Getting into camping; need a tent!

[Fritzo]

Lets all go pitch a tent

Already done...

 

[slag]

Having camped out several times a year with my boys for scouts and the like, we started with a large coleman family tent. Its great if you need to sleep 8 people and have room for gear, but for just father and son or 3 people, its overkill.

We recently bought a kelty tent and wow, the workmanship on it puts the coleman to shame. It was recommended to us by several scout leaders and after looking into them, they appear to be a very solid tent that is also lightweight and super easy to set up.

 

[Fritzo]

Having camped out several times a year with my boys for scouts and the like, we started with a large coleman family tent. Its great if you need to sleep 8 people and have room for gear, but for just father and son or 3 people, its overkill.

We recently bought a kelty tent and wow, the workmanship on it puts the coleman to shame. It was recommended to us by several scout leaders and after looking into them, they appear to be a very solid tent that is also lightweight and super easy to set up.

...and 4x the price of a Coleman. I'd rather get a $79 Coleman than spend $800 on the equivalent Kelty if I'm using it once a year

 

[DrPizza]

Agreed. If the kids were older, a separate tent might be fine...but with little ones like you have...keep them with you.

I hate being too crowded in a tent.

While you don't need something like this for weekend camping:

http://www.amazon.com/Wenzel-Kodiak-...5119599&sr=1-5

something along the lines of this:

http://www.amazon.com/Suisse-Sport-P...119599&sr=1-14

will give you all the room you need...and then some. Not much worse than being stuck in a cramped tent while you wait out a surprise rain shower...

Your best bet is to go out, visit a few sporting goods shops and "try on" some tents to see what style you prefer, what size you feel comfortable with, and what the quality of the tents is like.

IMO, avoid the crap sold at Wallyworld. They might be sufficient...but the quality usually isn't very good.

We had a tent similar in size to that first one. Before we went camping, on a nice day, I had the boys practice putting it up and taking it down a half dozen times. Putting a tent up in the rain sucks, if you're not familiar with your particular tent and are attempting to put it up for the first time.

But, there's nothing more joyful than sitting back and watching two kids put a tent like that up in 3 minutes while people look on and say "wow, those kids know what they're doing." Meanwhile, I've watched other people near us spend over an hour attempting to put up one of those screen rooms, because they can't figure out which plastic connector goes where, or they put parts on upside down. (I prefer to spend that hour cursing in the privacy of my own back yard.) It's like just about anything else you assemble - the first time takes 5 times as long as you realize it would take if you were to do it again. And, in case it's raining when you arrive, you want to be able to do it quickly.

 

[BoomerD]

We had a tent similar in size to that first one. Before we went camping, on a nice day, I had the boys practice putting it up and taking it down a half dozen times. Putting a tent up in the rain sucks, if you're not familiar with your particular tent and are attempting to put it up for the first time.

But, there's nothing more joyful than sitting back and watching two kids put a tent like that up in 3 minutes while people look on and say "wow, those kids know what they're doing." Meanwhile, I've watched other people near us spend over an hour attempting to put up one of those screen rooms, because they can't figure out which plastic connector goes where, or they put parts on upside down. (I prefer to spend that hour cursing in the privacy of my own back yard.) It's like just about anything else you assemble - the first time takes 5 times as long as you realize it would take if you were to do it again. And, in case it's raining when you arrive, you want to be able to do it quickly.

I agree 100%. Practice assembling your tent at home at least a couple of times...It's also a good way to make sure they included all the parts...It would suck to get to your camping spot, pull the tent out of the bag/box...only to find out that one or more of the key pieces is missing or damaged beyond use.

 

[herm0016]

the nails work ok for stakes, I like the msr ground hog stakes the best. aluminum and a Y shape cross section.
I was big into backpacking a few years ago. Now we have a slide in for my pickup.

for other gear:
stove/lantern: choose liquid fuel or propane and stick with it for all your gear. I use liquid fuel for everything because I carry an extra 20 gal. of gasoline and I do not have to carry a bunch of propane bottles.
get a stove similar to:stove
what ever lantern you want, the cheap texsport ones work great!

for cookware, thrift store stuff is good. I usually carry a small sauce pan, a med. sauce pan and a 10in skillet. if you are cooking over a fire, use cast iron. you can cook anything you would at home on a colman stove or over a fire. Walmart usually has some cheap plastic plates and cups around this time of year. they are so cheap you can get new ones every year if you want! We also have a walmart ozark trail table that is plastic on one side and metal on the other for cooking.

my splurge this month: ARB Fridge expensive, but I hate fishing around in an ice bath for my ruined food. There are cheaper ones made by edgestar that work pretty good. I run mine off of solar, so i wanted the real deal that uses less energy.

look for surplus places and places that have overstocks. We got 2 4in thick self inflating sleeping pads for 30 dollars each at a place in salt lake called "surplus outlet"
from REI or similar they would have been 90 to 100 each.

none of this needs to be expensive.

we like grits or oatmeal for breakfast
hotdogs over the fire are great
fresh veggies
bread and pesto
steaks over a fire are amazing!!
corn beef hash and eggs
noodles, lipton noodle or rice side dishes, mac and cheese, sandwiches, grilled cheese, soup, burgers.....

our last trip was 7 days and 1600 miles, 5 national parks.

ditto on the practice thing for tents and even your stove.

