Explorer I
The quest to find the perfect tent has been a rough one for me. When I was single and in warmer weather a cot, or ground mat was perfectly fine for me. When my wife and I started dating we used my, very small, back packing tent with two blow up hiking mats. We tried two Roof Top Tents both on the Jeep and then on a trailer, but they just did not fit our camping style.
While the RTTs were comfortable we found issues with it being on the roof of a Jeep TJ. One we are smaller people and this forced me to have to, almost, climb on the roof to pack the thing away. Furthermore the two models of RTT we had did not have enough storage space inside to be able to store all the sleeping gear inside it self. Since we explore in a TJ space is a premium and having a huge tent that takes up both the roof rack and then sleeping gear that takes up space on the inside was not working out. Plus questions of stability come into play when hitting harder trails. The trailer was a nice setup and fixed most of these issues expect that the added complexity of getting stuck on a tight trail towing a trailer. We often just point the rig down a trail and see were it leads. That is a little harder to do with a trailer.
After trying out the RTT, we then moved back to our trusted 2 person ground tent setup. The two flaws here were that we had to blow up our hiking mattresses by mouth every night, something that becomes daunting if you hit camp at 4AM. (We do this more than I care to admit). The ground tent has only one door, and is very small. Having only one door is an inconvenience, but we worked around it. The ground tent had a few pros over the RTT. One was weight, the ground tent setup was very light weight. Two was space, the whole ground tent setup took up less space because it left our roof rack open. I say whole setup, because I count the sleeping arrangement and tent as a unit. Its crucial these parts come together to make a complete unit and as such space and comfort comes down to more than just the tent it self. However, this setup was not nearly as comfortable as the Roof Top Tent and started to become a problem for us. We started to dread pulling out all the sleeping gear every night, blowing up mattresses, and organizing the whole sleep system. In the morning it would be a reverse of this.
Entire the Swag tent. We are still in the testing phases of this tent. However, it knocks off a few important factors for us. One all the sleeping gear can be stored inside the swag when it is rolled up and then the swag gets thrown on the roof. This keeps all the sleeping gear together, ready to go, and keeps the inside of the jeep more tidy. Secondly, no blowing up of air mattresses. Third, the thing is very comfortable. My wife made a statement the first night saying "when I woke up I thought we were still at home for a moment". Fourth, it has two doors. fifth, the tent and the jeep are independent of each other so we can setup a base camp. It really is nice not having to pack up a tent when ever you want to move the vehicle. Finally, the thing is so thick that light can not penetrate it. For someone like myself who likes the ideas of an RTT but wants portability of a ground tent. I think a swag is right in the middle. With all that said, I still beileve that one has to configure their setup for their camping style. So far it seems that this Swag tent is a winner. 2What do you think? Would you try one? Do you already use one? Do you know anyone that uses them?
Check out my first impressions:
While the RTTs were comfortable we found issues with it being on the roof of a Jeep TJ. One we are smaller people and this forced me to have to, almost, climb on the roof to pack the thing away. Furthermore the two models of RTT we had did not have enough storage space inside to be able to store all the sleeping gear inside it self. Since we explore in a TJ space is a premium and having a huge tent that takes up both the roof rack and then sleeping gear that takes up space on the inside was not working out. Plus questions of stability come into play when hitting harder trails. The trailer was a nice setup and fixed most of these issues expect that the added complexity of getting stuck on a tight trail towing a trailer. We often just point the rig down a trail and see were it leads. That is a little harder to do with a trailer.
After trying out the RTT, we then moved back to our trusted 2 person ground tent setup. The two flaws here were that we had to blow up our hiking mattresses by mouth every night, something that becomes daunting if you hit camp at 4AM. (We do this more than I care to admit). The ground tent has only one door, and is very small. Having only one door is an inconvenience, but we worked around it. The ground tent had a few pros over the RTT. One was weight, the ground tent setup was very light weight. Two was space, the whole ground tent setup took up less space because it left our roof rack open. I say whole setup, because I count the sleeping arrangement and tent as a unit. Its crucial these parts come together to make a complete unit and as such space and comfort comes down to more than just the tent it self. However, this setup was not nearly as comfortable as the Roof Top Tent and started to become a problem for us. We started to dread pulling out all the sleeping gear every night, blowing up mattresses, and organizing the whole sleep system. In the morning it would be a reverse of this.
Entire the Swag tent. We are still in the testing phases of this tent. However, it knocks off a few important factors for us. One all the sleeping gear can be stored inside the swag when it is rolled up and then the swag gets thrown on the roof. This keeps all the sleeping gear together, ready to go, and keeps the inside of the jeep more tidy. Secondly, no blowing up of air mattresses. Third, the thing is very comfortable. My wife made a statement the first night saying "when I woke up I thought we were still at home for a moment". Fourth, it has two doors. fifth, the tent and the jeep are independent of each other so we can setup a base camp. It really is nice not having to pack up a tent when ever you want to move the vehicle. Finally, the thing is so thick that light can not penetrate it. For someone like myself who likes the ideas of an RTT but wants portability of a ground tent. I think a swag is right in the middle. With all that said, I still beileve that one has to configure their setup for their camping style. So far it seems that this Swag tent is a winner. 2What do you think? Would you try one? Do you already use one? Do you know anyone that uses them?
Check out my first impressions:
