Stuff in a porch

[gloomyandy]

Hi,
I've been reading with interest some of the threads on here about selection of tents etc. and I note that many posters put a lot of emphasis on porch size. This made me think about my experience of using the porch in my Tera Nova Voyager and before that Vango micro 30 tents. Now having a porch is good and I've used it for cooking taking wet stuff off etc. But over the years I've never really got on with storing things in the porch. I find if I put wet stuff in there by morning it seems to be wetter (and colder) that when I left it, food attracts animals etc. cooking kit seems to end up wet with condensation/dew and shoes/bags etc. collect a fine assortment of slugs and other stuff. Now part of this may be that most of my camping has tended to be in Scotland and often in not the best weather, rather than nice sunny and dry climates. But is it just me or is there some secret to making the most of a porch? Should add that I've never had a porch with any sort of groundsheet in it, does that make any difference?

Andy

[jamesgilbert]

Where do you put your panniers when camping? They are all I store in the porch area (along with shoes), filled with everything I don't need in the tent and closed properly to avoid any water getting inside. With two people in my tent, which has pretty big porches on both sides, we stick all the panniers in one porch leaving the other free for getting in and out of the tent, and for cooking if it's raining.

[gloomyandy]

I normally keep pretty much everything in the tent (except when cooking or if stuff is really wet). I always travel alone so have the room. But maybe the porch would be a better place for them.

[foxyrider]

Generally its only stuff that doesn't matter if it gets wet that stays in the porch - cooking kit, empty bags sometimes.

I have woken to find me and my kit floating - anything outside was actually submerged!

Very useful for bad weather cooking and divesting of wet kit before getting inside the drier inner tent.

[hamster]

I tend to keep panniers and cooking stuff in the porch in my Voyager, but the plastic bags of clothes go inside.

[pjclinch]

The Voyager is not what I'd call well-endowed with porch space, and what there is is rendered less usable by the direct path through the middle being the only way to get in and out. The more you have the more useful it is, and I'd suggest the more you miss it when it isn't there.

A big porch (or multiple porches) makes it easier to keep the inner clean and dry. Wet stuff you leave there won't dry out, but it won't do that to speak of in the inner either but it will help make anything else there wet.

Pete.

[gloomyandy]

Hi Pete,
yes the Voyager does not have the best porch! I tend not to use the door as intended (as a centre entrance), instead I usually undo one of the "side flaps" and enter/exit via that as that leaves more of the porch area undisturbed. So do any of you use a groundsheet or whatever in the porch does that help at all?

[jamesgilbert]

I forgot to mention the groundsheet - I bought a very large lightweight groundsheet from Decathlon a few years ago for next to nothing. I periodically cut bits off, roughly 1m by 2m, which I take as a multi-purpose groundsheet for the porch / something to sit on when the grass is wet / something to put over the bikes if I want to make them a bit less visible.

I suppose it does keep things a bit cleaner when camping in muddy or dusty places.

[pjclinch]

Our Kaitum's footprint covers the porches as well... but we tend not to bother on the bikes because we prefer to reduce the weight and bulk. The footprint is handy out of the boats where things like shingle beaches may be involved but for the more benign pitches we associate with cycle camping I prefer the weight saving.

Porch groundsheets are a mixed blessing: you'll get them filthy if you don't take your shoes off completely outside and anything from wet coats etc. will pool in them, and you have to me far more wary of what you do putting down hot pans on the ground. They do reduce condensation a little and you don't have to be so careful dumping kit in them, but overall I give them a rousing "meh"...

Our panniers are quite capable of taking a bit of mud, and for clothes and kit we use waterproof liners so again they can live out in the ends. And on a Kaitum you've got a much bigger porch, and then another identical one at the other end, so you can free up the whole (palatial) inner for stuff that is clean and dry, and only that stuff, and that helps it stay that way. It's easy in a Kaitum to leave things in the porch that don't touch the fly so even if they don't dry at least they don't get wetter. Might not be so easy in a Voyager...

Pete.

[toekneep]

I can't imagine being without the porch. In fact when we changed from a North Face Road Runner 22 with two small porches to the Hilleberg Nallo II GT the most significant advantage is the massive porch. All the panniers, cooking stuff, helmets, shoes and water bottles are kept in the porch. (and sometimes an empty wine bottle). It's also spacious and high enough to set up one of the Thermarest chairs out there so we can sit facing each other over dinner. Very romantic don't you know.

[alans]

My Vaude MK II has a porch at each end,one being smaller than the other & I regard the small porch being at the rear of the tent.
Panniers,bar bag & other stuff not needed within the tent goes in the rear porch.
Trangia in the front porch in case of inclement weather but fortunately I've not yet had to cook in the porch.Footwear also goes in the front porch.

I don't use a groundsheet in either porch.I have a 600x600x6mm piece of foam in the front porch to sit on to remove shoes & sit or kneel on it.This prevents the ground inside the porch becoming muddy due to wet weather or dew.


When using the Akto anything not in use,except sleeping kit,goes into the porch which sometimes has a groundsheet & sometimes does not.

[nmnm]

Golite SL3 / oooknest user here. I keep the bike and the shoes in the porch. In the south of France, my usual touring spot of late, I find ants a bit of a bother if I leave panniers out in porchland. And mosquitoes, in the evening. It's nice in the daytime though!

[tatanab]

I like everything inside the tent with me which is part of the reason for using a 2 person tent for solo use. I travel very compact anyway, a pair of mid sized bags and a bar bag line up nicely along one side of the tent.

My tent history is -
Macpac Minaret - If you put anything other than small items in the porch they get in the way when climbing in/out.
Terra Nova Solar (the old one) - room for a bag if you must, also room to hid stuff away under the fly at the rear of the tent.
Hilleberg Unna - no official porch at all. About 6" of inner to outer space all the way around, so shoes and water bottles stay under cover with anything else that is closed such as tinned food perhaps or wet waterproofs. If more space is needed then some inner space can be sacrificed by unhooking inner from the fly.

[jamesgilbert]

I like everything inside the tent with me which is part of the reason for using a 2 person tent for solo use. I travel very compact anyway, a pair of mid sized bags and a bar bag line up nicely along one side of the tent.

Just out of interest, how does this work when the panniers are wet and muddy? On quite a few occasions I couldn't imagine having my panniers in the tent with me.

[tatanab]

Just out of interest, how does this work when the panniers are wet and muddy? On quite a few occasions I couldn't imagine having my panniers in the tent with me.

If things are very bad then I can decouple a corner of the inner tent and use that space to put the bags in. Also I usually have a couple of the very thin and fragile bin liners that my local council dispenses so the bags could sit on or in these. The bin liners are also useful when I want to separate the tent inner and fly because the fly is very wet and I want to strap it to the outside of my bags the next day.

My bags do not tend to get muddy because I only venture onto farm tracks etc when the weather is better, so it is only the wet I have to contend with. Bags I use are black duck, I would think that modern plastic bags are easier to live with since you can wipe them off to get most of the water off them.

I've been keeping bags inside the tent almost since I started camping 20 years ago, so it obviously works for me. A couple of years ago I had a 4 week tour where it rained for more than half of the time, yet I still had bags inside the tent.