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So I've mentioned it on here before, that I'm going on a road trip this summer (less than four months now!) and my friends and I are finally finishing up most of the reservations and such for the trip. But now comes the materiel gathering stage. We have a tent, but it sucks, and I've always wanted to get a new one for myself anyway. So I was looking at this Coleman 8 person tent for us to use on the trip. Does anyone have any experience with Coleman's? or large dome tents? How easy to set up are they, and how reliable?
We want a lot of space (there's four of us) for our stuff and to relax, but a lot of our set up is going to be in the dark, so we don't want to spend 45 minutes doing it.
I was also looking at getting a chair, but I didn't want to get one of those collapsable chairs that stuff into the slings you carry over your shoulder. So I found these hammock chair things. I've seen them before at the Renaissance Festival, the ones I just linked are basically a knockoff of Air Chair. They're incredibly comfortable, I know that, but I wasn't really sure how practical they would be at a campsite. The description says they are really easy to set up and take down "just sling the rope over a branch and go" but that SOUNDS a lot easier than it will probably be, so I was wondering if anyone had any experience with that as well.
This is my first time camping with just me and my friends like this. Usually whenever I go camping, it's with the same friends, but we're camping next to my best friend's parents camper, so some of the stuff we use is provided for us.
What kinds of stuff do you all like to take with you when you go camping? What makes it a little easier and more comfortable?
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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You can't beat a dome tent. They are extremely easy to set up. Plus, the pole is held together with a bungie running the length of the pole, so you won't wind up missing one section of the pole. I really like the collapsable chair. The hammock chair looks comfortable but you would always have to climb a tree to hang it. Are you hiking? It seems like a lot of stuff to carry. If you are trucking it, you should be fine with such a big tent.
Posts: 1766 | Registered: Feb 2006
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We've got a gigantic Coleman dome tent. The big problem with it is that it can be hard to find an empty space big enough to set it up.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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We're driving and stopping at campgrounds along the way. I was just nervous about ease and how long it would take to set the things up. Some of the reviewers said it took like 30 minutes to 45 minutes to set up a tent, is that normal? (I've never set up the tent before, I usually get to the campground after it's done )
Well supposedly you can just throw a rope over a branch and feed it down the other side and hook it up, so you dont actually have to climb the tree or anything. I'm skeptical of that. Plus it says it holds up to 350lbs, but I would think that has more to do with the strength of the tree branch and less to do with the strength of the rope.
MPH -
Where do you guys usually camp? Most of where we are staying is private campgrounds, so they usually have a space set aside for tents. Do you have trouble like out in the woods, or at actual campgrounds with specific lots for each site? That's something I hadn't even considered.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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a lot of this would depend on whether this is a backpacking trip or like brojack said, if you have a car/truck to haul everything around.
general suggestions without that info: Frisbee (serves as entertainment + plate + bowl all in one) knife hatchet matches/lighters flashlights with extra batteries ground cover for the tent collapsable chairs unless this is going to be a long trip at one base camp (you dont want to put up those hanging chairs every day) rain gear (as applicable) plenty of food canteen silverware 1+ pot/pan depending on your menu gas stove (unless you're cooking over a wood fire) tinder extra pair of shoes/boots reasonably heavy jacket (even if you're in a warm area it can get cold at night) maps iodine tablets (or water filter) (as applicable) bug spray, sun screen first aid kit garbage bags ...
Posts: 1038 | Registered: Feb 2006
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quote:Where do you guys usually camp? Most of where we are staying is private campgrounds, so they usually have a space set aside for tents. Do you have trouble like out in the woods, or at actual campgrounds with specific lots for each site? That's something I hadn't even considered.
We're amazingly cheap, so we like (liked -- we don't likve in Utah anymore, and don't know where to go camping anymore) to go up into the mountains where you're allowed to camp anywhere and then find a spot.
You'd have better luck in a private campground, I'm sure.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
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I've stayed in a tent that size several times. Set it up every time, too.
Because it's so big, be prepared to have a moderately difficult time setting it up, at least the first few times. If there are four of you, I would get together the afternoon before you leave (while it's LIGHT OUTSIDE STILL) and take a test run. It will be 9,000 times easier in the light, and you can take an hour to do it without worrying. I would set it up and break it down twice, with two people working on it each time. If more than two of you try at once you'll just get in each other's way.
