Road trip tent camping anyone?

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When me and the wife were still dating I one time to her to Paris (I know, im a hopeless romantic)

At the time I had an open kadett, 4 door but with front seats from a 2 door GSI

They were factory buckets and had the added benefit that they could fold forward into the dash

So when night fell, I just parked on the side of the road folded the seats, pulled a mattress out of the backseat, unrolled it qe were off to bed
 
We just bought another tent to go camping at a camp ground down in San Clemente. Grounds are right up the bluff from the ocean and there is a liquor store on the other side of the street, a 10 minute walk :rolleyes:. Wifes friend has a kid our boys age so he'll be entertained. We got stow and go seating in the Caravan, I was thinking just stow the seats and hunker down in there? Sealed against the weather, warm...FLAT! No critters (none there anyway) Its like a double bed back there. Our Church youth group stopped at a rest stop on the way back from a 5 day hike in Utah. All us being about 13-16 years old, the girls got to crash in the RV while the boys got booted out to the cement slab next to the RV. I think it was early April and still butt cold. All night the rigs were on their jake brakes going down this grade, and I finally found that if I got ot one side and rolled myself up onto the folded portion of the bag, I could actually not feel the permafrost of the cement slab. That was a long night. I could really go for a trailer this time.....even a Coleman pop up.
 
Can someone explain why anyone would want their tent on top of their vehicle ? Besides being a fad ?
Whats the benfit ? I can think of many drawbacks !
They obviuosly dont drink ! LoL
 
Mopar tent
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mbaird said:
Can someone explain why anyone would want their tent on top of their vehicle ? Besides being a fad ?
Whats the benfit ? I can think of many drawbacks !
They obviuosly dont drink ! LoL
Click to expand...

Sets up quick
can put it on pretty much any vehicle
off the ground
more room for storage
 
I'm surprised at the amount of concern for bears in this post. I do not mean to play down the potential threat bears pose, however having worked alongside both black and grizzly bears for years, I don't see them in the same light as many others. Bears generally want nothing to do with humans, they get dangerous when they feel threatened, have young with them, or are guarding a food source of their own. Take proper precaution around bears and your likelihood of incident is low. Keep food well away from sleeping areas, where a bell when hiking, keep aware of your surroundings. Again, I don't wish to give the impression bears are of no concern, bears are to be respected, but are not the savage attack beings they are often thought to be. Personally, I am much more fearful of ticks, and lymes disease.
 
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cpearce said:
I'm surprised at the amount of concern for bears in this post. I do not mean to play down the potential threat bears pose, however having worked alongside both black and grizzly bears for years, I don't see them in the same light as many others. Bears generally want nothing to do with humans, they get dangerous when they feel threatened, have young with them, or are guarding a food source of their own. Take proper precaution around bears and your likelihood of incident is low. Keep food well away from sleeping areas, where a bell when hiking, keep aware of your surroundings. Again, I don't wish to give the impression bears are of no concern, bears are to be respected, but are not the savage attack beings they are often thought to be. Personally, I am much more fearful of ticks, and limes disease.
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Yes, wear a bell when you’re hiking, that way the mountain lions know exactly where you are.
 
pishta said:
We got stow and go seating in the Caravan, I was thinking just stow the seats and hunker down in there? Sealed against the weather, warm...FLAT! No critters (none there anyway) Its like a double bed back there.
Click to expand...

That's how I camp these days: we have an old futon, it's a 'full' size (and beats an air mattress) that we roll up in the back of the SUV. When we get where we're going, our 'stuff' goes out under the rig or into the front seats. We fold the rears down and unroll the futon. Two considerations with camping in a vehicle: condensation, and light control.
I clip moving blankets to the roof racks to cover the windscreen and the side windows - but we leave the rear side windows and back hatch uncovered, and use that silver bubble-wrap looking insulation inside. That way we can peek out the windows if needed. The moving blankets give some measure of sound deadening and just a little bit of insulation.
We leave the front side windows rolled down about an inch to help with airflow to prevent condensation and ensure some fresh air throughout the night.
It doesn't 'feel' as much like camping, but we both agree that it's the only way to camp now. No need for fancy rooftop rigs or trailers. We're going places to be there, not to be in a towable living room. All our crap (cooking, cleaning, clothes) goes in totes that stack in real nice. We've got a few fold-out tables and a pop-up shade tent and a pile of tarps and ropes. Once camp is setup, the SUV is mostly empty other than a laundry sack and bedding. This year we aim to add a 12v powered cooler for food and beverages. For around $400 you can find ones with a real compressor in them, so they don't suck too much juice and you don't need to worry about water logging food as ice melts (and they can keep frozen items frozen better too).

If I were to camp from the dart, I'd be looking at one of those raised platform tents (anything to get off the ground):
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Topless69 said:
Yes, wear a bell when you’re hiking, that way the mountain lions know exactly where you are.
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I assume by your response you have researched the topic and have evidence to support cougars being attracted to bells?
 
I've been camping in "bear country" for most of my life, have never had an incident- but you do need to exercise some common sense. Back when we would tent camp (got a 14' canned ham we use now) we would leave coolers and garbage in the vehicle, or at hike-in or canoe-in sites we would hang it from a tree a distance from our site. Honestly, racoons are a bigger threat than bears- the bears generally want nothing to do with humans if they can help it, as cpearce noted. I've seen a pack of coons drop a cooler out of a tree and rip that thing open... They're smart. As far as the use of bells, we don't wear them, but our dogs do; and they are always with us- so I guess it covers both of us. I'm more concerned of the dogs getting loose and tracking scents that could get them into trouble. And the bells aren't strictly for bears- I'm much more leery of surprising and getting charged by a moose. Them things can be scary... but you usually hear them snorting before they get PO'ed at you.
 
diymirage said:
When me and the wife were still dating I one time to her to Paris (I know, im a hopeless romantic)

At the time I had an open kadett, 4 door but with front seats from a 2 door GSI

They were factory buckets and had the added benefit that they could fold forward into the dash

So when night fell, I just parked on the side of the road folded the seats, pulled a mattress out of the backseat, unrolled it qe were off to bed
Click to expand...
Screwing in the streets is common practice, but you have visit Marseille, just not in August
 
My dad was an avid fresh-water fisherman so I was raised tent camping for summer vacations in the western states.
We never had a problem with bears but my grandparents had a great "bear story" from when they were younger. They had driven to Yellowstone in an early Ford coupe with a canvas insert in the top. My grandmother had left a box of chocolate-covered cherries in the car and they were awoken in the middle of the night by noises outside wherever they were staying. They found a bear had evidently smelled the candy, ripped through the canvas top and was sitting in the front seat enjoying the candy.
One of the last tent camping trips I went on with my parents we pitched the tent at the base of a redwood in Big Basin Redwoods State Park (CA). We almost left the tent there because my dad had driven one of the tent spikes into a root of the redwood. It took us over an hour to work that single spike out of the root.
 
Elk hunting last year . Packed in from base camp alone .... 15 miles to the nearest dirt road and 75 miles to pavement.
Cougars , Bears , Wolves , Wolverines .
Nothing ate me ...lol
Cougars watch you , Bears run from you , Wolves just eyeball you with curiosity from 40 yards , only seen one Wolverine and he was hightailing it.
People over exagerate everything .

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Bigfoot......My bro in law witnessed a bear come into his camp site in Sequoia national park and paw at a cooler that had nothing but 2 beers in it as they put all their food in a supplied metal food locker. He watched out the tent zipper as the bear tipped the cooler over, swatted at it and then it opened with the 2 beers rolling out. Then he hit the cooler, maybe he was pissed because it was only Busch, and not Natural Lite Ice?
 
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