Setup Times

[Maho]

Have  look at the Customline also. They are all Aussie made and manufactured. We looked at the Camel and almost got one, but the wife wasn't happy with the angled wall/side of the tent over the main bed. She wanted it vertical and as its her side of the bed, I had to listen (I think it would P me off if that was my side to ) That was the main reason we went away from the Camel.

Its such a little thing when I think about it now and write it down, but thats what make the variety available so good, theres something out there for everyone.

We have the Adventure walk up model, and I would say on average its a 45min to set up camp, awning inc. But as its already been pointed out, it varies so much as to what you have, what the kids sleep in, if you need to get bikes of first or not etc. Our bed is always made up, and the kids sleep in swags inside the tent. everything for them is in the swag, mattress, sleeping bag etc, so we lift those onto the floor and put their poles in and they are done.

We have it set up so that everything we need inside the tent (clothes, pillows, toiletries etc) is in the walk up area of the trailer. So once the main tent is erected, my wife stays in there, sorts out the swags, tidys our bed up, sets the clothes up whilst I work on the outside. We have found this works for us. By the time she has done that, Ive done the pegs, tropical roof, kitchen, and she comes and helps with the awning.

We have our fridge in the ute and it stays there. IMO the Drifta swing out kitchen and stirage drawers are the best things ever.

If everything has a place, life is easier. We have found we keep taking less 'stuff' away, as it just takes longer to set up and pack up.

What ever you choose, you'll be happy and you'll find the right set up methods etc that suit you. Everyone is different, everyone takes different stuff, as long as you get out there and enjoy it, that's the main thing!

Now I better go pack the ute, we're off this afternoon for the long weekend.....

Maho

[Bird]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Vmk_agGeI

[macca]

That right there, is about the best description for a soft floor set upthat I have witnessed. We have never owned a soft floor, and you hear all the stories of 10min here, 15min there.  It's all crap!
^^^^ That is real for most people that I have sat and watched do there full soft floor set up.

Never a truer word spoken. Watching people set up (their full camp) is usually  at least a couple of hours, if not half a day. Not talking about quick overnite stops

[Bird]

Setup time in good weather doesn't bother me and usually I take my time. Pack up time is more of a concern. When it's time to go I just want to go.

I'd agree with all that, although Im usually casual about packin up too... I never wanna go home!!!!

They way I look at it is, if it's thumping down rain and windy, how much time do i want to spend packing up?

Yep, tilt the bed up and launch all the Shit into the trailer, worry bout it when I get home.

[chisel]

We had tents for a long time then a Lifestyle Extenda.  Now going back to tents.

The trailer is great for an overnighter but otherwise I find it basically the same as tents.  If putting the awning up it takes 1 to 1.5 hours total I would say ... and the problem is the awning isn't really a large enough 'outdoor' space for us so we sometimes have an extra smaller tarp/gazebo or perhaps a much bigger tarp over the lot.

Just one thing we found - soft floor camper trailers take a bit more time to find good flat ground ... and aren't as flexible as a tent so we found ourselves spending another 5-10mins positioning the trailer on most trips.
Packing up the hidden hassle for us has been the time to get the canvas underneath the tonneau and the tonneau zipped up.  Could easily take 15mins and that's longer than it takes me to do a large standalone tent, I would say.
Also folding up things like awning roof, awning walls and shade cloth floors takes time.

[Bird]

We had tents for a long time then a Lifestyle Extenda.  Now going back to tents.

mate of mines just done this too. Box trailer, with all the goodies thrown inside with a southern cross single pole extender.

he also only managed to get out 1ce or 2ice a year, so was a lot of money sittin in the driveway doing nothing.

[Beefgravy]

10 Years of tents and 2 hour camp set ups with the kids
Followed by 1.5 years with a soft floor camper trailer, didn't really make it quicker to be honest for a full set up.
Got a little frustrated as pack up day was such a chore. Moved to Jayco expanda now thats quick and easy and still sleeping under canvas (well sort of).
Really interesting that many on the Expanda forum followed a similar path way. Tent - Caper trailer - caravan
Problem of course is the cost.

[chisel]

mate of mines just done this too. Box trailer, with all the goodies thrown inside with a southern cross single pole extender.

he also only managed to get out 1ce or 2ice a year, so was a lot of money sittin in the driveway doing nothing.

Yes, the depreciation on the camper sitting idle was a factor for me too. (probably $1k per year)  Then there's rego and insurance.  None of that required with tents.
Even when we had it we found it was left at home because either (a) we didn't want to pay the ferry costs to Moreton/Straddie, (b) we were going somewhere that only allowed tents (bollarded national park sites).

[Bird]

(b) we were going somewhere that only allowed tents (bollarded national park sites).

... sadly that's becoming extremely common down here too.. which Tim found out which was the last straw for him to sell his trailer.

[brickiematt]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7Vmk_agGeI

Could've done it 15 seconds quicker if he didn't take his boots off and put em back on again......!!

[Bird]

Could've done it 15 seconds quicker if he didn't take his boots off and put em back on again......!!

