Packing Up Times

[xcvator]

As I/we are fairly new to ct camping I was just wondering how long does it take you to pack up and be hitched ready to go, I'm not talking about a quick over nighter, but after a few days or weeks ?
After 5 pack ups we find now we can have a leisurely cooked breakfast  and still be hitched up in about an hour and a half from getting out of bed.
This for "Tanami" soft floor, so I guess a hard floor camper would be quicker.
So what's your average times ? are mine   or more a

[Bunyip]

We do it slightly differently (or at least we did on our first trip). We started to pack up, had a coffee, then did a bit more, then had some lunch etc...

Took us a while but nobody really kept an eye on the time, we just realised it was soo much quicker than tenting it and so much less stressful.

Bunyip

[Mace]

Does that include dissasembing all your heating devices? 

We wouild be similar for our Ezytrail with its big canvass.  Its not the tent that takes the time so much, as all the other stuff you have to pack away after an extended stay.  Tables, chairs, personal effects, cooking & campfire gear, everything you quickly pull out takes twice as long to put away.

Id say we would take  30 minutes for "stuff" and 30 minutes for actual CT pack up and attach.

[xcvator]

Does that include dissasembing all your heating devices? 

We wouild be similar for our Ezytrail with its big canvass.  Its not the tent that takes the time so much, as all the other stuff you have to pack away after an extended stay.  Tables, chairs, personal effects, cooking & campfire gear, everything you quickly pull out takes twice as long to put away.

Id say we would take  30 minutes for "stuff" and 30 minutes for actual CT pack up and attach.

yes mate that includes my heating devices and every thing else,chairs ,tables,dog, wife(though she is probably classed as a heating device except when I'm getting the cold shoulder  )

[DannyG]

From sitting around enjoying life to being hitched up and driving off from a complete long term set up is about an hour for us, maybe 40-45 mins if the kids pitch in properly and we have packed some things away the night before but pretty much a cruisy hour.
And I am talking about everything including the breakfast dishes still needing to be sorted and this is with 2-3 kids.

We have and are still improving on this but we keep everything well organised and try to run a simple and effective ship. Every time we go away we find another thing we dont need to take or a better way of doing things.

As it is now it works something like this........
Miss 10 and Mister 15 pack up their personal belongings and put their swags up on our bed while Mum and Dad packs up kitchen etc.

We all then pitch in and fold up chairs, pack away solar panels, pack up any hammocks or ball games, pack up Ozpig box, put fridge on its slide and have it all sitting on the tarp ready to put back into the trailer.

Then its just a matter of pulling the annex back over the top of the main tent, packing the poles into their holder and then folding the main tent up.

Once the main tent is packed away we put everything into the trailer tub. We dont take a huge amount of items and what we do take is pretty well organised.

While mum and the kids are folding up the ground cover tarp I hitch up and walk around doing the final checks.

We love our camper.

[Bird]

With kids helping or not? Its a few hour difference

Depending on weather, we usually packup everything not needed the night before departure, inc the awning so theres less to go first thing. You never know what weather you will wake up to

[oldmate]

Although we have only done our full setup twice now. I would say a very leisurely hour. We just clean and pack everything away where it should be. Then leave the tent till last and fold it closed hook up and gone. Best thing is when you get home pull clothes and food out and your done. Big difference to tenting it. Where you would spend 2 hours packing up then 2 hours at home packing everything away again. Love the trailer.

[Burnsy]

It does depend on your family situation.  We have two under 4 and can do it in around an hour to an hour and a half without pushing it including breakfast.  As the kitchen in the camprite is the last to go in and does not impact on packup Erin usually dresses and feeds the kids while I work around them, grabbing breakfast as I wander past. This only works if there is a clean dry area to lay annex walls out on so I can fold them up myself.

I use to rush but have learnt that I would rather take an extra half hour and not be all wound up by the time we get in the car, these days it takes as long as it takes and we try not to get to worried about timing.  This is the hardest part about touring in groups, I don't mind helping other if we are packed up first but don't like other people having to wait for us.

[Smoko]

We are never in a hurry just take our time try to leave about 2-3pm home by 6pm put the tug and ct in the shed get the cloths and food out then coffee time watch the idiot box weekend over.......back to work


 


Smoko

[spargo]

It does depend on your family situation.  We have two under 4 and can do it in around an hour to an hour and a half without pushing it including breakfast.  As the kitchen in the camprite is the last to go in and does not impact on packup Erin usually dresses and feeds the kids while I work around them, grabbing breakfast as I wander past. This only works if there is a clean dry area to lay annex walls out on so I can fold them up myself.

I use to rush but have learnt that I would rather take an extra half hour and not be all wound up by the time we get in the car, these days it takes as long as it takes and we try not to get to worried about timing.  This is the hardest part about touring in groups, I don't mind helping other if we are packed up first but don't like other people having to wait for us.

^^^that sounds a lot like us Burnsy!




RE: 2010 Lifestyle Extenda w/ Fridge in Walkway slide, all equipment stored in Trailer (nothing in vehicle), 1x 1y.o & 1x 3y.o.


1. Full annex setup incl walls, fridge out on stand near kitchen & locked, kitchen swung out and stove on ready to cook, all beds/chairs/tables, for a 2+ days stay = 1 hour up, 1 hour down.

