Do you have any camping gear currently?

Camping is one of my favorite things and I've been through alot of different setups through the years tuning my setup to fit my needs so have some insight.

I would recommend decent but not all out on gear until you know its something yall are going to enjoy doing. Certain gear you can go cheaper on than others.

You'd hate to drop $2k on a RTT and use it for one trip

Only camping I used to do before my son was born was hiking/wilderness camping. A couple buddies and myself would hike in 5-10 miles carrying everything with us that we needed. So most my stuff is all backpacking ultralight stuff like jet stove titanium pot/cup/flatware. One man ultralight tent. All the essentials type stuff. Hatchet, saw, fire starting stuff, water bottles and camel backs, water filters. On and on but again totally different type of camping, more so backpacking.

What a view

I’m not telling you to look at a Tacoma or anything, but tacomaworld.com has a lot of threads on this type of thing. Might be worth checking out. My wife any I decided against the RTT for both cost and because it’s my daily driver. We have a camper shell, though, and it’s good for some things and not good for others, but I like it. We spent 10 days in New Mexico, Arizona, Utah and Colorado camping and driving and had a great time, although it wasn’t all over landing. If I had a different situation in life (more time and money) I’d be more in to it.

The advantage to car camping is stuff is cheaper for nice stuff due to not caring about pack size or weight.

I'd get a decent ground tent, buy good sleeping pad and bags/quilts. You have room in the truck so don't need ultralight down bags so a nice comfortable bag can be had fairly cheap. I have a 0 degree northface bag that is super warm and comfy but huge so it was around $100 from Academy. I have a Thermarest MondoKing xxl pad that is ridiculously comfortable and warm for a pad (4" thick, r value over 11) but doesn't pack up small. I've slept on the snow before and the other people in the tent were cold until they tried my sleeping pad and were shocked at how much warmer it was than theirs. R value is super important if winter camping.

A good dual burner camp stove is one of the only other things you need. You can get some cheaper cookware so you don't have to bring nice stuff from home or use cast iron but cast iron of course is heavy. That doesn't matter as much if you are truck camping though. I always liked doing stuff like tacos or hamburger helper style meals for easy camping meals.

Also nice to have is a folding table of some kind for cooking on. I've got one that rolls up into a bag like a camp chair. Maybe a popup, ezup style canopy in case it rains and you want a place to hangout and cook. It sucks when it's raining and you only can get in the tent to get out of it

A shower is going to be the thing that could be important depending on you and your family. I'm a person who can go awhile without showering while camping or hunting but know I'm not normal in that aspect lol. I'm not sure of the brand, I can get it if you want, but my friends have a hot water shower setup that recirculates water from a bucket to provide running hot water for showers. They then have a little popup shower for privacy. I have a shower that looks like a 3 gallon handheld pesticide sprayer but it is a shower that you fill with water and put on a stove to heat water. Then pump the handle and you have pressurized water to shower with.

It was probably the best view I've ever had at a campsite. That's the cool part of the overlanding thing. I didn't need 4wd to get there but you wouldn't be dragging a camper to some of the places I camp and enjoy it.

This was my Tacoma setup. The rack was bought for a RTT initially until I thought better of it but was really nice for the kayak and rods. Water hauled in the white cans for cooking, shower, cleaning dishes. Totes contained dry food, camping gear, cooking supplies.



And my current setup. I've had to shrink everything now into backpacking gear. To fit cooking setup, food, water, and all my camping gear on the bike I have to be alot more selective in loadout.

I’m planning on a new cage for the RZR later this year or early next year. It will have a roof rack for packing gear. I plan on doing some short trips with my kid (wife won’t tent camp anymore). It won’t necessarily be “over landing” in the since that it won’t be self sustaining or off grid for lengthy amounts of time. But I think taking some trails during the day and setting up a place to camp away from people would be a good time.

What’s the pole for, WiFi?

Where were these places?

I've recently gotten into family camping with my 2 and 4 year olds after taking a couple years off when they were really little. I also do a couple trips a year hunting. I have found we are most comfortable in a big ground tent with a ridiculously comfortable pad for the wife and I. We currently use an Exped MegaMat Duo and love it. I have a topper on my ZR2 Bison with a rack on top. I have no problem loading a ton of stuff in and on the truck for extended travel and wouldn't want to give up all of the extra storage space you get with a topper. My big tent is a 12x12 Cabela's Alaknak. Its great, but takes too long to set up for one night stays. When we are actually overlanding, I use a Cabela's Alaskan Guide dome tent that I can set up nearly as fast as a RTT. We are much more comfortable with a little space to spread out and not dealing with getting the kids up and down a ladder. We shamelessly go full glamping - down comforters, feather pillows, heater, etc. Once I had kids, I realized that being uncomfortable for the sake of roughing it doesn't make camping more fun. I run white gas for all of my equipment, stove, lanterns, etc. I like that I don't have to deal with propane bottles, guess how full they are, deal with half full bottles after a trip, etc. The white gas is also a whole lot better if you plan any trips at high altitude or in real cold.

We camp a lot with my sister and her family. My brother-in-law has a RTT on a trailer he pulls behind his truck. Its a nice setup in that he can drop the trailer and still use the truck to explore a trail or something. I don't think I would like a tent on top of my truck because of that. The downside to the trailer is that its a pain when you are on the trail. He is often afraid of heading down some trail because he doesn't know if he can turn around at the other end. The tent is comfortable and the tent itself sets up quick, but he needs to mess with the trailer, put out stabilizers, etc. Start to finish, its not as quick as you think it will be. Never had condensation issues with the tent, but I have only used it in pretty dry places. He uses propane for everything and carries the 20 lb tanks and runs lines/adapters for everything, which is also a nice setup.

This was my Tacoma setup. The rack was bought for a RTT initially until I thought better of it but was really nice for the kayak and rods. Water hauled in the white cans for cooking, shower, cleaning dishes. Totes contained dry food, camping gear, cooking supplies.



And my current setup. I've had to shrink everything now into backpacking gear. To fit cooking setup, food, water, and all my camping gear on the bike I have to be alot more selective in loadout.

Did you spend the night on the side of 281 a week or so ago south of Blanco?

I have done quite a bit of it. I do not recommend a roof top tent. I have about 6 tents but my favorite are the REI Base Camp 6 and the Kodiak Canvas 10x14. The key is efficiency if you plan on moving every night. I have an efficient cooking system and a small cargo trailer I tow. This allows me to drop the rig and go explore. Instead of an awning I pack a lightweight tarp, pole, guy lines and stakes. I can set up a quick awning for lunch on the road. The game changer for me was the ARB 50l fridge. This allows me to keep all my food cold without dealing with ice. I can hit the grocery store and buy warm beer, put it inside and it will be cold in a few hours. There is some beautiful places to go explore, I wouldn't spend a ton of money just yet, go out and camp at a Big Bend backcountry site and see how you like it.

Just go old school........