Once you've set it up once or twice you'll get a good feel for what goes where, get into the routine*, and you'll have no problem setting it up (even in the pitch dark when you're exhausted from travelling all day).
As for the hammock chair, those are comfortable. My only concern would be that the campground may not have any trees. It may sound crazy but I've seen a significant percentage of them that are just wall to wall gravel/grass. That's one of those things that may be an issue. Then again, you may have trees overlooking your camp site every night.
Make sure you have an adequately sized groundcloth.
Be prepared to never get the tent back into its sack after the first time you remove it (this happened to me with about a third of the tents I've used).
If there're only 4 of you, make one of the front inside corners of the tent the spot for shoes, otherwise you'll track dirt all over your sleeping area.
Buy a thermarest pad. 3/4s is plenty long enough, and you'll sleep much better on one than on the ground.
*Not that it's an especially difficult routine to figure out, but typically I do this: one guy extends all the poles while the other one lays out the ground cloth (taking time beforehand to sweep underneath it -- if you do not do this you can count on sleeping on a rock; it's the Law of Camping). If the groundcloth guy finishes before the pole guy then he unrolls the tent on top of the groundcloth and orients it. Then both guys feed the pole through the sleeve (it's a two man job). Once all the poles are through the sleeves you each take the same pole (but on opposite ends) and seat it in the little cloth anchor/pole-end-receptacle (no idea what that's called). Move on to the next pole. Rinse and repeat until the tent is up. Stake it if you like (I don't always feel the staking is necessary -- where's it going, anyway?).
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Chances are with three people and a bunch of crap inside, the stakes would be unnecessary. We're not camping in a wind tunnel after all
That's great advice about practicing setting it up, we'll definetely do that. There's going to be three of us.
What's a groundcloth? Just a big sheet of cloth that goes between the tent and the ground?
As for the thermarest pad, I was looking at that, but I was also looking at a self inflating mat. I've heard they are extremely comfortable, but does anyone know if they really just inflate by themselves? Seems a bit hard to believe that it requires no blowing or pump or anything. I'll end up getting one or the other, for the sake of comfort. I've had enough sore backs in my life after a night on the ground to not finally do something about it, especially when I'll be on the go all day.
I'm wishy washy on the hammock chair. Most campground I've seen have trees, and it's fairly cheap on sale, so maybe I'll just get both. I was just wondering on how easy it would be to actually set up.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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If this were a murder investigation, you would've just vaulted up my subject list.
The self-inflating thermarest is the one I was talking about. It's not near as thick as what you linked to, but it operates the same. They're not totally self-inflating. The thermarests are thin enough that one or two good breaths will finish the job. The one you linked to might take a bit more than that. But it's nothing like the hassle of manually inflating a pad, and you can definitely do it without a pump.
A ground cloth is just what you said -- a layer between the tent and the ground. Except it isn't cloth. They make specific ground cloths, but I've always just used a cheap WalMart tarp. It's just to protect your tent bottom from sharp stuff (once you get a hole in your tent bottom, you'll use it until the next time you get rained on and never again). The extra layer also helps if you camp in the rain.
Posts: 5462 | Registered: Apr 2005
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lol, sorry about that. There will be three of us, but we're still trying to convince a fourth friend to go, so sometimes I get the numbers wrong even in my head. I've got a billion planning things all running at the same time, takes up a lot of Brain RAM
I wasn't sure which thermarest you meant, they make foam pads and the self inflating pads. I'll look at getting one of the thinner ones. I don't necessarily want to be sleeping on a de facto aerobed, I just want maybe an inch between me and the ground.
I'll check out the ground cloth, I wouldn't have even thought of that.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: Chances are with three people and a bunch of crap inside, the stakes would be unnecessary. We're not camping in a wind tunnel after all
The stakes do more than hold it down. I generally like to stake the tent down before putting the poles in, so that I can ensure that the floor of the tent is stretched out to its full size. (You don't want to do this the first time you put the tent up, and there may be dome tents out there where you can't do this, but on my cheap-o one it works great.)
If you use the ground cloth, make sure it doesn't pool water around/under your tent. Nothing is less fun that a wet sleeping bag. A ground cloth is less necessary (but not useless) if your tent (as most today) has a tarp bottom.
Posts: 1621 | Registered: Oct 2001
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