RTT or Teardrop

Alright Ladies and Gentlemen...

I've done some research and I'm coming up short...

The wife and I want to upgrade from a tent on the ground. Should we shoot for an RTT or a teardrop camper? I'm looking for recommendations here. Whatever it is I want to be able to store it in the garage. Whether that be a trailer or putting a RTT in the garage when not in use. I'll even go as far as a pickup camper on a trailer.

What do y'all think is the best course of action?

Yes, I understand this is an odd question for this forum in particular, but I feel like plenty of people will have experience on here with one vs the other or a strong opinion over the other and I'm wanting feed back.

 

What kind of camping do you do?

Do you leave the camp site or once you're unpacked you don't move?

I like the idea of trailers because you can leave them behind and go buy fire works/food/booze or anything from a town incase somethings forgotten.

RTT means, packing up, albeit quick, but more work. Some are a huge pain to setup.

 

We typically go to camp sites, friend's cabins, ect. We don't do anything super crazy and don't really plan on boon docking any where super far from society. We also only occasionally leave the campsite which I've heard is a downside to RTT's, even if you decide to leave once or move, you have to fully pack up.

 

The wife and I do boondock/dispersed camping a lot with our OGT trailer.

We did think about an RTT but the HUGE disadvantage for us to that is once your at camp and set up, that's it. If you want to leave, or go explore and drive around, you have to then pack up everything and then unpack again later once back at camp.
Our square drop allows us to have a home base and not have to do so much set up and tear down each time we leave to go anywhere.

 

To me where you live plays into the decision.

How many days might you experience rain ?

Nothing like setting up or packing up a RTT in the rain!! I really don`t like being that high off the ground I tend to get up and go to the bathroom in a semi awake state.

Myself I like the idea of a self contained trailer for the most all but your food and clothing can pretty much stay in the camper . Hook up the camper toss in your food/water and clothing your on your way.

 

We have n enclosed 5x8 trailer with a RTT on top. We like the setup with storage, kitchen and enough hot water for us for a long weekend. Unfortunately as I have aged, our camping rig has become more of a challenge for us to setup. I end up doing most of it myself. Therefore it takes more time. We live where it is hot and humid in the summer so we don’t camp but once or twice year anymore. Plus it seems like it rains close to the end of our camping trips.

I would like to change our setup to a little larger trailer with awnings and no RTT. We can have everything that we have now plus AC, and easier to setup.

 

Here is our current setup:

 

thanks for the pictures !

 

We compromised. We used to tent camp, but on the ground. My wife had hip surgery early in life and asked not to have to climb a ladder to get into the tent. So we camped like kings in our Napier Sportz tent

But after years of camping in the PNW and Colorado we got tired of putting the tent away wet. So now we have an InTech Flyer Explore. A little bigger than a squaredrop, minus the rear kitchen of the teardrop. But absolutely love it. Still use a cassette toilet and Hot water on demand shower. But we’re good with that.



This was our shakedown run trying out new gear seeing what we needed and what we could live without. Now trailer is loaded and ready. Add food and water and head out.

 

Go with RTT, but carry the ground tent in case of location.

 

I second this. The RTT will allow you to go more places than a camper. Unless, of course, you mount it to a trailer. The downside with the RTT (especially if mounted to a vehicle) is that you have to collapse it every time you want to go somewhere that you'd need a vehicle for. There's also the previously mentioned rain issue. We've had minimal issues collapsing it when wet and moving to another location. It's usually still dry inside. However, like a ground tent, you have to remember to air it out sometime soon to avoid mold.

That being said, we've also gotten to camp quite a few places that we wouldn't have gotten with a trailer. But I'll reiterate the first point here: sometimes there are no spots that you'll be able to set up the RTT. But you also wouldn't get to set up a camper either. Carrying a ground tent as a backup will allow you a few more options. Especially in some of those first-come, first-served type campgrounds that may have some tent only sites.

 

Tacoma's don't have enough payload to handle a RTT and all the other gear you will have to carry in the truck. Plus, the weight and the fact that it makes the truck top heavy will negatively affect off road driving. Even the tongue weight of a decent size trailer will push a Tacoma to its limits.

Pull a small trailer. Park the trailer before trails get bad and do your wheeling in a lighter vehicle then return to camp at the end of the day.

I pulled it with my F150, but my wife, my 15 year old grand daughter and I just got back 3 weeks ago from a 16 day 4100 mile road trip. I pulled a small 19' 3800 lb travel trailer. A little bigger than what you're thinking about, but there are numerous advantages to a trailer.

Arriving at a campsite late you can just park and get in the trailer. There were several nights when I didn't even unhitch from the truck. We ran on batts for the night and hit the road the next morning. Comes in handy when you have to set up or break down in bad weather.

At 65 I'm past the point of wanting something that small. But If I were 20-30 years younger would get one of those small trailers in a heartbeat.

Mine.

 

Tear drop camper hook it up when you need it and park it when you don’t. While you can remove your tent as well it’s a little more work to do so compared to unhooking a hitch.

 

My wife and I are liking the idea of a converted cargo trailer. Something simple with an indoor potty. Can still use it for Home Depot runs, yet much like a camper inside. Attach a screen/mud room to it.

 

I really don’t camp. Been 5 or 6 times. I can give you my perspective from the outside looking in.
No way I would have something like a RTT or similar on my only mode, if bad weather, emergency transportation. Unhooked and setup. Why do anything else? Inside cooking, if necessary, and storage.
You can run a smaller trailer down a tote road. Unhook it and spin it 180 if necessary to get out of a jam.
I do know some that do camp with various types of rigs and basically it comes down to bad weather.
What are you willing to do to have to bug out if it’s pouring out. And after if you have to unpack everything just to dry it out. This happened once to my group and it was a total PITA…
Unless you’re doing some serious, in the middle of nowhere, over boulders stuff, I’d be using something to free up the truck..
Take it for what it’s worth.
But, have fun…

 

Your wife has a bad hip and you are thinking of making her climb on top of your truck to crawl into what is essentially a crammed tent?

come on dont overthink it.

 

I don’t know about the OP’s wife. My wife had the bad hip which is why we don’t have an RTT.

 

LOL my bad

…still what wife wants to climb on top of a roof versus a luxurious camper

 

This is a great conversation / thread! We're ending up going with a combo of a RTT and a ground tent for flexibility depending on where we're camping, and cost. Also, if we take the dogs - we're not going to hoist a 100lb+ Great Dane / Lab mix in and out of a RTT - and there isn't a good way to fit both of us and a dog that is bigger than either of us in a standard RTT. We looked at trailers, but it seemed that even the most basic ones were pretty pricey (for our budget). While a good RTT and ground tent are not "cheap" we struggled with finding a trailer option that didn't have five digits (over $10K) in the price. We also don't have storage space and would need to rent a self-store type unit to put the trailer in when not in use, where we can put the RTT in the garage when not on the truck. For casual campers like us, while we would like the "luxury" of a trailer, cost and storage logistics, pushed us to the RTT / ground tent.

I'd say if you're going to be doing a lot of camping, want the ability to have a base site you can leave that has more comfort / security / features than a ground tent, and have the budget / place to store it, a trailer makes great sense. For folks like us that occasionally camp when we can get time off from our jobs at the same time, the tent route, works better for us for now.

 

Haha I'm 22 and my wife is 21. I think we're ok climbing into an RTT for a couple more years but she is dying for a teardrop of sorts