DarrenVonBoathook

I was in Aldi today I noticed they had some of these tents left. They are advertised as being a 2 man tent with a claimed weight of 1.75Kg, for £49.99 which is a spec for a budget tent. I bought one, more as a possible bike touring tent than for Glastonbury. For the price it appears to be pretty well made, it has aluminum rather than fibreglass poles, and according to my kitchen scales it really does weigh 1.75kg. It is a low, wedge shaped design - you would struggle to sit upright when getting dressed in it and if there are two people then there isn't much space for much else. Not much of a porch, and no fresh and black technology here. However, for going to Glastonbury solo and if weight and packed size (its about 50cm long packed) are your priority, and you can cope with the low height, it might be worth a look at the price. (picture shamelessly stolen from ALDI) Edit: Nothing to do with me, found a YouTube review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXjet5bCeUE

Mine have just arrived. 2 Adult entry and CV East Quiet together.

Just had my email which lists the two entry tickets, but not the CV ticket (which I should have). Edit: Just checked on see tickets website and the CV ticket is listed as 'Not Despatched. ', so I guess it arrives separately.

In the how old are you stakes... Saw Marillion playing in the Marquee club in 1982. Support act was Howard Jones, who IIRC had a hard time, the crowd were overwhelming there for Marillion and weren't shy about making their feelings known as his set went on.

(Supposed to be 44 barrels, most of the time I get a different number , but sometimes its been 44 so that will have to do )

There is, that was my original pre 2019 setup, which was fine except that when the pop top was raised it it meant the solar panel could be in full or partial shade depending on the angle of the sun in relation to the pop top. The Flexi solution was supposed to be my works no matter what is up or down solution. It worked well for about 12 months, which judging by the answer's above seems to be a common experience. 😀

Thanks for the link, I had no idea of the link between Bimble solar and the inn. Their "used" 260w panels look very tempting for the garage though shipping is half as much again. I used some isopropyl alcohol to soften the vhb tape and a thin metal flexible blade (for applying car body filler) to prise it apart and scrape. It probably took around 1.5 hours with gaps whilst the isopropyl did its thing to get it off and similarly its still a bit messy. Some quick and dirty experiments with bits of wood sitting on the pop top tells me it can only take approx 4 kg max or the pop top* won't stay up. 4 kg would be a moderate rigid panel, maybe 40w or so, plus fixings and wires. It might be just enough for all day battery charging. I'll have a think. *Pop top may be overstating it it. Its one of this type, just raises in the middle to give you some standing room. Or as the bloke I bought the camper from said; "just enough room to wear a top hat when cooking breakfast". Eitherway as its so small, and old, the springs aren't particularly strong.

Inspired, or shamed (take your pick) into action by this thread, I found some time to start on the camper. Its an '89 VW T25 and apart from 2 MOTS (less than 1 mile in total as the garage is at the end of the road), the van has been sat in the back garden since Glastonbury 2019 and isn't looking good on it, rust starting to appear in various places, paintwork becoming pretty poor as well . I have limited time to spend on it, so its going to be minimum required to safely get there and back, hopefully. It will look pretty ratty though. Today got it started and run up to temperature, pumped up the tyres, removed the crap that has piled up inside as its been used as ad hoc storage. Drove it 3 odd miles to the petrol station to put some fresh petrol in. A relevant change for such an old vehicle is since 2019 is unleaded contains 10% ethanol. I should really change all the flexible rubber fuel line, and possibly the fuel pump diaphragm and maybe the petrol tank filler neck to accommodate the change, but I don't think have time to do that. So it was E5 super unleaded today and see how it goes on that. I'm going to have to remortgage the house if I need to fill it up with super on the motorway. Removed the dead solar panel. Before 2019 I used to have a rigid solar panel mounted on a rack on the rear section of the roof. It worked ok but the problem was, depending on the direction of the sun, the panel was often in shade when the pop top was raised - which is whenever we are in the van. So for Glastonbury 2019 I fitted an ETFE flexi solar panel on top of the pop top which solved the problem and worked well keeping the leisure battery charged up pop top up or down. ETFE flexi panels are supposed to be more robust than the earlier versions but this one had lasted just over a year before it died, possibly from overheating as it turns out. I had stuck it down with VHB 5952 tape which provided the surfaces are clean, sticks like sh*t, and proved to be an absolute PITA to remove. Reassuringly difficult really, as I'm now happy there is no way the panel is going to come off on the motorway. However, once it was removed I found a couple of hundred small blisters in the fibreglass under the panel area. Solar panels get hot and since flexis don't have an air gap, so does whatever they are attached too. I'm guessing in this causing the blisters. I should sand the whole are back and fix the blisters with epoxy resin or similar but that's another big job I'll have to leave until I'm sure the more important stuff is done. So todays choice, do I go for another flexible solar panel mounted on the poptop, or go back to the reliable but less useful rigid panel on the back of the roof. I can't put a decent size rigid panel on the pop top as they weigh a lot more and the pop top mechanism won't hold the roof up. I can probably mount a flexi panel on some 4mm polycarb or similar on the pop top to allow some air underneath which might stop the overheating issue. Next job has to be oil and filter change, even though its done less than 400 miles since the last one. I checked my Amazon orders and its 3 years to the day I ordered the last oil filter, so apparently I'm no later in my prep than usual, though it definitely feels like it. Glad I've started but I'm not sure what I will find next. Fingers crossed its reliable for BT and Glastonbury.