New Tent Forum

[tplife]

Nice group of tent shots - funny how those old Sierra Designs tents are still around...how do they do it?  BTW, tell your SO to keep her cruise ship!  I'm fresh back from 11 days in St. Croix.  Here's what I would have missed had I been on a cruise ship:  Huge 1500-sq-ft. condo with dual balconies and a gas BBQ, $175.00/day.  Having a full kitchen to escape mediocre food.  Travelling at a moment's notice in the minivan to any part of the island - not at the mercy of a taxi or tour operator, and instead LEGALLY DRINKING AND DRIVING, ON THE LEFT, with my own hands on the wheel!  Buying roti chicken and pork at Chicken Shack.  Avoiding $100 Buck Island snorkeling ripoff to see a dead reef, and instead a live reef at Pelican Cove - for $0.00 cost.  Eating fresh spiny lobster out of the Carribbean Sea for $8/pound.  Walking one beautiful beach after another, always empty (OK, a few people on weekends) and usually only our footprints in the sand.  Visiting the ruins all over the island at our own pace and choice.  Oh yeah, enjoying $5/bottle Cruzan Rum whenever and wherever we wanted - PRICELESS!   

[fallsrider]

DW and I bought a nice used pop-up in late '06. Used it for 4 camping seasons. I lost my job in early December this past year, so we sold our pop-up. We are going camping for the first time again Labor Day weekend. I hauled out the old trusty Coleman 9x13 tent and dusted it off, set it up in the backyard and made sure everyone could fit with air mattresses, etc. It will work. I'm not near as excited as I used to be in the pop-up, but the tent will do. We'll have a great time, I'm sure, and maybe it won't be too hot!

[tplife]

Fallsrider, if the temperatures drop below 50-degrees F., leave the air mattresses at home, and either buy sleeping pads or use something like your popup did:  Open cell foam to stop cold air from sucking the warmth out of your body while sleeping like a cot or air mattress.  Air mattresses and cots are for heated enclosures and only sold for camping to lure in suckers.  Another good alternative is to take a Buddy-type heater and keep the inside air above 50, this also prevents the heat-sink effect and is why the US military and Boy Scouts use sleeping pads as opposed to cots or air mattresses.

[happygramp]

Air mattresses and cots are for heated enclosures and only sold for camping to lure in suckers.

Have to disagree with you on this statement. My son has a birth defect that doesn't allow him to get off the floor by himself on bad days. The cot allows him the choice to camp 'independent' of Mom and Dad (we're in the PUP) while he has his tent. His Cabela's Alaskan Guide cot is high enough off the ground to allow him to swing his legs over and stand up by himself. He's seventeen and has camped since he was less than 4 months old. The cot allows him to do it like his friends, just a little higher in the tent! As a side benefit (for him), cots take up quite a bit of room and require us to outfit him with a bigger tent than his 15 yo sister uses.

Alot of camp gear is like choosing an RV, PUP's are perfect - Motorhomes are magnificent - TT are terrific. Just depends are what side of the fence your on.

[tplife]

Air mattresses and cots are for heated enclosures and only sold for camping to lure in suckers.

Have to disagree with you on this statement. My son has a birth defect that doesn't allow him to get off the floor by himself on bad days. The cot allows him the choice to camp 'independent' of Mom and Dad (we're in the PUP) while he has his tent. His Cabela's Alaskan Guide cot is high enough off the ground to allow him to swing his legs over and stand up by himself. He's seventeen and has camped since he was less than 4 months old. The cot allows him to do it like his friends, just a little higher in the tent! As a side benefit (for him), cots take up quite a bit of room and require us to outfit him with a bigger tent than his 15 yo sister uses.

Alot of camp gear is like choosing an RV, PUP's are perfect - Motorhomes are magnificent - TT are terrific. Just depends are what side of the fence your on.

As long as he is camping in weather no colder than 50-degrees F, he is fine.  Between that temp and 30-degrees F is where you begin to risk hypothermia at worst and less quality sleep at best.  It's not about what side of the fence you're on, it's about how concerned you are about comfort and safety in the outdoors.  If you don't care, that's your business. Left without a choice, I would find another way for people in the same situation to enable them to get up, or possibly upgrade to a -20-degrees F down bag.  Believe me when I say that most camping stores don't care, they are just out for your buck.   My family's safety come first, and that is why I share my knowledge of the laws of thermodynamics with other campers.  Science is not subject to consensus...

[bedhead]

We're back to tenting after 2 pop-ups and a divorce lol. I actually looked into buying a PU last week, and was astounded at the prices. I was looking to buy a small, well taken care of, older model. Cheapest one I found was a 1985 for $2400. WOW I'll stick with my tents for a while. Heading to Myrtle Beach SP this summer!!

[yooperguy]

We're back to tenting after 2 pop-ups and a divorce lol. I actually looked into buying a PU last week, and was astounded at the prices. I was looking to buy a small, well taken care of, older model. Cheapest one I found was a 1985 for $2400. WOW I'll stick with my tents for a while. Heading to Myrtle Beach SP this summer!!

Welcome to PUX bedhead!  Have a safe and happy camping season!!

[msmooth]

We are also back to tent camping after selling the pop-up a few years ago. I loved my pop-up but we didn't use as much as I would have liked and we eventually lost our tow vehicle. My DD is now 17 and not as likely to join us, so DW, DS and myself can go in our Coleman Instant Tent  The Minivan has plenty of room room for our stuff, most of which I kept when we sold the Rockwood.

