Off-Road Ranger I
- 2,865
- First Name
- Donald
- Last Name
- Diehl
- Member #
-
0745
- Ham/GMRS Callsign
- WRPN 506
Several years ago / several trips ago, we decided to step up to much better cots than our old folding cots from Gander Mountain. After a ton of research I chose the Roll-A-Cot. No doubt it is a very sturdy cot, with some pretty cool features as the carry bag actually fits on the side of the cot to keep things organized up off the tent floor while you're snoozing. These are not cheap cots, we paid about 300 for the pair, so with all expensive things it took a while ( 3 years ) for buyers remorse to set in. It 's kinda like paying 2 or 3 hundred dollars to go to a concert and that particular night the performance just sucked. You're out $300, the band had a really bad night and that's tough to admit to yourself after spending those bennies. As time passes, you quit kidding yourself and admit you wasted the 300. Do you quit going to concerts? No. Do you quit buying cots? No. You keep buying until you find a cot that works. ( the american auto industry counted on this psychological phenomena for decades until Toyota & Honda entered the market and the rest is history )
The biggest thing wrong with this otherwise excellent cot is the amount of time and energy spent setting it up, not to mention your hands will get blackened from the untreated aluminum. I never did learn to set them up, I couldn't figure out how to thread two tubes together through the sides of the cot, then twist them together. That was always Virginia's job. As time went on, it became harder and harder to set them up and break them down. The final straw though was seting them up in 20 degree temperatures. It takes quite a bit for my wife to hurl expletives that any sailor would be proud of, but there she was having a terrible time of it.
We are giving these cots to our two adult kids. They will love them cause they are free, and they may keep them forever, unless they camp as often as we do, which they will not be doing, at least for another 20 years. In the meantime, we have received our Buyers Cots of Maine. Two things I like already, deployement takes all of 20 seconds and the canvas suits me a lot better than sleeping on plastic. The only drawback is that they are twice as heavy as the roll-a-cot. An extra 20 lbs isn't that big a deal as we have trimmed our weight down in other areas.
The biggest thing wrong with this otherwise excellent cot is the amount of time and energy spent setting it up, not to mention your hands will get blackened from the untreated aluminum. I never did learn to set them up, I couldn't figure out how to thread two tubes together through the sides of the cot, then twist them together. That was always Virginia's job. As time went on, it became harder and harder to set them up and break them down. The final straw though was seting them up in 20 degree temperatures. It takes quite a bit for my wife to hurl expletives that any sailor would be proud of, but there she was having a terrible time of it.
We are giving these cots to our two adult kids. They will love them cause they are free, and they may keep them forever, unless they camp as often as we do, which they will not be doing, at least for another 20 years. In the meantime, we have received our Buyers Cots of Maine. Two things I like already, deployement takes all of 20 seconds and the canvas suits me a lot better than sleeping on plastic. The only drawback is that they are twice as heavy as the roll-a-cot. An extra 20 lbs isn't that big a deal as we have trimmed our weight down in other areas.