2. Overnight stay flip-out, fridge remaining in camper walkway slide, kitchen swung out and stove on, kids beds setup inside, put all legs down and unhitched = 20-35 mins each way.


Would really like to get the Full Setup w/ Annex down to 45mins, but I don't think it's worth the stress or haste. At the moment its a casual plod around which hardly raises a sweat.

The overnight stay setup/breakdown will no doubt get quicker once we're doing it on a very long trip.

[chisel]

About 3 to 4 hours for us (after 4 or 5 days camping).  No quicker than when I used tents - in fact it might be worse.  The camper trailer is nice but it means more crap gets taken camping and that crap gets taken out and spread out over a few days and needs to be packed up and put back into the trailer at the end of the stay.  3 kids does not help.  1 parent is dedicated to watching/helping kids.

[Kit_e_kat9]

We do it slightly differently (or at least we did on our first trip). We started to pack up, had a coffee, then did a bit more, then had some lunch etc...

Took us a while but nobody really kept an eye on the time, we just realised it was soo much quicker than tenting it and so much less stressful.

Bunyip

About 3 to 4 hours for us (after 4 or 5 days camping).  No quicker than when I used tents - in fact it might be worse.  The camper trailer is nice but it means more crap gets taken camping and that crap gets taken out and spread out over a few days and needs to be packed up and put back into the trailer at the end of the stay. 

What they said ...

Kit_e 

[Bird]

No quicker than when I used tents - in fact it might be worse.  The camper trailer is nice but it means more crap gets taken camping and that crap gets taken out and spread out over a few days and needs to be packed up and put back into the trailer at the end of the stay.

I'd agree with that. My camping used to be on motorcycles..
1x "1 man cycle tent" and 1x sleepin bag in the gearsack, grog also in gearsack bag and go Then family happened.. and the required acres hit

[MR MAC GU]

It always changes for us depending on what we take.

Best case about 10mins. Camper, awning table and chairs.

Worst cast 45mins. Camper, awning, walls, kids room, toilet and shower, kids bikes, surfboards, etc

Obviously sometimes it takes longer as we are not in a hurry so we do a bit have a rest etc.

This is for a 2010 kk platinum extreme, I don't miss the days of the lifestyle soft floor...2hrs plus


Sent from Behind you...BOO

[MDSimpson]

My Flamingo runs like this.

Simple over night setup, ready to sleep, and 20mins.
Full bed flys, awning, annex just under an hour.

Pack up is similar, although we have only done the full packup once, and I took my time, ended up taking me a whole day on purpose of course, as it was a top day.

We hired a Complete Campsite softfloor once, packed that sucker up, in the rain, with Pat Malone, in just under 45mins.. hitched ready to roll, then spent 30mins looking for the kids, almost gave up and left them there..

[Marschy]

I find the more helpful advice I offer, the quicker the missus gets the camper packed.

Best time to offer her advice is when she is getting tired and slowing down. Simple things like, save yourself a trip and carry 2 chairs at once, stuff like that.

[chisel]

I find the more helpful advice I offer, the quicker the missus gets the camper packed.

Best time to offer her advice is when she is getting tired and slowing down. Simple things like, save yourself a trip and carry 2 chairs at once, stuff like that.

Pretty good effort from her to carry 2 chairs AND your next beer...

[NewieCamper]

I find the more helpful advice I offer, the quicker the missus gets the camper packed.

Best time to offer her advice is when she is getting tired and slowing down. Simple things like, save yourself a trip and carry 2 chairs at once, stuff like that.

Quiet trip home too no doubt.

[Marschy]

Quiet trip home too no doubt.

Your right there, I sleep like a baby.

[BigJules]

Packing is crap, no matter what camper you have. It's the stuff we all have like clothes and bedding that can take the most time I reckon.

[bussoboy]

i've never timed our pack up but i guess it takes about an hour, because it's just the 2 of us a weekend camping requires the same amount of junk as a week camping so there is no time difference

[Jeepers Creepers]

Our first and so far, only pack up took about 2 hours. Geez we had some stuff out.

To be fair though, 1 hour of that was me cowering under the trailer crying while the wife, for some god forsakin reason, was trying to kill me.

Not my fault she's touchy about hail damage...... not the car either.... 

At least it took the focus off her fat bum....

[edz]

Weather dependant, by myself while the wife and 4 yr old sit in the car, around the two hour mark On a wet wild 40+ knot windy day on Fraser...
Bring on the new pop top... Nooo more flip over soft floor campers for me..

[Hairs]

It's becoming quicker the older the kids get 
Each of us have a job to do, this gets thrown out the window when one of the kids is elsewhere, but we are getting quicker at it.
Obviously it depends on how much crap we get out, to how long it takes to pack it all away when leaving.
Don't matter if it's raining or not, if windy it will take longer.
Love our Swan for how quick it is to be on the road.
 

[elle.mac]

For us we found to make it easier (and save our sanity) is to load the car the night before literally only keep out bedding. We drop the walls on the awning and pack the kitchen up. So all we have left in the morning is buckle the kids in the car so they are not underfoot, throw the kids stretcher up on our bed and drop the awning and fold it all away. We usually give the kids breakfast first but i have it all ready in the car fridge so i dont need to open the camper up for it We are down to about an hour now to pack up if we do all we can the night before