the One (QLD) - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 19:08
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 19:08
Yep .................. Shade Cloth with eyelets is ideal !!!
And iffen you're cunning about it you can site a couple of extra eyelets to accomodate the tie-down pegs for your tent as
well ........... very handy !!
AnswerID:
229650
Reply By: obee - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 19:22
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 19:22
we get by with a shade cloth and no pegging and no stitching and no sweat.
owen
AnswerID:
229657
Reply By: crocket - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 19:56
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 19:56
Hi all ; I went to a leading camping store in act, & found reddy made in all sizes shade cloth flooring.For just over $50.00 It came with strong nyon edging & eyelets, in a carry bag too. .Saves a lot of work at that price. Crocket.
AnswerID:
229665
Reply By: Member - MUZBRY (VIC) - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 19:58
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 19:58
Gday
I use light weight car carpet which is half the thickness of normal carpet and very light.
Try the yellow pages and look for matting wholesales.
AnswerID:
229666
Reply By: Member - Poppy (QLD) - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 20:02
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 20:02
Only problem with shade cloth is it can be very slippery, especially if it is a reasonable step down from your van, we went for the rubber grip type from Bunnings, not cheap but works a treat and not slippery
Cheers Ray
AnswerID:
229667
Follow Up By: live4theweekends - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 20:13
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 20:13
Thanks Poppy, I did actually wonder if it would be slippery. Did you find it slippery all the time or just of a morning or evening in the dew?
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Member - Poppy (QLD) - Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 20:07
Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 20:07
Slippery all the time, especially if you have any sort of leather soled footwear.
For my money I'd go for the dearer rubber matting material from Bunnings
Cheers Ray
FollowupID:
490635
Reply By: Hairy - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 20:57
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 20:57
Gday,
I realise that the Territory is fairly advanced compared to most states and I dont like giving secrets away but this time I will.
We have these amazing new things called thongs, you take them off at the door!LOL
Cheers
AnswerID:
229688
Follow Up By: Gramps (NSW) - Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 21:57
Sunday, Mar 25, 2007 at 21:57
Naaahhhhhh ..... giant. hairy spiders hide in 'em :)))))
FollowupID:
490488
Follow Up By: live4theweekends - Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 11:04
Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 11:04
Thanks hairy. Yeah I heard those thong things are about to be released down here in Tassie. I could do that but that doesnt help with something to put chairs on and stuff under the awning!...besides if you have to take your shoes off to go inside you might as well stay home! and like gramps I hate big hairy spiders, actually I even hate teeny little spiders...
FollowupID:
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Follow Up By: Hairy - Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 12:23
Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 12:23
I dont know why they would ever release them in Tassie anyway????
Unless of course theyve come up with a webed version. LOL
FollowupID:
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Reply By: sastra - Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 11:06
Monday, Mar 26, 2007 at 11:06
We just bought a second Oztrail Ultramesh grounsheet/shadewall with brass eyelets from Ranger Outdoor in Joondalup WA to use as shade wall for our Jayco eagle outback awning. Original is used for floor under awning and performs well.
These are not too bulky and the 8 x 20 feet cost us about $70. I think they are good value for readymade product.
AnswerID:
229782