This might start some opinion battles...

[a65hoosier]

Re: This might start some opinion battles...

... but I'm posting it anyway. I was searching the Internet for "overpriced tents" and was surprised that I couldn't find any forums that had a discussion on the topic. I know it's really subjective because some of the high end tents, most notably (IMO) Hilleberg, are supposedly made of the best components available, but I just can't see me spending $600+ on a solo tent. I understand that quality usually costs a bit more, but... really?

Anyway, that got me to thinking about other camping gear and some of the stuff I've seen that made me cringe when I saw their prices. Just about anything from Snow Peak instantly comes to mind, especially their tables. Is their quality really worth what they're asking? Or can it be that I'm just too poor and think that $330 for a 3-foot by 2-foot bamboo table is just ridiculous?

So... what I'm asking here is what do you all think about various companies and the money they want for their products? Any that you instantly rule out? Some that stand out as the best bang for the buck?

lol. This thread has drifted off Macgyver's initial question. He asked whether a higher priced piece of gear is "worth" the additional $$$ certain companies ask for their products. Which I take is...is it the name/prestige of ownership? or are those products truly better in function/performance and worth the extra bucks?

It not much of a opinion battle to argue over a camping product, whether purchased at full retail or a deep discount...and then is never used...is a smart financial decision/purchase. It's not. Emotionally, perhaps, but not financially.

Occasionally, a piece of gear will appreciate in value over time (think vintage camping gear: coolers, tents, lanterns, stoves, knives, etc/etc). But that depends on use/condition. Seldom does the original purchaser, who never uses a piece of gear, profit from selling it. It has to sit on the shelf a loooooong time....

[Cory Hess]

Re: This might start some opinion battles...

I like to buy the best I can afford. That doesn't necessarily correlate to the most expensive I can afford. There are plenty of things out there that are priced way more than I think they're worth, but that's where the researching before you buy comes in. Bottom line is that I'd rather spend a little extra and have piece of mind that the equipment I have will perform, it makes my camping experiences more enjoyable.

As for buying a great piece of gear and never using it, I can't really relate to that. If I get a new piece of gear that I'm excited about I'm going to be camping the next three or four weekends in a row because I'm pumped to use it. If I get a new piece of gear from Wal-Mart because it's the cheapest I could find I'm probably not changing my plans around to put it in action. That's just me though.

Another question that was posed was whether more expensive gear lasts longer because it's higher quality or because we are more careful with it. To me, this is a moot point. If it lasts longer it lasts longer, doesn't really matter why. If I'm a dope that has to spend a bunch of money to learn to take care of my equipment so be it. The end result is still that it lasts longer, I'm pumped to use it, I'm probably going to camp more, and when I'm camping I'm enjoying myself more because I'm not worried about whether or not my equipment is going to perform. To me, that's worth the extra money up front.

[kmaysob]

Re: This might start some opinion battles...

I definitely don't own top of the line equipment but i'd like to think I buy quality equipment. I do a lot of my shopping at bps or sportsmans and more recently have found that I like the pricing better with amazon. A little research helps as well. I have found alot of bps and browning brand cooking equipment to be re badged camp chef with the bass pro or browning name on it. I ran into this looking at the browning 3 burner stove. I can buy the same exact stove without the browning logo on it for $50-75 less on amazon. I thought I was going to be going to a top of the line tent here in the coming months when I go kodiak canvas. Reading on here reveals that it is a very good tent, but definitely not top of the line.

[MWcamper]

Re: This might start some opinion battles...

I think cost is relative. That said, personally, I live in the Midwest where realistically I have May-Sept to camp "comfortably" (also relative) in my 4 state area. I don't know that I'd ever spend many 100's of dollars on a tent. Coleman has been good to me, I have camped through near hurricane conditions and enjoyed the trip overall. I don't think I have ever spent more than $200 bucks on a tent. I think your preparedness is a lot more important than the gear itself. If you have a solid tent and cover it with a tarp in the trees or staked out with clearance over your tent and you use a good footprint you're pretty good for most spring/summer/fall camping excursions in my area regardless of the tent beneath (within reason). Obviously picking a good spot don't hurt either. My wife and I are uber organized we have a tub for tent stuff, a tub for cooking/kitchen stuff and a tub for misc equipment. Each labeled with whats inside. When car camping (most of the time) we load up and roll at a moments notice with everything we need in tow. Even the night of the hurricane force winds and sideways rain we only had dribbles of leaks and heck the rest of the weekend was beautiful. So is it the tent or the camper that makes the difference?

[NYCgrrl]

Re: This might start some opinion battles...

I think cost is relative. That said, personally, I live in the Midwest where realistically I have May-Sept to camp "comfortably" (also relative) in my 4 state area. I don't know that I'd ever spend many 100's of dollars on a tent. Coleman has been good to me, I have camped through near hurricane conditions and enjoyed the trip overall. I don't think I have ever spent more than $200 bucks on a tent. I think your preparedness is a lot more important than the gear itself. If you have a solid tent and cover it with a tarp in the trees or staked out with clearance over your tent and you use a good footprint you're pretty good for most spring/summer/fall camping excursions in my area regardless of the tent beneath (within reason). Obviously picking a good spot don't hurt either. My wife and I are uber organized we have a tub for tent stuff, a tub for cooking/kitchen stuff and a tub for misc equipment. Each labeled with whats inside. When car camping (most of the time) we load up and roll at a moments notice with everything we need in tow. Even the night of the hurricane force winds and sideways rain we only had dribbles of leaks and heck the rest of the weekend was beautiful. So is it the tent or the camper that makes the difference?

Maybeeeeeeee a lil of both BUT with the camper bringing most of the party's flavour .

[toedtoes]

Re: This might start some opinion battles...

I agree it's the camper.

First, it's knowing the difference between "will it work" and "will it kill me". It might not be perfect, but a cheap one-season tent will "work" for a summer weekend camping trip to the local campground. A cheap one-season tent will kill you on a trek up Mt. Everest.

Second, something going wrong doesn't have to ruin the trip. So your tent fell down in the wind and you ended up spending the night in the car. Yeah, and...? So the next morning you got that tent back up and maybe asked another camper for some advice on how to keep it standing. Before the next weekend trip, you got some guylines and better stakes and off you went again. After a few trips, you were laughing at the night you spent sleeping in the car.

On the RV forums, I read posts from folks insisting that buying an older (more than 5 years) RV is a disaster. Appliances can break down and your trip will be RUINED. Over the years with the trailer and now the clipper, I have had the following "problems":

1. First trip out with the trailer before I even got out of town, I got rear ended and the back wall was smashed into the bathroom. I just kept going and had a great weekend ignoring the piece of wood sticking through the wallpaper.

2. Split hot water tank. Had to use the campground water and restrooms for the weekend.

3. Fridge thermocoupler bad. Had a friend bring in some ice and pulled out a soft-sided cooler I had stuck in the closet.

4. House battery died. Used campground water (no water pump) and lanterns.

5. SUV got stuck DEEP in the soft dirt on the edge of a dirt road. Paid $300 for a truck to come out and yank the SUV out (watched it go boing, boing, boing and land without any damage).

6. Tore apart a fuel intake pipe on a rock. Had a friend work his butt off getting a too small pipe to replace the torn section until I could get it home.

On all of these, I just kept camping. Sure, things went wrong - some cost a lot of money - but none ruined my trip. And now, they are all just part of the memories to be treasured.

But, I could have spent $80K on a new RV so that those things wouldn't have happened...

[a65hoosier]

Re: This might start some opinion battles...

After a few trips, you were laughing at the night you spent sleeping in the car.

Agree it's the camper. Your post reminded me of my first camping trip that I took with my fiance-now wife (26 years in a couple of weeks) What are we doing to celebrate? - of course! we're camping!!!

Anyhow, we borrowed a tent from her dad (first mistake-didn't set up beforehand) only to discover it was an old army style A frame pup tent-no floor and with two different length poles. She looked at that and said...uhhhhhhh. So, being enterprising, I said let's just sleep in the van (78 Ford Econoline). I borrowed said van from my dad. One challenge met.

Wanted to make Jiffy Pop that night. Got it out and put it on the picnic table (second mistake), and just at that point, my gal decides she needs to take a hike to visit the comfort station. ok...good idea, I'll go also. Well, as we got back to our campsite, there were 2 large raccoons having a battle royal on top of our picnic table fighting over and tearing into that Jiffy Pop. Luckily they took off when we got close....and took off with our snack. We got to listen to them that evening out in the grasses/woods arguing over ownership of the stolen bounty.

So we sleep in the van that night. Right before laying down, I decided to crack the front windows open a bit for ventilation (third mistake). When we woke up, the inside of the van was covered in bajillions of black flies...on everything...on us, etc. We burst from that van...I'd imagine fellow campers wondered what was going on.

Ok - no problem, we're marching on. lol-new day. Get ready for breakfast. Connect up the Sears orange/yellow propane stove that we also borrowed from my dad. Warming it up when I hear a hissing sound...the hose from the propane canister to the stove had a slit in it...and propane was hissing out. Quickly shut off, but great---no stove (not a mistake---well, having no duct tape was...but geez, come on).

Ha! We'll just cook our eggs and bacon over the campfire. We brought our good (& new) kitchen pots/pans (another mistake) from her apartment. It was all we had at the time. Let's just say the hot fire and her pans didn't have a good time together and we had to go buy some new cookware post trip. :(

My wife and I still laugh about our "newbie" first camping trip together and all the crazy stuff that occurred..helped along greatly by our complete lack of "how to camp" knowledge. But we approached that first trip together as an adventure and with the right attitude. We just remember the fun we had...and laugh over the mishaps. We are still camping 26+ years later.

We've learned over the years and have evolved in our camping habits and style....but we still try to learn and improve upon something every trip. We still have a list we keep on every trip of things we should have brought, brought too much of, neat things we saw in the campgrounds, etc.

[James.]

Re: This might start some opinion battles...

Agree it's the camper. Your post reminded me of my first camping trip that I took with my fiance-now wife (26 years in a couple of weeks) What are we doing to celebrate? - of course! we're camping!!!

Anyhow, we borrowed a tent from her dad (first mistake-didn't set up beforehand) only to discover it was an old army style A frame pup tent-no floor and with two different length poles. She looked at that and said...uhhhhhhh. So, being enterprising, I said let's just sleep in the van (78 Ford Econoline). I borrowed said van from my dad. One challenge met.

Wanted to make Jiffy Pop that night. Got it out and put it on the picnic table (second mistake), and just at that point, my gal decides she needs to take a hike to visit the comfort station. ok...good idea, I'll go also. Well, as we got back to our campsite, there were 2 large raccoons having a battle royal on top of our picnic table fighting over and tearing into that Jiffy Pop. Luckily they took off when we got close....and took off with our snack. We got to listen to them that evening out in the grasses/woods arguing over ownership of the stolen bounty.

So we sleep in the van that night. Right before laying down, I decided to crack the front windows open a bit for ventilation (third mistake). When we woke up, the inside of the van was covered in bajillions of black flies...on everything...on us, etc. We burst from that van...I'd imagine fellow campers wondered what was going on.

Ok - no problem, we're marching on. lol-new day. Get ready for breakfast. Connect up the Sears orange/yellow propane stove that we also borrowed from my dad. Warming it up when I hear a hissing sound...the hose from the propane canister to the stove had a slit in it...and propane was hissing out. Quickly shut off, but great---no stove (not a mistake---but geez, come on).

Ha! We'll just cook our eggs and bacon over the campfire. We brought our good (& new) kitchen pots/pans (another mistake) from her apartment. It was all we had at the time. Let's just say the hot fire and her pans didn't have a good time together and we had to go buy some new cookware post trip. :(

My wife and I still laugh about our "newbie" first camping trip together and all the crazy stuff that occurred..helped along greatly by our complete lack of "how to camp" knowledge. But we approached that first trip together as an adventure and with the right attitude. We just remember the fun we had...and laugh over the mishaps. We are still camping 26+ years later.

We've learned over the years and have evolved in our camping habits and style....but we still try to learn and improve upon something every trip. We still have a list we keep on every trip of things we should have brought, brought too much of, neat things we saw in the campgrounds, etc.

That is awesome. I have come to the belief that the difference between people that love to camp and those that hate it is how much you can roll with the punches.

For example, on my last trip my wife and I went to Arizona's White Mountains. We (and since I do all the planning for camping trips I mean I) had never been there so I used Google to scout for a location. I had found a road that followed a river for a mile or so and figured we would find a spot to make camp somewhere along there. I was wrong as that whole streatch is designated campground camping only.
No problem. We will just keep heading down the forest road until we find a fire road to turn down with a spot to make camp. Except we left late and it was dark well before we got there.
No problem. My truck has headlights and I have a lantern and other assorted lights. So, while it is a little more challenging it its far from impossible. Still, it took some time to find a decent spot and by the time we hit the sack it was 12:30. I wasn't phased and consider it all part of the experience. My wife, as it turns out, was near a breakdown. (I swear I didn't know how stressed out she was). I love camping and she (at best) likes it.

In the end I feel like anything that goes wrong is just an opportunity to overcome an obsticle. It gives me a sense of satisfaction.

[MacGyver]

Re: This might start some opinion battles...

I've NEVER made a mistake or had any problems while camping.

Except it took me about two years to figure out how to hang a tarp in less than two hours so it wouldn't collect water and collapse on top of the tent.
And taking out the wrong poles for the tent
And camping in a they-knew-it-was-coming flood
And forgetting propane for the stove
And an air mattress that popped
And leaving bread out on the table for some raccoons
And forgetting the water jug
And having a bearing go out on the popup
And getting rained on for 4 days without a rain coat
And setting up in a site reserved for someone else
And I wonder what will be next...

[James.]

Re: This might start some opinion battles...

The worst trips make the best stories.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: This might start some opinion battles...

The worst trips make the best stories.

Don't they though?