The bus tent to house them all.
The bus tent has arrived - after a rather massive discount at doorout.com in Germany, we finally got the tent we hoped to get. Ready for 2023 year's adventures with lovely visitors from all the way from Australia!
Initially we thought we'd get the Boracay FT301 TC, but after taping up the dimensions ("double-room floor-plan") on our balcony of both the FT301 and the FT401, we simply didn't see how we could sit 3 to 4 adults in the front part of the tent with chairs, and the weight and price difference was minimal.
Dometic has two main material choices for their camping tents. The first is TC, or technical cotton (more expensive) and the second a normal version which I assume is some polyester. The TC feels nicer and more like a "nice tent" in our opinion.
Previously, we had a Tentipi Saphir 9 for a couple of years (now sold), which had a similar TC blend, and that's a very nice material which feels more "homely" than a standard thin tent fabric.
More to come when we've actually tried it out - as opposed to "wow, a nylon bag". (tbh, the storage bag doesn't feel that special).
Beds - more beds!
Teaming up with this, is the Disc-o-Bed Disc-Bunk - we're still waiting for it to arrive, but this will add two quite comfortable beds to the camping van, whilst having a decent packing size to comfort ratio. With this, no one needs to sleep on the ground, the legs are relatively high and the entire bed is stable - it can even be converted to a sofa - not the prettiest perhaps, but hey - it's another sitting option.
The sleeping area is 201 x 70 cm, the height about 40cm.
Packed up, it is 81,5cm L x 52cm W x 11cm H - albeit quite heavy at aroudn 14-15kg per bed.
Useful for more than camping, this adds super easy sleeping options for at home as well.
Disc-o-Beds are in use in many emergency services as well as the military, and thereby proven to be effective and quality products.
Finally, for a nice sleep on the Disc-o-beds (the name cracks me up everytime), we're eying up the Duvalay Comfort model in 66cm width and 4cm memory-foam mattress. More on that later!
Where should we all sit?
Frontrunner Outfitters (also owned by Swedish company Dometic), have a LOT of goodies for overlanding, offroad travels and camping.
We're already quite pleased with the FR ladder on the back of the Cali, and had heard good things about the FR chairs, so we ordered a double pack of them, along with the folding lightweight telescoping table.
Here as well, there is real quality - sturdy, easy to pack up, the packing away is easy too as the carrying bags are sized properly and not too tight.
Here's the kicker though - the FR chairs fit INSIDE the existing Cali chairs in the back - how perfect is that? With one chair in, it holds with the standard gas struts, but with two (extra) chairs it starts to close by itself - see short clip here:
The solution to this is the Busschmiede.de stronger 1400N gas struts - which we'll install in about a week (takes minutes to replace). They will make sense in winter anyways, when dampers are always struggling a bit more. Link to the Busschmiede gas struts:
Busschmiede 1400N Gasdämpfer Heckklappe
Link: https://busschmiede.de/T6-Gasfedern-Heckklappendaempfer
Some FR chair images from their website:
