When did $2000 tents become a thing?

[Lantanafrs2]

Feel free to add in a 3000 dollar mountain bike. I'll buy it from you in 2 years for 800

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by DarkPira7e

I think it's cool. Much better than people taking motorhomes into a campsite and pretending they are camping

i can't complain so much about that. we've never gotten so much free firewood, or entertainment, as we have in the last 2 years with everyone thinking they can just go out and buy a brand new truck, and a brand new camper, and automatically know everything about camping!

it's like setting up a lawn chair at a boat ramp, the week after the boat show!

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by Lantanafrs2

Feel free to add in a 3000 dollar mountain bike. I'll buy it from you in 2 years for 800

$3k? feeling cheap?

[TylerLieberman]

Lotta money being spent to live like a homeless person....






/sarcasm

[Lantanafrs2]

Originally Posted by soundman98

$3k? feeling cheap?

No, I need money for a 2jz swap after I destroy 3 fa20s

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by TylerLieberman

Lotta money being spent to live like a homeless person....






/sarcasm

Roleplaying is fun!

[p1l0t]

Originally Posted by Lantanafrs2

And if you see a momma bear with cubs, walk up to her and ask her if she's vaxxed. I'm sure it will go over well

(Probably not much of a help but maybe make you feel better up there if a bear did come around).

Sent from my SM-G975U using Tapatalk

[soundman98]

Originally Posted by Lantanafrs2

And if you see a momma bear with cubs, walk up to her and ask her if she's vaxxed. I'm sure it will go over well

https://montemlife.com/are-bears-rea...er-to-campers/

[mn_ca]

Originally Posted by DarkPira7e

I think it's cool. Much better than people taking motorhomes into a campsite and pretending they are camping

My buddy used to trailer around a pop-up camper to camp and what not but now uses a roof tent. Easy to use and looks pretty awesome. I'm an avid outdoors guy but can't find myself to spend anything more than 1k for a roof tent. I'll stick to my $60 tent

[MuseChaser]

As a lifelong tent camper, first as a kid with my family, then as a young adult with my wife, then with our kids, and now back to just my wife and, I've made the progression from a canvas built-like-a-tank, heavier-than-lead Wenzel tent back in the 60s (GREAT tent) that my Dad and Mom used with us, to my first incredibly cheap small dome tent of unknown make (manufacturer wouldn't admit it, probably), then the usual Coleman and Sears "Hillary" suspects cabin tents, then a Kelty Mantra 7 which we loved but had one serious design flaw, then a North Face trailhead 8 which was even better except it lacked the great ventilation ofthe Kelty design. Now have a newer North Face something or other that is fantastic. Have tent camped everywhere from deep woods under lots of wooded canopy to severe windy open sandy areas in bad storm conditions on the OBX and Prince Edward Island. The Kelty and Northface tents were almost always up to the challenge, but would occasionally get some water pooling inside despite my best attempts to dig proper drainage channels around the ground tarp and guy out the rain fly coverings securely and properly.

Why the background? Because we spent $1000 on a used Tepui "Ruggedized" Autana 3 rooftop tent a few years ago. It's worth every penny. New Northface tents are going for not a whole let less than that now anyway, and the cheaper maker "department store" tents are really only useful in good weather in sheltered areas with light winds. Here's the "why"s behind the rooftop tent..

1. Takes 10 minutes to set up. Also 10 minutes to tear down. "Breaking camp" to drive someplace for the day isn't the ordeal you'd think it would be, but yes, it's not as easy as just driving away and leaving your tent setup.

2. You're off the ground. I can't emphasis just how great that is in rainy weather. No drainage ditches to dig. No worries about only setting up the tent on higher ground. The lack of sand, dirt, and insects in the tent is an additional benefit, as is not having to "police" the area for sharp sticks, stones, etc., that might damage your ground tarp or tent floor when setting up. Did I mention setup takes one person 10 minutes?

3. The build quaility is a WHOLE different ball game. Since weight isn't as much of a factor as the tent remains attached to your vehicle, the materials used in the walls, floor, and flys are much, MUCH stronger and denser than even the best standalone tents we have. In a blowing wind, sandstorm, and driving rain, that extra strength is incredibly welcome. In even the worst rains and driving winds, we haven't had a drop of water inside this tent.

4. There's a built-in mattress. No blowing up air mattresses, setting up cots, or unrolling thin uncomfortable backpack pads... just a comfy night's sleep on a firm but compliant mattress.

Really, the only two minuses are the initial difficulties of getting it up on your roof and secured, then removed if you wish to store the tent and need the vehicle for other duties (the tent is heavy enough that it takes two pretty strong people, or four average people to lift it overhead and onto the roof of a tall vehicle; any two people can carry it easily at waist height), and the aforementioned need to fold it up if you want to drive somewhere. That second drawback isn't as bad as you would think, although we do sometimes still use our ground tent if we plan on doing a lot of day trips but not moving "base camp."

The comfort, ease of setup, foul-weather capabilities, cleanliness, etc., make this tent our favorite method of camping with 50 years of experience. It's not the cool factor... it's the other stuff I mentioned. I do admit that I enjoy having folks come up to me and ask me about it when we are in areas with other people.. so yeah, there is an undeniable cool factor, but as others have said, THAT part ain't worth close to $1000.

As to the various comments about tent-camping being for silly folks who just want to pretend to be homeless.... Hey, it's definitely not for everyone, and that's fine. My wife and I like being off the grid, out in the middle of nowhere, enjoying the gifts of nature, knowing that, at least for a while, we are completely reliant on ourselves and no one else. We also enjoy the occasional opposite kind of vacation, too.. don't get me wrong. There's just nothing like tent-camping. The experiences we've had doing that are the ones we still talk about much more than the more typical resort/beach-apartment/touristy type vacations we've taken.. They're ALL good... just something a bit more satisfying about tent camping. The rooftop tent just makes it that much easier, comfortable, and secure. Almost feels like cheating.

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by soundman98

https://montemlife.com/are-bears-rea...er-to-campers/

I've had four personal encounters with black bears, and that article is accurate. Two of the enounters were in a remote area of Quebec, one was in the Adirondaks, and one was in Letchworth park in midwestern NY state. The two in Quebec were a little unnerving. Once a black bear cub wandered into an open area where an RV was parked (Quebec), the owner of the RV approached the cub to scare it away from his RV, and then Momma bear showed up out of the woods. RV man backed away immediately, Momma retrieved her cub, and no one was harmed. On another trip up there, a black bear clawed away a corner of our tent while were sleeping, possibly smelling the remnants of cooked food on our clothes.. who knows. There wasn't any food in the tent. We stayed still, and it left after a few minutes. THAT was a little scary.

The two in NY were more sightings than encounters.

No campers were harmed.

[NoHaveMSG]

We don’t have brown bears in my area, only black bears. They are skittish. I run into them all the time hunting and hiking. They usually run away on their own. Sometimes they stop on the trail and look at you out of curiosity. I just raise my arms and yell at them and stomp my feet and they run away.

[Dadhawk]

Originally Posted by MuseChaser

As a lifelong tent camper,..

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I will only add this. I've done a decent amount of camping, and some in bad weather as you describe. I have a different solution for when the weather gets to the point where you say the rooftop camping is an advantage.

I sleep in my vehicle.

Even in the cases you describe, if I had a rooftop tent, I would still sleep in the vehicle.

[MuseChaser]

Originally Posted by Dadhawk

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I will only add this. I've done a decent amount of camping, and some in bad weather as you describe. I have a different solution for when the weather gets to the point where you say the rooftop camping is an advantage.

I sleep in my vehicle.

Even in the cases you describe, if I had a rooftop tent, I would still sleep in the vehicle.

I've tried that, especially back in the "not enough money for even salad" days of my youth. I could never do it because the vehicle was just too stuffy, clammy, and usually hot with the windows up, and you couldn't roll down the windows in a driving rain.. or, if you did, you got eaten alive by mosquitos. I barely slept at all, and probably would have been better off in a water-logged tent, assuming it was still standing...

Serious question... how do you deal with those things, or do you just "tough it out?"