 

[Ns1]

Help me decide between 2 tents:

Eureka! Tetragon 8 - Tent (sleeps 4)
http://www.amazon.com/Eureka-2628226.../dp/B000EQ8WZ0


Coleman Sundome 4 Person Tent 2012
http://www.amazon.com/Coleman-200000...5200094&sr=1-1

Also found and really cool:
Kelty Noah's Tarp 9
http://www.amazon.com/Kelty-Noahs-T...=sporting-goods&ie=UTF8&qid=1335200125&sr=1-1

 

[herm0016]

the sundomes are walmart quality. eureka stuff is mid range to good quality wise.

I would choose the eureka.

tarps are great, but you need to be pretty hard core to live that way. I have only ever spent a few nights under a tarp. tents are much better.

how many people are you looking for ?

try this: http://www.sierratradingpost.com/ke...filterString=s~tents-4-person/&colorFamily=01

 

[TXHokie]

I car camp with family of 5 in an 8 person tent. I like to be able to stand up and also plenty of room for a bunch of inflatable mattresses (one double and three twins fit nicely with still room in the middle to play card games etc.). We're just sleeping in comfort but outdoors. Also get two big tarps, one to throw down on the ground and put the tent on top. Another to string on trees to hang over the tent in case of rain, it helps block the rain from soaking the tent directly and reduce leakage. Of course we always watch the weather close when going camping and have only dealt with light drizzle. It sucks to camp in the rain...muddy and kids, bleh. Tent camping is great fun but I think it's time to upgrade to a popup camper.

 

[slag]

...and 4x the price of a Coleman. I'd rather get a $79 Coleman than spend $800 on the equivalent Kelty if I'm using it once a year

We paid $109ish for a 4 person Kelty a few weeks ago and my wife used it 2 weeks ago for her OWL training and it was perfect.

 

[Ns1]

the sundomes are walmart quality. eureka stuff is mid range to good quality wise.

I would choose the eureka.

tarps are great, but you need to be pretty hard core to live that way. I have only ever spent a few nights under a tarp. tents are much better.

how many people are you looking for ?

try this: http://www.sierratradingpost.com/ke...filterString=s~tents-4-person/&colorFamily=01

2 people and 2 dogs (corgis)

Trying to keep it under ~$110.

 

[Uppsala9496]

This tent worked out fine for my wife and 3 year old daughter:
http://www.amazon.com/Eureka-Apex-3X...5274691&sr=8-1

Definitely would not be comfortable with 3 adults.

 

[crashtestdummy]

2 people and 2 dogs (corgis)

Trying to keep it under ~$110.

If you're really stuck on the budget, then got with the Eureka. I haven't been thrilled with the quality of Coleman, and the Eureka at least won't get you wet in a drizzle.

If you're willing to do a little better, though, I really recommend the next level of EMS, REI, or Kelty. They'll last you a decade or more, and you won't regret it. I have the EMS tent (student discount=20% off), and it rocks.

 

[MisterJackson]

A trick I found handy for food is two coolers, one for stuff on ice, the other for meats put on dry ice. This is really only useful when you're camping for three days or more. If I know we're gonna have steaks that night I'll take them from the dry ice cooler and put them in the ice cooler that morning. Meat can turn fast, especially in summer camping months. The dry ice idea also seems to cut down on the need for as much regular ice. Also, don't go cheap on coolers. The better the seal, the longer your ice will last, reducing the trips for ice. This all really only applies to car camping.

As for tents, I keep two. One sleeps 8, the other sleeps four. I never really camp with more than one other girl. The 8 person tent was handy when I dated a girl with a Doberman. We fit all of our packs, queen airbed, and dogs.

The four man tent, which in my opinion should only be used for two people, is what I use when I'm hiking in.

As someone else stated, get tarps. Nothings worse than finding out about a tents weak (read: leak) points in the middle of the night with no way to compensate for it.

Also, for car camping I like to use a pop up canopy. On camping trips where the weather turns rainy those things are invaluable, and help keep people from being miserable.

My most favorite piece of equipment for camping is a clip on hat light though. You can get an el cheapo $5 light from Walmart, or they have some models for $20 that you can replace the batteries in. Beats carrying a flashlight in the woods at night when you need both hands for cooking, gathering firewood, giving your lady some sweet lovin', etc.

As for pots, pans, etc. Dutch ovens, cast iron pans are nice, but you really do need to maintain a hot fire to use them correctly. Personally, I usually bring my own firewood in. I know that sounds retarded, considering you're in the woods. However, most areas are picked clean of firewood, or the wood may be wet from a previous storm. In some cases, the wood may just be shit for fires (pine). Pre cut wood burns more evenly, allowing you to maintain more consistent temps for cooking.

Don't take any pots and pans you can't afford to lose or have destroyed. Camp fire will blacken any pot or pan you use, no way around that really. They say you can rub the outsides of pots and pans with bar soap so the black washes off easily later, but that's such a pain in the ass.

I invested in a nice stackable/nesting pot/pan set. It compacts nicely and sits inside a mesh bag. The mesh bag is awesome for dipping dirty dishes in the creek, lake, etc. to get large food gunk off before cleaning/sterilizing. Make sure you have one pot large enough to boil water in for sterilizing all the other pots/pans.

Oh, and get a GOOD air mattress and battery powered pump. Cheap air mattresses (walmart/target/academy house brands) WILL leak. You and your kids will be MUCH happier on an air mattress. Let the kids sleep one night on the ground and see how long they want to stay

Good luck! Camping is awesome fun.

 

[The_Dude8]

get this coleman mc mansion tent

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...tag=slickdeals