I really enjoyed coming to this forum when I was a pop-upper. Now that I am a Tenter, I have a reason to come back.

[KDbug]

I started back camping last year after 10 years away from camping.  I bought 2 tents one at the end of 2010 it was just a little 4man walmart special and the end of camping season (sept) here in ARK. Went camping in it once still have but when the grandgirls ages 7,3,19months went to I went and bought a bigger 8man w/screen-room and the girls loved it so much that the 7 &3 year old ,are sister, and their parents(aka daughter and son-in-law)  asked to "BORROW" it so they could start camping with the girls. ... Over the winter my DH has been saying it's just not safe for me to go camping by myself or with the girls in a tent, But I really love it, so I gave in and said I'd look for a PU just can't find a what I want or think I can handle by myself soooooo I still tent camping  .... Love to camp in Hot Spring, ARK but kinda hot in JULY

[AZKayaker]

I still prefer my tent for one-nighters. Anything longer than that is PU time. 

[scubacamper]

Okay I'll add our adventure into the mix. 
I still have a 3 man tent that must be close to 35 y/o or older and January last year my then 4 y/o DD convinced me to open it up on our enclosed back patio so she and her 2 y/o sister could play while my DW went to her hair dresser.  That night and then for the next 3 weeks I ended up sleeping with the oldest inside that tent.  My wife said absolutely "NO" until such a time as I could put an air mattress inside...in this tent it wasn't an option so I had to find a larger tent.

On my way home from work I stopped by Dick's Sporting Goods just to look as they're usually very expensive. I looked at the models which I adore, the ones in the boxes and they had a 6 man Coleman for $129.99 and as I looked at it thinking I wish they had a full display since this might be perfect when I can find it on sale, I noticed high up on the walls there was a display of full-sized Coleman tents. 

As I looked at the 6 man I noticed a little sale sticker with a bar code $29.99 that got my attention.  Surely this wasn't the price? Maybe this was for an accessory but I had to ask.  After finding a young man I asked and it was the price back during Black Friday in November.  This model was since discontinued as Coleman redesigned the zippers but otherwise it was identical to those for $129.99.  I then asked if I could buy the display which seemed to shock the young man as his eyes got big and his mouth dropped open.  His next question was "I don't know?" and then "But I'll find out." which I told him was the correct answer.  Well the Manager walked around the corner asking if he could help and so i posed the same question and I got the same response.  "I don't know, nobody has ever asked." I then asked if I could pay the $29.99 or something close; I was guessing more like $50.00 or something.  He said he'd have to make a phone call if I would wait a minute.  When he came back he said yes indeed I could purchase it but he'd have to sell it to me at the cost they were sending it back to Coleman for and so with his hand-held scanner he checked the bar code with a chuckle.  "How about $7.48." he asked.  I looked up at it, still in shock and told him "I don't like the color." He again chuckled and asked if I'd help him get it down.

Here I had a 6 man tent missing only the bag it goes into and the mat outside for $8.00 with Tax.  And to top it off while the three of us were packing it up the young man scanned the sleeping bags and found one going back to Field & Steam for $8.00 plus tax and I took it also. 

Once home I set it up on our front porch and promised my girls a surprise if they behaved at dinner...Olive Garden.  They did and when I revealed the surprise my DW folded her arms and asked "How much is now on your credit card?" I told her she paid more for dinner (she's a corporate senior VP so she paid for dinner) than I paid for the tent and bag.  "Of course we at at OG." I pulled out the receipt and said "No you paid more for your dinner." She looked at the receipt and couldn't help but to smile. That weekend we bought an air mattress at Sam's and picked up a few other items (we've both been camping years ago) that we knew we needed and haven't looked back.

That was over a year ago and in the last 6+ months we've decided to try and find our first PUP.  Primarily for the potty times at 3 a.m. or should it rain, though we've been lucky with the weather.  We've gone to RV Shows, scanned dealer's on-line inventories and frequently check CL and Ebay but haven't yet found that workable one.
For Christmas I bought her a better air mattress and now she the girls sleep much better.   Just thought I'd share how we got started.  Another trip coming up next weekend and several more on the horizon.

Doc
 

[pcfeld]

With both boys in scouts there are always options to go back to the old days.  Great thing is we use the scouts tents and equipment so all we need to take is sleeping bags and pads.  We do a family scout event where we take out old tent and DS2 really likes it.  He never camped in the tent as we switched to the PUP because the fact the tent wouldn't hold all of us after he came along.

[ghacker]

I still hold on to my bulletproof Sierra Designs Bedouin, but turning 60 today makes me realize it'll likely stay in the basement.  The ground is just getting too darn hard to get a decent night's sleep even with Thermarest pads. Maybe one night I could handle, but two-not going to happen.

[Coyote]

  We still tent.  We tent with the BSA.  Also when we backpack deep into the forest we tent.  I love my pup but there is something special about the tent as well.

[scubacamper]

We just completed our 3rd tent weekend for the year at Manatee Springs here in Chiefland, Florida.  The night was cold but that's what a space heater is for and extra blankets.  My DD's 3 & 5 like to help me set the tent up, even my DW lends a hand.  And of course letting the air out of the mattress is my oldest DD favorite part. Still Sunday morning when it was in the low 50's it would've been nice to stay in the PUP and cook inside so though I think I've found the right one, I'm still looking.

Doc