[camping gear] Trying to figure route to take next

[M A V I C]

Quick background: My wife and I grew up camping quite a bit. My family was houseless for a while when I was a kid so we camped during that time too (eg heated water in sun, over campfire... cooked on two burner camping stove, had a outhouse with a hole in the ground...)

A few years back, we went on a 4k mile road trip and camped in quite a few states. We had a friend who helped us pick some gear, and another who loaned us some. We had a Kelty tent we really liked.

Now we have a 3 year old and are planning on having another kid. We picked up an Eddie Bauer tent at a garage sale two years ago for $20. Well, it's a "1 season" tent which means there's a lot of venting that doesn't seal up. It's too cold. Last year we picked up a Kelty tent at a garage sale, but upon further inspection it's actually a "Ridgeway by Kelty" which is not designed nor made by Kelty, they just licensed their name. It sucks. It's very unstable in wind, the front sipper is a PITA for me since I'm taller.

So we're either going to get a new tent, though I'm toying with the idea of getting some sort of trailer. It would come in more handy as the family grows. Of course, I don't have a place to park it and I'd have to get a hitch ($600 and I could probably install it myself.) But then we could keep everything in it, it'd be easier to setup and teardown...

Or I could just get a nicer, larger tent.

For my birthday my wife got me a great camping set that has two pots, a pan, two lids, four bowls, four plates and four cups. all fit together in the size of the larger pot. We have pretty much all the gear to do things on a small scale. We have two coolers now - one small and one large. We also have a roofbox that someone has loaned us indefinitely. Still, for a 7 day trip our car and roofbox were packed. When we have another kid, we'll need to haul more stuff and we'll need to use the backseat for another carseat. I could buy some new clothes and some other camping gear that's more compact and save space.

So I'm trying to figure out if I should spend the money to buy more compact gear, possibly a bigger roofbox... or if I should think about going bigger and maybe removing some landscaping for a place to park a trailer.

[cbelt3]

Trailer camping limits you to possible campsites more than car camping, which limits you to car access or 'how far do you want to lug this stuff'. Equipment really needs to follow where and what kind of environments you want to camp in.

And let's face it... two kids usually drags you into minivan territory. And those are NICE for lugging kids and gear around. Roof rack, rooftop box, back seats fold down for lots of gear space, you're good.

I think you'll find a trailer will come out less frequently than a tent.

[voodoopenguin]

This is my everyday vehicle.



It does 40mpg (that's 32 to you in the US) and a similar one took me 5,500 miles last year in 4 weeks with absolutely no problems. I'm in a T25 club and there are many people there who used to camp but turned to one of these campers when they had small children. They then reintroduce tents later as the children get older while still having the camper as base camp.

Paul

[the_poochies]

We car camp a few times a year.

Little Poochie and I sat in one of these in March at a trade show. It was compact, colorful and cool looking. Then L.P. said "Dad, why would we want to sleep in one of these things next to the food when there are bears around?"

The kid had a good point. He must take after his Father.

We car camp with a $60 tent I bought at KMart that has held up quite well over the past 6 years and store our food locked up in the car. L.P. has learned from his days camping with the Cub Scouts that you shouldn't even bring stuff like deodorant and toothpaste in the tent with you.




If you want to buy a used Honda Element (we have one and love it for camping trips), you can pay a few thousand and have one of these installed on top.

Of course, we sometimes pass the RV campgrounds and enviously see the happy inhabitants sipping cocktails and watching football in the RV park while we look and smell like we just spent a week sleeping in a tent out in the woods.

[DP]

Funny what voodoo and pink posted. We did our annual kayak trip a couple of weeks ago and we crash in the Town & Country. Can't beat the Stow 'n Go for space and a flat floor. We have camping pads and we bring our pillows and sheets (no blankets this year; too hot!). I roll down the windows and drape window screen over the doors, then close them and tape down the screen on the outside.

[August West]

Second the van thing.

[DP]

Maybe rent a minivan for a weekend and see what you think...

[OWC Jamie]

maybe pick up a pop-up camper used ( or rent ? ) to see if the trailer style camping both suits you with its advantages and disadvantages before investing in something bigger.


A $20.00 tent to a full sized trailer is a bit of a leap. ( not that people haven't done just that but they pretty much seem to know they were done with tents in the rain and wind )

[M A V I C]

We used our first Kelty tent in the rain and wind and it worked great.

A minivan doesn't really solve the issue that much because it still involves a lot of packing and unpacking, whereas we could keep most of the stuff in the trailer.

Buying another car doesn't really seem like an option. No place to park it either. Renting... hmm. I'd rather just buy a bigger roofbox.

[Speedy]

billb wrote:
maybe pick up a pop-up camper used ( or rent ? ) to see if the trailer style camping both suits you with its advantages and disadvantages before investing in something bigger.

:agree: