How to choose camping suitable equipment, is a big problem for the beginners. Choose the cheap products, or famous brands, or the products that most guys choose? Here are several ways for your reference.
Step 1. Before Purchasing, 7 Tips You Need to Ensure
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Only know your enemy, and know yourself, can you win the game. Therefore, we need to ensure the information as much as possible before purchasing the camping gear. Otherwise, you will be difficult to buy a suitable product. Do not always follow others, or just buy the expensive gears. We should buy the gear matching to our budgets and our camping styles.
# Ensure How Many People to Go Camping.
The first thing to do for you is to ensure the number of campers. No matter how good the camping equipment is, it is still useless if the quantities can’t match the people.
# Ensure the Equipment Performance.
It is difficult to judge the performance of the camping equipment just with one standard. For example, for backpacking camping, the less heavier tent is better than the heavy one. Bur for auto camping, the heavier and strong tent is more suitable.
Insisting to holding”the light tent is better than the heavy” in all conditions is not available. It is not right to use one rule to buy the camping gears. We need to know the performance of different equipment. Then consider if these gears are suitable to our camping requirements.
# Ensure the Features of the Fuel.
After deciding which fuel you are going to use, you can buy the gears according to the features of the fuel. For example, kerosene stove, burner, lantern are the equipment which can give light and heat. Different fuels have different types. Thus, you can buy the gears according to the features of the fuel.
# Ensure the History of the Equipment Brand.
Well-known outdoor equipment brands all have long histories. Some is 10 years or 20. Some is long for over 100 years. Each brand is different in the foundation background, developing history, and pursuing style. We could know the trends of the brand from its related brand stories.
# Ensure the Your Camping Style.
Even though the gear is chosen by most people, it may be not suitable for me. Don’t drift along the main trend. The correct way is to choose according to your own camping style. The equipment may be not convenient or too expensive for others. But it just fits my unique hobby. It can be a worthy one for you to try.
# Ensure the Environment.
We need to start reducing the pollution to the environment from the step of choosing camping gears. Recently, many brands has pushed out kinds of environmentally friendly equipment.
# Ensure the Camping Checklist.
If you don’t want to forget some necessary gears, or waste money on unnecessary equipment, you can check it according to the camping checklist for your reference. This camping checklist could be used for buying camping equipment, and also for packing up.
Sleeping Necessities
- Tent ★
- Tarpaulin ○
- Sleeping Bag ★
- Table ○
- Table Cloth ×
- Chair ★
- Lantern ★
- Light Holder ○
- Fuel ★
- Bed Net ★
- Rivet ★
- Hammer ★
- Ax ○
- Spade △
- Blanket △
Other Gears
- Toilet Goods ★
- Towel ★
- Tissue ○
- Mosquito Resisting Goods ○
- Emergency Box ★
★ : You must take; ○ : You can take; △ : Not necessary; × : Do not take.
Cooking Necessities
- Cooking Desk △
- Stoves for Two ○
- Stove for One ★
- Ice Bucket ★
- Cookwares ★
- Pan ○
- Dutch Oven ○
- BBQ Grills △
- Spoon ○
- Chopsticks ○
- Forks ★
- Spatula ○
- Jug ★
- Glasses △
- Flavors ★
- Aluminium Foil △
- Wrap △
- Detergent ○
- Dish Brush ○
- Kitchen Paper △
- Draining Rack △
- Rubbish Bag ★
Dressing Necessities
- Jacket ○
- T-shirt ★
- PK Shirt ○
- Trousers ○
- Shorts ○
- Raincoat ★
- Sandals ○
- Slippers △
- Hiking Boot ○
- Sneakers ★
- Army Boot ○
- Sunglasses ○
- Handkerchief △
Fire Necessities
- Fire Stove ★
- Charcoal ○
- Firewood ★
- Clamp ★
- Lighter ○
- Blowtorch ○
Step 2. When Purchasing, 3 Ways You Can Buy Cheaply.
In general, the price of the product is not proportional to the satisfaction index of the users. Even if the complete superior gear gets no full used, the user will not be satisfied.
On the contrary, even though it is a piece of cheap camping gear, it can be regarded as the best one if it meets our own camping style.
Insisting to buying superior camping equipment is not smart. Whatever you choose, you must make a full investigation of the equipment on the market. Even though products are same in the brand specification, they may differ in the price for different selling sites and places.
If you don’t want to be regret after purchasing, please have a careful look on the introduction of the product.
# Through Group-buying Websites
Camping gears are active in the group-buying websites. There are many famous overseas brands, and domestic products. You can remain focused on these sites, to find if the products you want have be sold on line. For the parallel imported products, and self-manufacturing ones, you are better to make sure if they will provide the after-sale services and related guarantees, before the purchasing.
# Through Big Shopping Malls and Discount Stores
Big shopping malls and discount stores sell various kinds of imported products with cheap prices. The outdoors products are attractive in the prices.
And you will find the tent, sleeping bag, backpack are so cute and nice there. The main brands are Coleman and Northpole, some famous North American brands. These products will be sold out in a short time.
# Through the One Dollar Stores
Usually, many camping gears can be replaced by the products in the house. Therefore, you can find many perfect equipment in the one dollar stores. The products are very cheap. They can also bring you high satisfaction. You could buy the iron and wood tableware, and some disposable goods.
Some Superior Camping Equipment with Reasonable Prices
We shouldn’t judge the performance of the products through the prices. In fact, the true superior camping gear is not able fully used by the beginners.
Therefore, I suggest you buy the products with reasonable prices in the beginning. After some time’s experience of camping, you could change for better equipment.
Even if it is the top brand, there are still some products with reasonable prices. If you are touched, please read the below carefully.
Coleman 2 Room Dome 240 USD 440
Some beginners can’t help himself with a sound of wow. Compared with other similar brands, this is not a price that we are difficult to accept. It is a living tent with two rooms. With such a low price to buy a room tent, it is very attractive for the camping fans. This kind of tent has the net separating the room into two. These two can’t be used together as one.
Coleman Camping Chair 2 USD 30
This chair is cheap, favored by many camping fans. There is a groove in each side handrail. In the back, it is a big pocket for some small goods. There are many colors to choose.
Kovea Camp 1 Hose Stove USD 60
It is made of stainless steel with corrosion resisting material. In the field of kerosene stoves, it is the cheapest one. But it is small and portable. Many people use them in the backpacking camping. This product can be regarded as the benchmark of various IGT products.
Kovea Handy Twin Stove USD 84
It uses iso-butane with thread shape. With the adapter, it is also able to use the common butane. For the low price and working for two stoves, this one is very popular.
Snowpeak Gigapower Stove G USD 63
The famous brand Snowpeak is well known for its high price. It is unbelievable to find a product with such a reasonable price. This one has created the record of the smallest and lightest stove in the world in the year of 1998.
In 1999, it got the Editor’s Choice Award from the outdoor magazine BACKPACKER. It was rated as the best product. In 2012, although it is not the smallest and lightest product in the world, its advantages in the weight and size still got the favor from the camping world. It is regarded as the one of the necessities of backpacking camping.
Coleman Proformer USD 32
It is the sleeping bag for three seasons. The performance is better when the air temperature is above 15 ℃. You bind two or three together for using.
Buying Camping Gears with 800 Dollars
If you just consider of taking the necessities, and prefer the performance of the product to the price, 850 dollars is enough for purchasing superior camping gears.
The prices of products below are the common prices accepted by the consumers. If you buy them on line, or group-buying sites, they will be a bit cheaper.
1. Tent: 500 Dollars Below
Tent is the most basic equipment for camping. It has taken more than one half of the budget. If you buy some less famous brand product, the price may be a bit cheaper. But regarding to the quality, performance and service life, you are better to buy the well-known brands.
Type 1 Dome Tent
Coleman Screen Canopy Dome 300 USD 460
Snowpeak Amenity Dome USD 393
Coleman BC Wide Dome 325 USD 321
Type 2 Room Tent
Easycamp Boston 400 USD 456
Coleman 2 Room Dome 240 USD 440
Kovea Hue House 3 USD 327
2. Camping Table: About 85 Dollars
There are many types and materials. So the choices for the camping table are also various.
Coleman Folding Table 120 USD 81
Kovea 2 Folding Table 2 USD 87
Easy Camp Toulouse Picnic Table USD 75
3. Sleeping Bag: About 45 Dollars
As long as they are not the sleeping bags for winter, the prices are no more than 40 dollars. If you want to buy the product resisting to the cold, the budget may be more than 85 dollars.
Coleman Profomer 15 USD 33
Easy Camp Comic Square Sleeping Bag USD 39
Five Ten FT Thermal Compact USD 42
4. Stove: 85 Dollars Below
Backpacking camping can use stove for single. Most of them are below 85 dollars. And there are also many choices.
MSR Micro Rocket USD 75
Coleman F-1 Power Stove USD 70
Kovea Camp4 Hose Stove USD 56
5. Other Gears: 85 Dollars Below
Besides, the basic camping gears, we can set aside 85 dollars for other equipment we want. If you don’t want to buy other equipment, you can use the 85 dollars in basic gears with higher prices.
Buying Camping Gears with 40,000 Dollars
It is not a small budget. But with the increasing of the camping equipment scale and price, it may be not enough. Don’t buy the gears casually for the enough budget.
Sometimes, you may find what you bought is useless at all. In order to avoid the waste, you need to buy some comfortable and practical camping gears.
1. Tent: 2000 Dollars Below
You could buy room tent. It has big space and comfortable. The cost for a room tent is not small. Therefore, it is difficult to make a decision to buy one.
However, tent is the biggest part of the camping gears. If you want to reduce the cost after the sale, you are better to buy the products with better qualities.
Snow Peak Land Lock USD 1900
Kovea Star Gate USD 1980
Coleman Weather Master Wide 2-room cocoon USD1500
2. Tarp: 580 Dollars Below
If the budget is not enough, one of the things you don’t have to buy is tarp. It doesn’t belong to the necessities of camping checklist. But if you have one, it will bring you more pleasure in camping for bigger space.
Snowpeak Hexa Pro M USD 425
Coleman Weather Master Square Tarp USD 558
Coleman Weather Mater Square Tarp 2 USD 580
3. Sleeping Bag: 295 Dollars Below
If the budget is much enough, you could choose the cold resisting products. They can resist to the weather below zero.
Coleman Comfort Master Layered Sleeping Bag USD 285
Coleman 2 way Down Comfort 5 USD 185
Coleman Stretch Cayman 5 USD 187
4. Camping Table: 378 Dollars Below
If the camping table makes dinner and cooking together, it will be more convenient.
Snowpeak Adjustable Table USD 368
Coleman Comfort Master Lounge Roll Table 140 USD 291
KKovea Fire Camp Table 2 USD 165
5. Kitchen Table: 400 Dollars Below
Besides the camping table, if you have the kitchen table for cooking, it will be more wonderful.
Snowpeak Kitchen Table USD 398
Kovea 2 way Kitchen Table L 2 USD 155
Coleman Comfort Master One Touch Kitchen Table USD 200