Camping

Have any of you members been camping with your Tacoma? I had a roof top tent. But to many drawbacks. Do you guys/gals have ideas and pictures of what you use? I am using the north faces’s wanano 6 person tent with the giant vestibule.

Please let me know why you don’t use roof top tents. My reasoning is I have two kids one under 6 one is 2. So when we set up camp I have to pack up 4 sleeping bags, the tent and everything they have brought into the tent since a 2 yr old cannot climb the ladder. Ontop of that I have to help the 5 yr old up and down if she has to go potty (see proof I have kids) and I’m scared the 2yr old will wake up in the middle of the night and go out the hole and fall off the tent when we are sleep. Usually we use a climbing harness on both kids and attach them to the floor like a portalege used for climbing since we usually are a climbing family. (My 2 yr old is more hoisted up the side of the crags. So they have been used to sleeping in their climbing gear since we climbing often.) but I want to be able to get a good night sleep on a cross country trip to climb many spots. But the other reason is we don’t want to have to completely pack up camp just to drive to a short crag and then lose our spot or have to set up camp in another spot. Honoring that our pass is good for that spot too.

 

Sell the taco. Buy a sprinter.

 

So that sounds like a case of either ground-tenting it or upgrading to trailer.

I did the latter. The dogs like having their own bunk.

 

Have you considered a 270 awning and awning walls? You'll have cover from the elements but will still be on the ground so you eliminate the fall risk. The awning mounts to your Taco and you would only have to pack the awning side walls. Check out this setup from OVS (although there are many others).

My setup probably isn't what you need but below are pics. Vorsheer XOC travel trailer where I sleep and the FSR High Country 55in RTT is for if/when I drop the tailer and want to go exploring for the day and stay the night. Not a kid friendly setup although you and the wife and kids could fit on the queen size bed in the trailer as long as the kids are little. When they get older the RTT is a tree house type thing that they will love.

 

We tried a RTT and hated it too, went to an enclosed trailer (we built ourselves out of a cargo trailer) and loved it.

 

Wife and I used an RTT for camping for years.
There are good points. They are flexible, and fairly easy to deploy, but they have (for my wife and I anyway) a very distinct disadvantage. You have to pull up camp each and every time you want to go explore. It was fine at first, but after a few really long extended dispersed camping trips it got pretty tedious. We ended up switching to an off road trailer so we can have a home base.

 

Such a cool trailer!

 

I put an RTT on a trailer with an annex, but it’s just me.

I thought about doing a canopy with sides and might go to that as I get older.

 

I like this idea. I think is what we are going to go with. There is a company I just found out that, that is based in INDIANA.

 

I think this might be our go to until we pull the trigger on the trailer.

 

Nobody has ever went camping in or with a Tacoma…

 

No, that’s not just you. That’s thousands of you. And others.

 

I slept in the back of my Tacoma's for 17 years. Didn't get my wife to camp with me until I bought a Minnie Winnie 24' rig. We've been on 20 trips with our GSD in 1.5 years since purchased.
They issue you an RV when you go on Social Security...

 

17 years of camping out in my 03 Tacoma Pre-Runner and 06 TRD. Only recently switched to an RV.

 

Sort of in the same boat. We have a 3.5 and a 1.5 year old. We’re not crazy outdoor, overlanding type of people, but the attraction of sleeping elevated off the ground feels nicer than a ground tent.

I want a canopy but like the added all in one pop up camper canopy’s ability to stand fully up in the tent when deployed. For now so long as it’s a full pop up, not a wedge, my wife at 5’, the two toddlers, and I should fit fine. Once the kids are a bit bigger, they can sleep down in the main truck bed if space is needed.

A loaded fiberglass canopy is $4-5k, while RTT are what, $2-3k? Having it integrated seems much nicer, though the full pop tops are around $12k and higher. But then looking at small trailers, they’re even more expensive.

So really, I go back to just getting a color matched canopy a nice spacious ground tent. Sigh, can’t make a decision.

 

Man, sometimes I feel like I am a man alone on an island. I love my RTT. 5 minutes(ish) to setup. 10 minutes(ish) to put away. Sleep like a baby. Coupled with an awning (everyone check out CVT's deals on awnings? I picked one up for like $150 delivered...and it has an led light bar...fuck that's cheap these days), I have shade and shelter.

I get the OP with kids, and obvious drawbacks of the ladder hastle. If I had a nickel for every bad financial decision I made because of a kid and/or a dog, I wouldn't have to work anymore.

RTT until I am decrepit.

RTT on the bed, and trailer for toys (bike(s) or quad). Setup camp. Ride. Rinse. Repeat.

 

Get a wedge camper and you can have the older one sleep “downstairs” and even set up a little potty down there as well

 

I am old school... I set up camp with a ground tent so we can go explore the area with the truck and not have to break camp every day. My kids loved it when they were younger and still enjoy it now. My older daughter was very excited to get to camping with us last summer. Her first camping trip as an adult even if it was with her family.

We also have a 24" C-Class RV, and it is great, but for me it is a lot of work, weeks of pre-inspect, driving and maintenance. Then loading and unloading. Plus once set up, it's very tough to explore very far. A trailer behind the Tacoma might something in our future.

 

I started with an 18' Jayco TT, dry weight 2,600lbs. Took 3 trips, my 06 Tacoma thanked me the day I sold it. The 5 Spd. Automatic V6 just could not haul even a smaller trailer. Bought a 24' Class C RV.

 

But not in my tent. LOL