[09VRXDiD]

I have a Lifestyle Walkthru. We have had it 4 years and in that time have reduced the time it takes to setup dramatically. Our current setup time is half of what it used to take while we were still getting used to having a camper rather than a tent. It is almost always husband and I doing setup, we politely decline 'help', we have it down and know what each other are doing and what order we do it in.

Unhitch and level - Takes 10-20mins, depending on local terrain and wether or not we have any 'communication breakdowns'. (unhitch camper, move car, put down stabilizer legs, ensure camper is level, take off camper cover/ fold up store away.)

Put up main tent - Takes 5 mins. (main tent up, pegged out) Open tent off camper, we have a 12ft tent so we have to put in extra poles and raise end of tent. Go outside peg down tent.

Put up annex Takes 10 mins - (annex up, usually no sides, tropical roof pegged) Takes 10 mins. We keep our annex roof attached to the main tent to save on time and storage. We have all our poles clearly marked and kept separate from main tent poles to avoid confusion and while husband is pegging down main tent I lay annex poles out in place.

Bedding - Takes 15 mins. (main bed, 3 x kids beds, put on sheets/blankets, bring in pillows, bags, toys.) Main bed is almost always made up, kids beds x 3 depends on length of stay but we usually put up three stretchers and place self inflating matts on top (which we keep stored flat on main bed) Middle child usually takes control of the making of the beds while I go out and help set up kitchen.

Kitchen and dining - Takes about 15 mins (Floor down, kitchen out, table out, chairs out, lights up, tv out, water hooked up, gas hooked up.) We use cgear for floor, quick and easy to roll out and peg down. We changed our kitchen to a drifta DPOR, it takes a couple of minutes to setup and everything alrady has a place so I dont need to worry about unpacking pots and pans ect.

Total time average (keeping in mind that some of these things are being done at the same time)
35 - 40 mins.

Most of the reason that we got our time down is that our camper has evolved with us. When we saw a way to make it easier, then we would do the mod.
Eg. Fast connect water
      Kitchen with complete storage
      Annex roof kept attached (we never used to be able to do this but after the zipper busted on our cover, we had the cover replaced with a bigger one)
      Setting up our electrical so outside lights only needed to be clipped in.
      Keeping kids matts on main bed saves on packing/unpacking.

Small things add up to alot of saved time.

How did you set up the outdoor lights? Would love more info on this mod!

[Brett B]

20 mins for me its a 9ft soft floor on a tandem axle no need for drop down legs unless the ground is crap
pack up is about 30 mins

[Bird]

20 mins for me its a 9ft soft floor on a tandem axle no need for drop down legs unless the ground is crap
pack up is about 30 mins

We'll have the stopwatch out at Knockwood ya know...

[xcvator]

Takes me about 90 seconds for an overnighter now 

[markg66]

I must admit I find these setup times hard to believe, but maybe I'm just slack and/or don't flog the missus and kids enough.
For our Jayco Eagle Outback we are lucky to have it setup with the bag awning out (no walls) roped and pegged, bed fly's are not bagged so they live folded up in the storage side hatch, mats down camp chairs and table unpacked, shore power connected, water and sullage hoses connected in under one and three quarter hours.

And packing up, that is another saga all together, from getting out of bed (not having breakfast) to driving away, we never do it under 3 hours.

[xcvator]

If my set up/pack up time added up to more than an hour and a half in total I wouldn't go, I just couldn't be stuffed with all that mucking around.

2 and 3 hours to set up then pack up is just stupid to me, sorry, but your either very inefficient or you're taking way to much stuff .

At 1 of our early days set up we were actually timed ( unbeknown to us at the time ) from parking to set up at 15 minutes ( no awning )

[loanrangie]

If my set up/pack up time added up to more than an hour and a half in total I wouldn't go, I just couldn't be stuffed with all that mucking around.

2 and 3 hours to set up then pack up is just stupid to me, sorry, but your either very inefficient or you're taking way to much stuff .

At 1 of our early days set up we were actually timed ( unbeknown to us at the time ) from parking to set up at 15 minutes ( no awning )

Same here , even our old cabin tent may have been 1hr tops and that is why we moved up to a camper trailer.
 We needed a trailer anyway for all the crap and now its so much easier to setup.

[Brett B]

We'll have the stopwatch out at Knockwood ya know...

No wuckers mate 

[GeoffA]

We'll have the stopwatch out at Knockwood ya know...

Don't bet against him Bruce. Brett doesn't muck about......

[Swannie]

Last night setup from unhitch to drinking gin. 3 minutes 10 secs

Starsky

[xcvator]

Last night setup from unhitch to drinking gin. 3 minutes 10 secs

Starsky

So what held you up, were you perving or something 

[Bill]

Wife and I with our old Cape York soft floor.
Everything for an extended stay done (except annex walls) 20 minutes start to finish.
It took quite a few trips to get that quick. Think we were nearly 2 hours, (14 screaming matches, 17 sighs, 12 I'm never talking to you agains and 20 I want to go homes)the first time.
Ahh the memories 
Bill

[Bird]

Don't bet against him Bruce. Brett doesn't muck about......

Hmmm wonder if we could get hold of a proper drawbar scale for towball weights while at it..

[plusnq]

Takes me about 90 seconds for an overnighter now 

Are we still talking about camping ?

😄