Car Camping Tent

What makes a car camping tent different

Every tent is a trade between weight and room. A backpacker carries every ounce for miles, so they buy a small tent and crawl into it. A car camper carries the tent maybe 30 steps. So they can buy room.

CORE, a tent maker, says it directly in its cabin-vs-dome guide: for car camping, the extra weight of a cabin tent matters less because the vehicle carries it. That one sentence is the whole category.

So a car camping tent isn't one shape. It's any tent you'd never carry far, picked for headroom, floor and comfort instead of ounces. Fly, floor and seam basics are on the camping tent page. This page is about how the car changes the choice.

Why our list starts at 72 inches

The table under this page lists tents with at least 72 inches of center height, as the maker or the listing states it. That's six feet. We picked it because standing room is the thing a car camper can afford and a backpacker can't.

Center height is the tallest point inside. The guide says a dome's standing room is mostly limited to the center peak, while a cabin's upright walls keep standing height through most of the tent. It lists cabin center heights up to 86 inches on larger models. So two tents with the same number can feel very different. The style column tells you which kind you're looking at.

My one opinion on this page: when the car carries the tent, buy the standing height. The reason is the maker's own point above. Weight is the one cost a car camper hardly pays, and headroom is what you use every hour you're in the tent. Getting dressed on your knees at 63 is a young man's game, and I'm not one.

What to look at when you pick a car camping tent

The table shows what the maker or the listing states: sleeps, floor length, width and area, center height, style, setup and claimed setup time, seasons, waterproof rating, rainfly, rooms, doors, fabric, poles and stove jack. Seasons and the waterproof rating appear only when the maker states them. A dash means neither states a value; listing values are marked.

Packed size: measure the trunk, not the tent

The tent has to ride in the car with everything else. Weight hardly matters. Packed length does.

Here's something the specs show if you read them side by side. One maker lists two 12-person cabins. The instant one, with poles pre-attached to the body, packs to 49 by 16 by 12 inches. The straight-wall one, with separate poles, packs to 31 by 13 by 16 inches. The instant tent's bag is about a foot and a half longer, because the frame rides inside it.

So before you buy, measure the cargo floor of your car with the seats where they'll be on the trip. Packed size isn't a table column, so read it on the maker's spec page. Measure twice, buy once.

Center height and style

Center height is the selection rule, so every tent in the table clears it. The style column (cabin, dome, tunnel and so on) tells you how much of the floor gets that height. More on that on the cabin tent page and the dome tent page.

Floor size: match it to how you sleep

Car campers bring real beds: cots, air mattresses, sometimes a queen. Read floor length and width in the table and lay out your bed on paper. Leave a strip for a walking path and a spot by the door for boots, because at a drive-in site everybody goes in and out all day. If you're running cots, check the camping cot page for frame sizes, and the cot vs air mattress guide for the trade-offs.

Setup and claimed setup time

Car campers often roll in late after a long drive. The setup column says instant, freestanding poles, or guyed. One maker claims as little as 2 minutes for its 12-person instant cabin with two people.

AAA's car camping advice is better than any claimed time: set the tent up at home first, so you know how every part goes together, including the footprint and the rainfly. Do it in the yard on a Saturday afternoon, not in the dark with headlights on the tent pad. Instant tents are on the instant tent page.

Seasons

MSR's tent team says to choose by the conditions you'll camp in, not by the calendar. Its 3-season tents are designed for spring, summer and fall, with lighter fabric and more mesh. The table shows 4-season only when a maker states it for that model. Cold camps belong on the winter camping tent page.

Waterproof rating and rainfly

The waterproof rating is stated in millimeters of water the fabric holds back. The rainfly column says full or partial. A tall car camping tent has a lot of wall, so a full fly earns its keep. The details are on the waterproof tent page.

Rooms and doors

Doors matter more at a drive-in site than you'd expect. You'll go between the tent and the car a hundred times. A door on the side facing the parking spur saves walking around the tent in the rain. Check the maker's floor diagram for where the doors are. Rooms are covered on the multi-room tent page.

Fabric, poles and stakes for gravel sites

Fabric and poles are listed as the maker states them. The stakes in the bag are a separate matter. Some drive-in sites are hard, rocky ground, and Eureka's manual recommends steel stakes for that. It also says to store steel stakes separately from the tent, because their sharp edges can cut fabric and leave rust stains. A coffee can in the trunk works.

Stove jack

A stove jack is a fire-resistant port for a stove pipe. The table marks it only when the maker or the listing says one is built in. Tents made for wood stoves are on the hot tent page.

Pack the car in the right order

AAA's packing rule is "first out, last in." Load the car in reverse order of when you'll need things. The tent and sleeping bags go in last, at the hatch, because they come out first. Food, kitchen gear and odds and ends go in separate tubs.

Danny packs the truck for camp like he's loading a bomb bay, and for once his method matches the rule: what you need first goes in last.

The lesson carries over. What goes on top, and what comes out first, decides how the first hour at camp goes. If the tent's under four tubs and a cooler, you'll be pitching it in the dark.

Set up the campsite around the car

A drive-in campsite has a layout, and the rules usually set it for you. At Great Basin National Park, vehicles stay in the site's established parking area, tents go within 30 feet of the picnic table or fire ring, and leveling or ditching the ground isn't allowed. A tent-only site at Acadia's Seawall Campground asks campers to keep all gear on the cleared tent pad.

So look at the site before you unload. Find the pad, find the flattest part of it, and pitch the tent with a door toward the car if the pad allows. Then the kitchen goes at the table, and the cooler goes where the rules say.

Use the car for what it's good at

The car is part of camp, and it does two jobs a tent can't.

First, lightning. In the National Weather Service's own camping example, the car is the shelter and the tent isn't. Give it 30 minutes after the last thunder before you go back out.

Second, food, but only where the park allows it. Great Basin asks campers to seal unattended food, garbage and cooking gear in a vehicle or an animal-resistant container. Yosemite is stricter: food in a car only during daylight, out of sight with the windows closed, never in a truck bed, and in the site's food locker after dark. Yosemite also counts coolers as food, even empty ones. (Danny took that personally.) Read the food rules for the park before you go. More on coolers is on the cooler page.

Keep the tent and car apart at night

Never use a portable heater or lantern while sleeping in a tent, a camper or a vehicle. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission warns that carbon monoxide from camping gear can kill, and that the risk is higher at high altitude. The car being close doesn't make the tent a garage, and the tent being cold doesn't make the car a bedroom with the engine on.

Care on the drive home

Car camping makes it easy to pack a tent wet and forget it in the trunk. Eureka's manual says to make sure a tent is completely dry before storage, or mold and mildew are likely to grow. Pitch it in the yard when you get home.

The manual also says to rinse zippers after camping in sand or dirt, or the sliders wear out, and to wipe poles down after seaside trips so salt doesn't corrode them. If the campsite was a beach, that's your Sunday evening. The full method is in the guide to cleaning a tent.

If the truck is headed to public hunting land, ask your state wildlife agency where camping is allowed and for how long.

Who should skip a car camping tent

• Backpackers: anything on this list is too heavy to carry far
• Truck owners who want to sleep off the ground: look at the truck bed tent page
• Small cars with full back seats: a tall cabin's packed size may not fit
• Exposed, windy sites: a lower dome handles wind better

For everyone else, the car is the porter. Let it carry the tall tent, and save your knees for the hike to the lake.