camping gear ( a lighter thread idea )

No multi-day camping trip would be complete without some dutch over cooking. Yes they are heavy, but once you have eaten hot food of the variety that only seems to happen at home you never want to go back.

Indeed. Dutch oven cobbler is heavenly.

All of these are different types of camping, have different equipment and entirely different needs. I only know this because I do ALL of them.

I have a hiking/biking camping set up. The family and I do car/tent camping and have our set up for that. Then we have a full blown travel trailer/truck set up that we use for the campground where we have a membership and other assorted campgrounds.

Pick one and I'll deal with that for now. If you are dealing with small kids and a wife then I wouldn't attempt the hiking/biking for now.

Yes it is, as well as Dutch oven roasted chicken, dutch oven apple pie, or the delicious assortments of other fine foods you can produce in this mostly under-appreciated piece of camping equipment.

I have a 4 year old son and we've gone 1-2 night camping a couple times a year with him since he was born. We prefer developed campgrounds with picnic tables and fire pits.

We manage to fit everything we need into a family sedan (Saturn SL2 originally, now Toyota Corolla).

Here are the things we bring (off the top of my head and in no particular order):

• tent
• tarp to put down under the tent (helps prevent damage to the bottom of the tent and provides and extra layer of protection)
• rubber mallet (to pound in tent stakes without damaging them)
• sleeping bags
• air mattresses or pads
• a couple changes of clothing appropriate to the climate
• camp stove
• 2 canisters of propane for camp stove (probably only need one, but always good to have another handy)
• food
• water
• cooking implements/utensils
• cups, bowls, plates, eating utensils
• dish soap
• cooler (for perishable food)
• folding camp chairs
• canopy to put over picnic table (to protect against sun/rain)
• trash bags
• paper towels
• matches or other fire-starting implement
• sunscreen
• bug repellant
• wet-wipes/moist towelettes
• lip balm
• toilet paper (we usually pick campgrounds that have restroom facilites, but you never know what to expect)
• flashlights
• pocket knife and/or multi-tool
• rope

I'm sure I'm forgetting some things, but I think you get the idea.

One observation:

We like to bring some of our food, cooking, and eating utensils in a couple of plastic tubs. Once we set up camp, we fill the tubs with water (provided by the campground) to use for washing. We use the dirty water for dousing the campfire when we go to bed or leave our campsite to go hiking or whatever.

Don't forget the bibles for childhood indoctrination around the campfire!

Well as with all things (except liberal social policy) there are trade offs.

When we were in the position you are now in, we did a ton of car/tent camping. My wife likes wide open spaces and monstrous tents. I don't like to have to hunch over in a tent so we found a gigantic Coleman tent that was 18x10. It was a dome tent rather than a cabin tent. I would have preferred two smaller tents since they are easier to set up and less heavy, but the wife wanted the smaller children in the tent "safe" with us. My ideal configuration would be two 10x10 tents.

Cabin tents with aluminum poles are the best for easy set up. Try to avoid many of the cheaper cabin tents because they will give you cheap plastic joints and when you hit a strong enough wind they snap. I've seen it happen on the beaches of San Felipe to multiple tents of friends. Because of this I prefer dome tents as they have fiberglass poles and flex but they are harder to get in a tall configuration. I looked until I got what I wanted, it was a dome tent with about 6'2" of center height. All tents are rated by seasons and all claim they are water proof but there are basically amounts of water downpour they can withstand and this is part of their rating. (how many centimeters of downpour they can withstand before leaking) For most camping you do not need a four season tent. Three season tents are fine unless you really want to camp in snow.

The best air mattress I have used by far is the Coleman double-tall queen mattress. I've slept on one for almost two weeks straight and it was good sleep. The wife and I would zip the sleeping bags together for a giant queen size sleeping bag, put it on the air mattress and then you can enjoy keeping each other warm in the evenings if you know what I mean. They sell liners you can add or remove to add another 20 degrees to the rating of any sleeping bag. Our sleeping bags are just standard Coleman rated to 40 degrees and we use the liners if we suspect it will go lower. The coldest I've camped at is 28 degrees.

For ice chests, get the five day rated ones, use only block ice and keep it in the shade. They will make it five days if you do this.

For cooking you've got two main choices, white gas or propane. Each come with trade offs. White gas stoves are cheaper to fuel, can be be refilled easily. Most can also use unleaded gas if the need arose. They also work better at higher elevations and in lower temps.

Propane in the green bottles gets pressure to release by converting from a liquid to a gas. You alter any of the variables that affect this (altitude or temp) and it gets harder to use. Propane burns cleaner however and thus you can have a stove that can work as both a grill and stove.

I personally own just an old Coleman white gas stove that I bought and cleaned. I doubt it has used two gallons of fuel even in a decade. We used it twice a day and often three times a day when staying two weeks in Yellowstone. I had to refill the small tank in it exactly once. The fuel doesn't go bad. Two of our lanterns are white gas with mantles and the others are LED with solar panels on the top.

For me I'm just not a fan of propane because I don't like the green bottles. Now other people get around this by having elaborate propane tree set ups and carrying around a 20lb bottle. For me I like white gas and use it for everything but you can't grill on it. For that we just use the grill available in the campground. Most have it as part of the firepit. If not you can buy or use anything that is metal wire with openings and sits over a fire. So when we are enjoying the wood fire in the evenings, we just start it a little early and we throw the meat on it as well.

If you hit the right parks, it is absolutely possible to do all your cooking in the fire pit or over a fire. I do have friends that do this and it is actually a lot of fun but in California there are many prohibitions about what wood you can gather and where you can burn it.

Hope that's a good start. Ask questions to clarify anything.

Bring everything !

I wish!

Someday I hope to own an RV and travel the country with my wife.

That's a great list! One more thing I didn't list and if you don't have one you should try to get is a griddle for the camping stove. There are great Dad and son traditions in our house with regard to the griddle that somehow always involve Dad having to make pancakes and bacon on the griddle. The kids actually see the camp stove and think of nothing but pancakes. They'll see it go into the car and start demanding to know where and when pancakes will be appearing.


BR, we know you would never forget the bibles. You'd be burning them to fuel the campfire!


The kids don't get to touch the whtie gas lanterns. We use them for large amounts of light often around mealtimes. When full of fuel and with good mantles they give off an incredible amount of light.

I love the LED lanterns with the solar panels. I hated being that irritable dad who would sweat making the kids turn off the lanterns so as not to waste the batteries. Now we just set them out on the table the next morning and they are good to go. Block ice in California can just be found at any drug store like Walgreens. The campfire grate sounds like fun. If California were more permissive I'd probably try to use nothing but it for the entire trip!


Everything? There isn't even a wifi hotspot or satellite dish in that picture?!?!

I was going to point out that this is the completely wrong forum for this thread, but BR and Trumpt have restored balance to the Force.

No satellite, but inside there's a MacMini full of video connected to an LCD tv ... Helped keep all the kids occupied on the road, and most commercial campgrounds have WiFi signals

In all honesty though, we sold that last year. It was great while the kids were smallish; they could move about, lay down, watch TV, play board-games, and use the toilet... all while moving down the road. Now that they're older, we find it almost just as convenient to take the truck (Ford Excursion... still has lots of room) and spend the nights in hotels... You see, the hotels generally come with maid service and a breakfast buffet! . We figured we could just as easily stay at the Old Faithful Inn and not spend any more than it costs to store and maintain the RV. You trade off some convenience while traveling, but ... Life is full of tradeoffs. (Unless you're a Lib ... Thinking utopia is attainable )

They are easily found in Oregon as well. I have never had a problem finding them at any large chain supermarket in the frozen section. Fred Meyers, Walgreens, WalMart et al. Ask around, you may be surprised how easily you find block ice.

Living in Japan, most of my camping gear doubles as my emergency evac kit (no space to store two sets), thus I focus on quality, small size and light weight. Costs a little more, but that's life. Someday, it might save my life.


Flashlights:
- Fenix P2D on my person at all times (never known when a quake will hit). Uses a single CR123 batt, is tiny and has a diffuser for area lighting.
- Gentos SG-500 in the car at all times. Also uses CR123.

Headlight:
- Princeton Tec Apex Pro in my ready bag by the door. Uses CR123 which are much lighter than AAA and thus the batt pack doesn't bounce all over the place.

Note on CR123s: buy packs of 12 cheaply online. Sold separately in stores they are expensive.

Lantern:
Gentos EX-700 RC (which is not available in the US I think). Uses 3 D batts and lasts forever. 280 lumens. Used to have gas lanterns (Snowpeak) but LED is easier to use, doesn't get hot and doesn't have dangerous glass if broken.

Also have a brandless crank lantern that will stay lit for 30 minutes for every minute spent cranking. Was on sale real cheap.
Stove:
JetBoil. Simple and compact; gas canister fits inside. Also, personally can't stand sitting in my tent while inhaling fumes from next door (tends to make me hungry), and don't wish to impose the same. Also, prefer looking at the nature while I have the chance instead of cooking and cleaning. Lastly, much better for an evac kit than a larger set; wind resistance helps.
Always have a supply of camping food that I restock as I eat it and thus it is always fresh.

Water Filter:
An older Sweetwater filter for now but will replace it this year.

Tent: (not included in my evac bag)
Mountain Hardware Hammerhead 3, which is great for two larger people. I think that tent sizes are determined by volume: it is possible for three people to fit in the same volume area as the interior of the tent, if they are scrunched around and over each other. Heh heh.

Sleeping Bag:
Just threw out my old ones as they were so old I couldn't even read the tags to see the maker.
Of course, air mattresses are a must; we use a brand sold only here, but also have larger Therm-a-rest pads for holidays.

Fenix PD30R5

Fenix rocks.

Use a Coleman Stove to cook on. Use a pup tent when camping out also.Enjoy bird watching and looking at the wild life.

I'm not displeased with my purchase. 257 Lumens max output (can light up the inside of a house 50m away if I wanted to), and 126 hours continuous usage at 10 Lumens on 2xCR123... hard to complain about that.

Kroger sells it ... you just have to ask. I would imagine most big grocery chains would have it available.

I'll bring some government school approved textbooks to balance out the indoctrination. ^_^

I can relate. We just decided to do longer trips with a better tent set up to mitigate the rather expensive costs associated with moving the travel trailer around. While the maid service and breakfast buffet are tempting, every time I see one of those news reports where they run a black light over a hotel room I barf in the back of my throat a little bit.

You're dead on about the whole traveling with electronics though. My boys each have 32 gig iPod touches and both have plenty to keep them occupied. Our travel trailer mostly stays within 200 miles of home now. We had done a few trips as far out as Texas and New Mexico with it but that was with $2.30 gas. Now it's cheaper to upgrade the tent camping gear rather than drag along the trailer.


Are you certain it is hard to find in your area? I mean most things are until you find the means of getting what you want. I've never not seen a freezer full of bagged crushed ice that didn't have a section of block ice as well. You're in Texas and if it is anything like So Cal there should also be some water purification stores due to our friends from the South not being the most trusting of water through pipes. Many of them also sell block and crushed ice as well. Let me know what you find. I'm curious about this missing block ice.

As some of you may know, I bought a new bike and have been cycling pretty regularly for a couple of months.

Last week I bought a very small one man tent, and it really is a one man tent, some racks for my bike and some lightweight sleeping gear, I then set off and cycled 60 miles to a friends house, slept in my tent in the garden, and cycled home the next day.

I was totally fucked. About 40 miles coming home was straight into a near gale force headwind. Had to stay off the bike all week because I had injuries in places I never thought could get sore. Been out today and done a 45 mile stint, its ok I am good again.

Will be getting some better gear soon, as in August I am trying to sort out a trip to Iceland, not taking my bike, but hiring one for 10 days, and a bob trailer, and going to attempt to cycle Icelands no1 perimeter road. I need to be confident I can cycle 100 miles a day, everyday, at the moment I am unsure. The wind last week really made me think.

I'll probably still go somewhere, maybe still Iceland, but perhaps just do whatever miles Im comfortable with at the time.

Next purchase needs to be a good lightweight sleeping bag, good to about 0 deg C, and lightweight, maybe down filled.

Bicycling can be very painful; I found the seat caused the most pain. So I tried a recumbent, and have never ridden a "normal" bike again. They are also much better in wind. Also, I suggest a helmet. Speaking from experience.

Down is the way to go if you are not likely to get too wet or can manage to keep it dry. Wet it will be cold as ice, and heavy. For my down bag, I roll in up inside the tent (practice rolling with your hands while holding the bag with your feet), compress it in its stuff bag and then plop it into a garbage bag and seal it with a kitchen clamp. I also always carry a couple of extra garbage bags just in case one gets poked. This worked on Yakushima Island, where the average yearly rainfall is up to 10,000mm (394 inches); water seems to go upwards and sideways in addition to just falling downwards. I wasn't sure if I was climbing the mountain or swimming uphill. I have a light tarp to shield the entrance to the tent on bad days.

Do you have extra tie down lines for the tent? If it gets windy you may need them. A small air mattress or even just a roll of foam will make a huge difference in comfortable temperature range and also general sleeping comfort.

I could spend several weeks browsing this website. (In fact I already have) The last piece of camping equipment I purchased was this tent in anticipation of some bicycle/touring camping. I've broached the subject of an across the U.S ride to the wife on my curb-found bike which I've put over 1,100 miles on. I'm very much enjoying road bikes.


You can grab that Coleman 425 in two weeks or I'd bet if you woke up early this Sat you could hit a few yard sales and find a couple of them for $8-10 a piece. I have two of the 413's. (They don't make them anymore, they are now 414's) My price for both a total of $8. Find the right yard sale and you often can find a couple Coleman lanterns in tow.

Well I supposes the law of averages states that once in 10 years you might post someting useful. I will be having a good look at that, maybe get some tips and experiences from other peoples stories.

It really isnt that long before I have to get my shit together. It looks like I will be going to Iceland regardless of fitness level, because I dont think I'll get the chance for quite a while.

Did I get that right, that you stole someones bike off the curb?

Yeah you do have to get up early to get the best yard sale deals. Are there some swap meets/flea markets in your area? If you get some mantle based lanterns, get some igniters for them.

It is fun to look at the evolution of the Coleman stoves. I was totally into looking at them for a bit trying to figure out what year mine had been made. The older one I own was made in 1953-54 if I have identified it right. It still works great. We still owned our first tent that the wife and I had purchased when childless until about a year ago. It was a mid-level Wenzel and we easily had 150 nights out in it before it was stolen in San Felipe.


You're welcome on the link.

I'm sure you'll do fine on your ride. It isn't any fun if everything goes as planned anyway so have fun.

I didn't steal their bike. They were throwing it away. I was out for my morning jog and someone had put several large items on the curb related to cleaning out a house. They said I could have the road bike and so I finished my jog and returned to pick it up. It's a bit big but I've logged 1,100 miles on it. Since it now has two other road bikes to share the garage with, it is relegated to friends and slow family rides.

I have a travel trailer and I bought it used about six years ago for $5000. It is 26 ft. has no slide out and I purchased it because after going through a few RV's I determined I stink at engines but I'm great with everything else. So it's easy for me to take a truck to a mechanic rather than an RV. This lead to the selling the Jeep Cherokees I owned back in the day.



I haven't been on here for a bit because I just got back today from a three day camping trip in our trailer with my boys while the wife went to a work conference. This shows our typical summer set up which involves the boys actually taking the tent and the wife and I taking the trailer. We are about due move up because the boys at 9 and 11 are becoming rather LARGE. During the summer we tend to camp for extended periods and their clothing and possessions take up ever more space so out into the tent for them. The tent is a 10x10 dome tent which is one of two that we use when we go tent camping as well on other occasions.

Basically we have all the gear to go car/tent camping and then all the items to camp with the trailer as well. We pick or choose based off distance, time, cost, etc. When considering moving up I will probably try to keep the same length or a bit more, perhaps go to 28-29 ft with a slide.

We have plans for several more camping trips this summer and camp probably at least a dozen times a year.

I have owned all types of camping rigs but never a pop up tent trailer. I'm not a fan of them because it seems like the canvas tends to fail and that when it does it is ridiculously expensive to replace. I did see a hard shell type tent trailer that I was very enamored with when we stayed in our tent in Yellowstone for two weeks. There was a rather good size family in it of six or so and they were towing it with a mini-van. They had bikes on top of the mini-van and a couple more on top of the tent trailer. It was not canvas but thin fiberglass panels that moved up into place.

Obviously they work for a lot of folks, but I prefer tents or trailer but not a tent trailer.

Congrats on the stove and the lantern. As for what to use for camping it just really depends upon what you call camping. My wife (bless her) has put up with all my camping whims. She even slept on the back of our quad trailer for a week in San Felipe, Mexico when our tents were stolen. She's done it all but appears to hit the line at pooping in a bucket so she will go as far as no amenities and pit toilets. So basically she is willing to do very primitive car camping with tents. I've still got an itch to hike and backpack with a shovel and my brother and I should be trying that this summer.

My lanterns are new and old. Your lantern is the 288. When they updated that design to make it dual fuel it became the modern version they are selling now. I bought it in 1996 but that is at least how long they've been selling it. My other lantern is a Coleman 275 aka Brown Turd.

If MarkUK manages to come back again or get himself unbanned, here's a pic of the curb-found 1980 Univega I've pedaled on a few century rides. I've had thoughts of putting some panniers on it and trying some bike camping too.