c/camping-gear-reviews

My buddy swore his $40 Ozark Trail tent was better than my $300 REI one

He said it's all about how you set it up and site selection, not the price tag, and honestly after camping together three times last summer I'm starting to wonder if I'm just paying for the name. Has anyone else had a cheap piece of gear actually outperform the expensive version on a trip?

How a rainy weekend at Moosehead Lake changed my mind about cheap sleeping pads

For years I swore by my $20 foam pad, thinking it was good enough for car camping. Then last August we got three straight days of rain in Maine and the cold just seeped right up through the ground. I borrowed a friend's Therm-a-Rest Z Lite and actually slept warm that third night. Has anyone else found that a decent sleeping pad makes a bigger difference than upgrading a tent?

Warning: my tent almost caught fire because of a cheap lantern hack I saw online

I was talking to a park ranger at Yellowstone last weekend and he told me something that made me rethink all my gear choices. He said he sees at least a dozen campers every summer who nearly burn down their tents because they rigged up those cheap propane lanterns with zip ties or tape to hang them inside. I admit I've done that myself a few times thinking it was saving weight and hassle. He showed me photos of melted nylon and one tent that was completely gone just from a lantern tipping over at 2 AM. That hit different because I've got three kids and I never once thought about how stupid that setup actually was. Has anyone else heard similar warnings from rangers or guides about gear shortcuts that aren't worth the risk?

Just passed 100 nights in my tent this year, and I think most reviews miss the point

I hit 100 nights of camping in 2024 last week, and it made me realize how much I disagree with most gear reviews online. Everyone focuses on weight and packed size, but after 100 nights, what matters to me is how easy it is to set up in the dark when I'm exhausted and it's raining. My $40 tent from a no-name brand has held up better than my buddy's $400 name brand one that ripped on night 50. The popular opinion is that you need to spend big to get quality, but that's just not true from what I've seen. I've had the same cheap stove, same lantern, same sleeping pad for all 100 nights and nothing has failed. Has anyone else noticed that expensive gear breaks just as fast as the budget stuff?

My cheap tarp saved my tent from a river of mud last weekend

I setup camp at Ponderosa State Park and woke up to rain flooding my vestibule after 2 hours. Instead of moving my whole tent at 3 AM I just grabbed a 8x10 blue tarp I got for $8 at Walmart and dug a trench around the high side. I staked the tarp over my rain fly with extra paracord so water ran off away from the door. It was janky looking but the floor stayed bone dry the rest of the night. Has anyone else jury-rigged a cheap fix to keep your tent from flooding?

Switched to a foam sleeping pad after 10 years of air mattresses and here's what surprised me

I always thought air mattresses were the only way to go for car camping. But a guy at a campsite in Shenandoah last fall told me his foam pad was warmer in cold weather. I looked it up later and found out the R-value on my old Coleman air mattress was only 1.5. My new foam pad is 4.8. That stat from a REI blog post made me try it. Has anyone else noticed a big difference switching pad types?

My Kelty tent got destroyed by hail in 20 minutes flat

Last summer I was camping near Estes Park and a hail storm came out of nowhere. My Kelty tent took a beating and the rainfly ripped in 3 places within 20 minutes. I had to pack up soaking wet gear and drive 2 hours home. Has anyone else had a tent fail that fast in bad weather?

The old timer at the campsite who showed me a better way to stake a tent

After 15 years of hammering stakes at a 45 degree angle like everyone says, a retired park ranger at Glacier National Park last summer just bent one into an L shape and pushed it into the ground with his boot, and my tent didn't budge in 40 mph wind.

Warning: tried that 'waterproof' tent sealant spray on a coleman and woke up soaked at 3am

The spray peeled off in sheets after one light rain and left sticky residue on my sleeping bag, has anyone else had this happen with a $15 can of that stuff from Walmart?

Vent: That one guy at a campsite in Montana told me my tent stake hammer was overkill and I still think about it

He just laughed and drove a stake in with his boot heel while I was fumbling with a 3-pound sledge, and now I wonder if I should ditch the extra weight or if his old-school method was just pure luck on that rocky ground.

Tried using a sit pad inside my sleeping bag last winter in Colorado and it kept me 10 degrees warmer than the sleeping pad underneath

The debate is whether that extra layer of insulation is worth the bulk or if I just got lucky with the cold snap, has anyone else tested this or do you think the sleeping pad alone is enough?

Spent 2 years ruining my tent with the wrong waterproof spray

Bought a cheap silicone spray from Walmart in 2021. Used it on my nylon tent every spring. Then a buddy saw me doing it and laughed. Said silicone ruins nylon over time. He pointed to the sticky residue peeling off my rainfly. Looked up the specs online. Sure enough my tent's fabric is polyurethane coated. Had to buy a $60 replacement fly last month. Anyone else make this kind of gear mix-up?

Met a guy at a REI parking lot who pulled out a $15 Coleman stove from 1978

He fired it up right there on the pavement, told me he cooks full meals with it every season, and said I was wasting money on those fancy $200 backpacking stoves. Has anyone else run into these old gear veterans who make you question your whole kit?

Dude at a campsite told me my sleeping bag was inside out

Was setting up late near Big Sur last month, tired as heck. This guy from the next site just walked over and said "dude, your sleeping bag is inside out, you're gonna freeze." Felt like an idiot but he showed me the baffles were backwards. Anybody else have a stranger point out something obvious you missed?

Shoutout to the old coleman lantern I almost threw away

I used to just use a headlamp for everything at night, like from 2015 to 2020. Then last summer I dragged my dad's old dual-fuel Coleman lantern out of the garage just for kicks. That thing puts out way more light than my little LED headlamp, and it has this soft glow that feels more like a campfire. Now I always bring both, the lantern for cooking and hanging out at the table, the headlamp for when I need to walk to the bathroom or something. It's just a different vibe, you know? Has anyone else gone back to an older piece of gear and been surprised?

Walked into a REI in Denver and walked out hating my tent setup

I was there last Saturday to grab a new sleeping pad and overheard a guy talking about his tent's rainfly tensioning system. Made me realize I've been pitching my tent wrong for 3 years - water always pooled on the sides. Anyone else have a store encounter that completely changed their gear game?

Just realized I've camped 50 nights this year...

I was looking through my campsite photos from this season and decided to count up all the nights I've actually slept in a tent. Turns out I hit 50 nights last weekend during a trip up at Lake Crescent. That honestly surprised me because I work a regular 9-5 and only get weekends off. Has anyone else tracked their total nights in a year and found it was way more than you expected?

My tent pole snapped at 2am in the Smokies and I fixed it with a stick

I was camped about 4 miles up the Chimney Tops trail in the Smokies last October. Storm rolled in around 1am and winds were hitting maybe 30 mph. One of my aluminum tent poles just cracked right at the middle ferrule. I had no backup pole and the rain was starting to come in sideways. I grabbed a fallen branch about the same diameter, cut it to length with my pocket knife, and shoved it through the pole sleeve. It held for the rest of the night, but the tent sagged a bit on one side. Got back to the car the next morning soaked but not miserable. Has anyone else used a field repair like that for a broken pole that actually worked?

Used to be a die-hard foam sleeping pad guy until I spent 3 nights on an REI rental in the Smokies

Overheard a guy at REI say his $12 tarp setup worked better than his $400 tent

I was in the checkout line at the REI in Denver last Saturday and this older guy behind me was telling his friend how he ditched his fancy tent for a simple poly tarp and some paracord. He said he saved 3 pounds of pack weight and slept better under the stars than in his cramped tent. It got me thinking about how we all get sucked into buying the expensive stuff when sometimes the simple gear does the job just fine. Has anyone else tried switching to a tarp setup and found it actually worked for real camping, not just fair weather trips?

My buddy's tarp setup changed how I think about rain protection

I was out last weekend at a site near Lake George, just doing a quick overnight. My buddy Dave shows up with this beat up old army tarp, not even a real tent. He set it up in like 5 minutes, string between two trees, stakes at the corners, done. We got hit with a solid drizzle around 2am. I was inside my $250 tent, zipped up, but moisture still crept in through the floor. Dave's tarp? He was bone dry, just hanging out under it, cooking on a little stove. He told me 'you spend too much on gear that fights the weather instead of working with it.' That hit different because he's right. Tent floors always fail eventually, but a well pitched tarp just lets water run off. Now I'm looking at my tent different, wondering if I've been overcomplicating things. Anyone else ever ditch the tent for a tarp and not look back?

Had to pick between a jetboil and a cheap stove for a 10 day trip - huge difference

I took my old $25 camp stove on a week long trip in the Smokies and ran out of fuel on day 5 because it just burns through it. My buddy had a Jetboil and used half the canisters for the same amount of meals. The wind was the real killer too - my stove would flicker out while his just kept boiling water in under 2 minutes. Has anyone else noticed a huge fuel savings with those integrated systems or did I just get a bad stove?

Serious question, has anyone else been burned by those 'all-in-one' camping kits?

I dropped about $150 on a 'complete backpacking kit' from an online ad last fall. It had a tent, a sleeping bag, a pad, and a stove, all packed into one bag. Looked great for the price. Took it on a weekend trip to the Gifford Pinchot forest and the tent poles snapped in a light wind the first night. The sleeping bag was rated for 40 degrees but I was freezing at 50. The whole thing felt like cheap costume gear, not real camping stuff. I ended up having to cut the trip short and drive home. Now I have a box of junk in my garage. What a total waste. Has anyone found a decent budget kit that's actually reliable, or is it better to just buy each piece alone?

Remember when you could just buy a tent and it worked?

I mean, I spent like 2 hours last weekend trying to figure out why my new Big Agnes tent kept sagging in the rain, even though I staked it out perfectly. Turns out the rainfly's tension adjusters were totally different from my old one and I had to re-tension them after the fabric got wet, something the quick-start guide didn't mention at all. Anyone else run into weird little setup quirks with newer gear that just wasn't a thing 10 years ago?

Got caught in a downpour at Lake Tahoe and my cheap sleeping bag was a total fail

Honestly, I was using this old 40-degree synthetic bag from a big box store to save cash. A sudden storm rolled in last August and the temp dropped into the 30s, I was soaked and shivering by 2 AM. Ngl, I switched to a proper down bag rated for 20 degrees and I won't even look at budget gear for cold trips anymore. Anyone have a good waterproof compression sack they trust for wet climates?