Hit the hay

As with everything when it’s time for bed, remember to start at the back first. Lift the tabletop off the aluminium pole and pull the pole out of its stand in the floor. Now you drop the tabletop into the slots just under the seating cushions on the right and left side. All that remains is to untie the seatback cushions from their hooks and lay them flat. This bed is now 1 200 mm wide and 2 000 mm long – just short of being a legitimate double. Slide the pole in underneath to store it. Grab the bedding from the front of the cabin and there you go.

The front bed requires a little more finesse. Two flaps in the aisle rise from the front- and rear-facing benches and lock into place. The table drops the same way, but to complete the puzzle you’ll need to grab additional boards and cushions from the bedding recess. The way they shaped the cushions and boards to fit and complete the front bed is clever, and it’s slightly wider (50 mm) and a bit shorter than the main bed (by 100 mm). The only hindrance is the rearward flap that protrudes from underneath the cushion and requires careful

leg placement by the rear occupants if they want to go stargazing in the middle of the night or if the motorhome’s toilet is occupied to not smack a shin against it.

Take cover

To raise the Recce’s roof, you turn out two knobs and then simply pop the roof up. You don’t get much easier than that.

Deploying the front tent requires more effort, though. The first thing to do here is to climb onto the nose cone and open a bag in which a weatherproof flysheet is stored.

Unroll the flysheet and release two clips on either side of a hatch. Pull the hatch forward and down as you back down the nose cone, making sure the flysheet comes with so you can later reach it from the ground.

Once you’re down on terra

firma, rest the bottom-end of a Y-shaped support on the Recce’s A-frame coupler.

Now climb inside the Recce and extend two collapsible tent supports. Then climb out of the Recce again and thread spring steel rods through eyelets in the tent and flysheet, and push the lower ends of the rods into the hatch that now forms the floor of the tent. If sunny weather is forecast, you can, of course, leave the flysheet in its bag.

The next step is to pitch the awnings. There is one on either side of the Recce and they spread out like two batwings from the flysheet at the front to the back of the Recce where they almost touch. We say “almost” because you need to zip an extra rectangular canvas between the two so that you now have 360° coverage around the Recce. The awning has legs, braces and anchor ropes to secure it during harsh weather.

It may sound like hard work, but if you’re camping in one place for a few days, you’ll be grateful for the convenience this shelter offers. However, if you are a restless traveller who camps in a different place every night, it can get tedious to repeat these steps every day.