Why not a ground tent?

A while back I was exploring a good ground tent solution. The price kept sliding higher and higher the more I looked. Ended up finding a local member selling his RTT and bed rack for less than the ground tent I was looking at and i couldn't be happier. I still carry a Henessy Hammock with me depending on my plans and conditions, and I have a ground tent i use when I'm camping from my Harley, but the RTT is my go to.

 

My favorite kind of camping.

Invited some co-workers camping at the state park last winter. They said that they could hear my heater going all night while they sat in their tents and shivered. ... It wound up being a one night trip.

 

They obviously didn't have the right sleeping bag/gear. In a good tent with proper sleeping bag and gear (even when its crazy cold) its amazing how warm you can stay... i stuff all of my clothes around me and at the feet

a partner helps too!!!

 

I have been a scout leader for many years and both my departed dad and my son are Eagles. I currently camp with as little equipment as necessary, including not always bringing a tent at all, just a small tarp or poncho. I drive my truck, but have no problem sleeping on the ground.

 

0 bags all the way! Unless your winter camping, then it can be worth having a sub 0 bag, like -10. But honestly, i've only been cold in my 0 bag while camping the continental divide west of Tabernash CO, when you can wake up to like -5, before theres even snow on the ground.

But I'm okay with letting all the heater-needers think they're camping, while I'm hiking miles from the end of an off road trail to do real camping

 

Faster setup = More time for beer drinking.

 

I've had both a ground tent and an RTT in high winds and the RTT is much more preferable. It is far sturdier due to the frame and, at least with mine, the guy lines and pegs are far more sturdy. Mine never budged when in the direct face of Lake Superior winds during a storm. My ground tent, on the other hand, had to be tied to my truck or a picnic table on several occasions because the wind caused the guy lines to rip right out and the only thing preventing the tent from going was us being inside it.

As for the cold air below, it'll definitely beat the ground. The metal base will deflect wind while the mattress, usually foam, will help with insulation. A good sleeping bag or adding a heater will do the rest.

 

That's good to know - looks like my conjecture was off base!

Site selection for ground tents is an often overlooked process. Finding a spot that won't flood in a storm, has good tree cover for wind protection but is flat enough to sleep on is a bit of an art. I can see the appeal of just leveling the truck and opening the RTT.

 

Admittedly this was the downside to ground tenting. I used to keep a rake in my camp box and would do a quick sweep before staking down the ground cloth.

 

No question that it was an upgrade for me. Kept totally dry (except condensation that I didn't vent enough for, but you'll get that in a ground tent). The one and only downside for me (aside from mounting since I live in an apartment and can't do a hoist system) though has been that I have to collapse the tent every time I want to drive somewhere. With a ground tent, I can just leave it set up and head out. This would be fixed if I had a trailer for the tent, but I don't plan on doing that.

 

Four Wheel Camper. All aluminum frame. Bought Used!

 

Tell that to Marcos with Voice of Wilderness who had a Yakima RTT ripped open by a grizzly while sleeping. His story will probably be on the Yakima page at some point. Luckily he had his bear spray with him.

 

I’ve had more bad experiences than good when it comes to tent camping, even though I bought good quality gear and planned things out.

For the past year or so I’ve just been camping out of my Taco’s bed. The windows on the camper shell have insect screens, and I even rigged up LED lights so I can see what I’m doing at night. My sleeping bag fits well and I sleep next to my essential gear.
I wouldn’t do it any other way.

 

Excellent question. I have stayed in cheap ground tents, expensive wall tents, pup tents, all with and without bed rolls or cots, hammocks, improvised shelters and just a sleeping bag on the ground, and now my RTT. And various trailers. The more poor weather camping I did, the more necessary it became to get off the ground. I have woken up to inches of rain in a ground tent, or in the case of my wall tent, a constantly wet floor because I set up on the snow and had a wood stove running.

The tent and/or cots also took up a lot of bed space. The RTT is also much quicker to set up and tear down, which is important if you want to move often. It's also quick enough that in the summer, I can wait until dusk to set up to avoid the greenhouse effect.

The big downside is it makes base camping more difficult. If you need to drive to a destination you have to pack everything up. This has us considering a trailer down the road.

 

I agree on the trailer bit. Since there is no way in hell I'm going to drop the coin on a purpose built off-road trailer, I've been looking at threads where people upgraded store bought trailers for off-road duty. I found Lowe's has a utility trailer with just about the exact dimensions (inside the wheel wells) of a short Taco bed. Ideally, I'd like to get one of those and add an axle with hubs that match the Taco bolt pattern and figure out a suspension/lift option for the trailer so that it will sit level when being towed. Total cost (including wheels and tires to match the truck) should be between $2k and $2500, unless I decide to go all in and add a drawer system to mount a fridge, etc.

People have also done some amazing stuff with the Harbor Freight trailers. No need to spend $20-$50k on a trailer unless you are using it full time and really, really, need the EAF points for Instagram.

 

Here is a video walkaround with the exact trailer I'm talking about.

 

That would be awesome. We were looking at the Nucamp T@g, which really isn't built for offroading, but seems like a good price. I couldn't believe the price of Turtlebacks, etc that just have an RTT on top. Unfortunately, all the hardsided trailers have a tiny sleeping area compared to our CVT Mt. Rainier, so we really need to find a way to put this tent on a trailer that isnt $20k.

 

So I would have sworn I saw someone post something in this thread about a ground tent set up that had a mattress built in like a RTT. Anyone know something like this? Not a cot tent... hmm

 

Swag.