What is the deal with fixed top camping rigs?

My wife and I are going to get a screen room to incapsulate the picnic table at campgrounds, bugs, rain.

 

I carry a couple hammocks too...they are kinda of a bitch when I camp in the desert though. (no trees! ) Also carry a Roll-a-cot too, when there are no trees. Nice to have a couple three sleeping options. Have tried tying off the hammock from my ARB to my mototrailer, but it hangs too low, pain in the ass to get out of it with my bad back.

It is nice to be up in the air, feels like a tree house. There is a good 150' drop off into the river where this camp spot was.

 

no desert here in Ontario haha.

 

This is the fourth post or so mentioning meat medallion. I’m 50/50 on whether or not it’s real or a joke. Fighting the urge to google.

Part of me thinks it’s a legit sonic device that scares away predatory animals, it just has a goofy name.

 

I used tents for years, great way to go. But then one time in the UP of Michigan we had some “fun with bears at 2am” , it will put a damper on a camping trip.

 

Ha! We have a little bit of everything, want desert... drive 20 minutes one way, want alpine in the trees go 20-30 minutes the other way. It is really fricken nice. Have some loops I do on the dirt bike that goes through 5-6 climate zones on one ride.

 

I don’t get why people care enough to post about it. Not your money, not your truck, doesn’t affect you, who cares. There’s plenty of times I will camp in comfort with my RTT and truck full of nice but unnecessary stuff but just as many where I’m hiking for 15-20 miles and camping with what’s on my back. Other times I ride my ATV out for 50 miles and camp with whatever I could carry on that. All different methods to get out of the house and have some fun with different balances between comfort and remoteness.

 

What he said...

 

I just incognito googled it out of curiosity. It's SFW to google. Just comes back with info on the cut of meat.

 

I camp mostly in black bear, or griz country. There is a comfort level to being in something with hard sides, buys you 30 or so seconds to try and persuade the intruders that this is not a free meal.

 

I have a straight leg 8' x 8' pop up canopy with 2 solid & 2 screen walls. If I'm going to be in the same place for multiple nights, I'll set it up just as you intend. Most of the Backcountry sites here have a picnic table and fire ring.

Shown with tent (sidewalls not up).

 

Years ago we had a pack of coyotes circle the ground tent and were sniffing and pawing at it at 2-3:00 am...yep, done with ground tents. Last trip I had moose come through camp...could of be trampled in a ground tent.

While bears and moose can get at me in the Wildernest, feel a little more secure...(false sense of security at that)...why I am looking at hardside campers and vans now...they still can rip the shit out of it, but would take them a little longer to get through.

 

Yeah when you camp in the critters living room it can get pretty sporty. I’m to old for those adventures anymore.

 

Rad

 

The first time I heard it was an old Joe Isuzu commercial from the 80’s- pretty funny. he was a ranger handing out meat necklaces to visitors to keep animals away. I had some park visitors believing it once when I mentioned wearing one to keep the wildlife away back when I was a park ranger, too.

 

Just spent 10 minutes watching joe Isuzu. I remember him being a thing but I was 5 so I didn’t get the humor. Unless you were a talking dinosaur you really couldn’t get through. Still looking for the meat medallion one.

 

I dunno...Tacomas are more of recreational vehicle than a work truck...have been driving Toyotas going on 26 years now, make great little camping rigs. Everyone's comfort needs are different. Did the ground tent or sleeping under topper for years and years...just evolved into something more comfortable. Used to use a futon mattress for years...mang that was comfortable compared to a sleeping pad. Just got tired of having to jockey everything around to setup camp. Now I just flip open the nest and it is done.



Can see the futon I pulled out of the bed for some reason sitting on the hood of my old '92. Think I was cooking on the tailgate and didn't want bacon grease on the mattress.


Speaking of Toyota RV's always wanted a 4WD Chinook.



Think that is why I am liking that Tradesman highrise camper, kinda reminds me of it, but going to be a hell of a lot lighter.

 

I can’t find it either- post if you do!

 

Will do