Why not a ground tent?

What @DiscoYaker said100%!! The ground tent that I referenced in my comment was $450. The wife and I have spent more than one stormy night in it, both in the mountains and on the beach. We were in one storm that wasn't forecasted that had sustained winds in the low 30's with gust into the 50's (no we really didn't sleep that night) but the tent held up perfectly with no damage.

 

Reminds me of a group camping trip when we were younger. We had a handful of single people along. There was this idiot guy who was trying to get into one of the girls' pants all weekend. One night my brother's tent door unzipped, and then a voice said "What up, girl?" My brother says "wrong tent!" And the guy moved along. Good times!

 

Little bit of a niche answer, but we camp with a pig: in bear county the truck AK is out by the campsite. Away from camp it's the ccw of the day.

Ground tents are great: I tend to arrive at camp after dark and find it's easier to set up the RTT than find a good tent site (lots of rocks here). I also have yet to be flooded out of the RTT and, in cold weather I can heat the tent off the truck (diesel air heater) and put the toilet in the annex. This makes her happier, which means I get to camp more. Plus I don't have to worry about hooves poking holes in the tent floor.
RTTs will also limit your sites in walk/hike in areas. Not sure there's a right answer, but mine's been worth the cost.

 

Ditto. Late arrivals, inclement weather, camping in unfavorable terrain or even slight flood plains in early trout season.

But I've got both depending on the needs of the trip.

 

What kind of tent did/do you have?

 

The advantages of sleeping off the ground have pretty much been covered, but I didn't see this one. After ~40 years of camping in a "tent" I aged 40 years. In my 50's getting up and out of a ground tent became a PITA. Since then I've used a hard shell and love it. No worries about weather, warmer, quieter, etc. Always a flat soft bed to sleep on.

My new-to-me Tacoma came with a matching Bedz blowup mattress. Assumed it might get used around the house or get sold. NOT. One use in the woods and I was hooked. The mattress has a built in pump with a removable rechargeable battery - a simple process. The pump has a reverse to pull the air out and create a vacuum so everything compresses flat making is really easy to fold into a reasonably small size - maybe 24" x 24. x 8". Oh yeah, it is ~10" thick when inflated and incredibly comfortable. (end commercial)

 

How much does your pig weigh?

 

She's ~100 lbs (106 last time we weighed her).
Definitely not the most fun to get up the ladder, but not too bad.

 

Have her as a companion?

 

Montana has quite a few, northern Wyoming . Upper Idaho and Washington have had sporadic encounters, but wolves are more likely to be a problem in that area..

 

Yup: some folks have dogs, we have a pig (#2 coming mid-October).
My wife's always wanted one: we've had Mycroft for 2 years now and she travels, camps, and hikes with us

 

That's awesome. Don't suppose you keep a write up of life adventures with a pig? I'm sure it'd be a great read

 

My build thread on here has a little, but check @mycroft.ourcroft on instagram.
Definitely would be a fun project: she's impressively mischievous for not having opposable thumbs.

 

That's too funny. It's always a good chuckle seeing what those guys get into. With our family it's always been "what's their nose into now"

 

As a backpacker I kind of laugh at all the bear/snake/lion concerns but also recognize high use areas near roads attract a lot more animals than infrequently used wilderness areas 10+ miles from a road. There higher use an area the more people that feed wildlife or leave food trash around. This attracts mice most often, racoons and bears occasionally. I can see the pro's of a rooftop tent although if there's a problem bear it will just rip a hole into your vehicle if something tasty is inside.

The more common issue to me seems to be trashed campsites full of broken glass and shell casings. I have moved on from a potential car camping site plenty of times from that than anything else and wouldn't want to go poking holes in my tent.

As for weather, I'd rather ride out a storm in a well picked tent site in trees over thick loam to soak up water than 12 feet up in the air in something three times the size and clearly not designed to resist strong wind. If you know where to setup your tent you won't wake up to a puddle and a mud pit.

 

That's a bit of an inaccurate portrayal.

You're already off the ground in a rtt so pooling water isn't an issue. The windows get buttoned down. And it's good practice tie the common D loops on the folded out side to the wheels to keep the base steady.

Apples to apples, destruction or general comfort wise the rtt takes my vote every time.


My personal exception is for really cold winter camping with a snow base. Then I'd prefer to clear a small area and pack snow back against the tent for insulation, also minding for good ventilation.

 

I'll be 59 yrs old next month and I've got health issues and bad knee's and I will always choose to sleep in ground tent . Rough ground doesn't bother me one bit as I've got a comfortable mummy bag and and nice sleeping pad I lay on

Plus I'm a Marine , we're trained to sleep comfortably anywhere

 

A Coleman tent like you posted would work for the average joe who camps at a public campground 2-3 times a year but when you camp 75+ nights a year that shit ain’t gonna cut it.
I had a nice black diamond ground tent for the last 5 years but got tired of blowing up the pads and setting up a tent every weekend
Also we move spots every night when camping so a go fast camper was the best move. Tent is set up in 15 seconds and take down is about 1 minute.

 

If I'm camping out of my truck I either use a cot in my ground tent or a hammock set up. If I'm backpacking I use a ground tent with a ground pad or more often a hammock.

 

One of the joys of camping is imbibing an excess of fluids right before bed. The downside of that is the inevitable 2am call of nature. It always happens. In my tent days that meant blindly fumbling for that stupid little zipper pull while trying not to shake all the condensation into your bed or alert the rest of the camp of your desperate intentions to piss.

Now, in my pop-up trailer days, its blindly climbing over the other person, hoping but failing to transition from the bunk to the floor 3 feet below you, trying not to go headfirst as your foot catches the sink, trying to shut the water before the sink thoroughly soaks the bedsheets that followed you down, stand up rubbing your head, trip over the dog's water bowl, try to find your pants and shoes, nah, theres no time, hope that no one else in camp has a flashlight as you slam open the screen door and stumble down the steps barefoot and bare assed, have your piss behind the trailer for all to hear, realize that the full moon is reflecting your ass perfectly for all to see, stumble back up the steps, try to wash your muddy feet in the puddle left from the spilled dog bowl, towel them off with your pants that you just found draped over the dinette bench, climb back into bed, get yelled at by your girlfriend as you sling your muddy, wet, cold feet across her back.

I'm not fully sure that I could survive that routine if a RTT ladder was involved in the mix.