Tips for Spring Vehicle Camping

Spring is finally around the corner! Now that we’re right on the doorstep of camping season, it’s a great time to start brainstorming trip ideas! Spring camping can be a much-needed treat after the dead of Winter, but if you’ve ever packed up and gotten out early in the season, you know it comes with some complications. Albeit the temperatures are much more pleasant in the Spring, there also comes some additional effort or preparation. Our advice? Get off ground. Here are our top reasons to try out a truck bed tent this Spring!

Ditch the Mud

One thing that comes hand in hand with the de-thaw of Spring is mud… and lots of it. For most places you’ll go, each step is going to tug at your boots and make each foot feel 50lbs heavier. Setting up a ground tent is going to be taxing, uncomfortable, and cake your gear and tent in mud. With a truck bed tent, you can skip all that. By setting up off-ground, you don’t have to worry about finding a dry, level spot, getting on your knees to drive pegs, or the dreadful cleanup afterwards. With a truck bed tent, your campsite is where ever you park it! Since they set up directly in the bed of your pickup, at no point will it touch the ground. This not only makes for a seamless cleanup, but since you’re setting up at chest height, you won’t have to worry about getting down and dirty just to set up your tent.

The Ground Can Still Be Frozen

This becomes an issue the earlier you plan on getting out, or the further north you live. Although daytime highs begin to trend upwards in March, the changes from daytime highs to overnight lows can be drastic. On top of this – ground temperatures take longer to adjust than air temperatures. So even if you’re enjoying a beautiful Spring day, you shouldn’t underestimate the stinging cold that the ground can hold on to. For many regions, you can expect surface level mud during the daytime highs, which quickly freezes onto your tent and gear overnight. Not only is this going to be a difficult cleanup, it makes a warm sleep nearly impossible. You will essentially be sleeping on a block of ice! By sleeping raised off the ground in a truck tent bed, no part of you or your sleeping mattress/pad will be in contact with the frozen ground, making for a much more comfortable sleep!

Skip Worrying About Water Levels

We’re all familiar with the phrase ‘April showers brings May flowers. This is a nice thought, but it’s bad news for Spring camping. In a traditional ground tent, if you pitch near any sort of natural runoff collection point, you’re going to have a bad time. Period. With a truck bed tent, you can skip the worry of battling ground floods, since you’ll have a comfortable separation between you and the ground! With the average height-off-ground of truck bed heights being 30-40”, unless you plan on camping through a flash flood, you will be perfectly safe from any ground water levels.

Simplify Your Setup

If you’re around the southern states, then frozen ground and mud might not be on your radar. However, there is one thing that reigns over all of us through wet Spring climates. Bugs. Whether it’s black flies, mosquitos, chiggers, ticks, ants, etc., no one is safe from that all too familiar buzz in your ear or painful bite. The last thing you want to deal with after a long drive to the site, is spending an hour or two setting up camp while getting torn apart by pests. Since Napier tents attach right to your vehicle, you can skip the unpacking! All of our Sportz Series Truck Tents come equipped with a rear access window for complete cab access. Just follow along with our written or video instructions and you can have your tent setup in just 10 minutes. You’ll be thanking yourself when the next site over is still fighting with their campsite.

Summary

If you’re someone who enjoys fighting through a ground tent setup in the mud, cleaning caked on dirt/mud off your tent, sleeping on frozen ground or pools of rain water, or unpacking through a swarm of bugs, then maybe a truck bed tent isn’t for you. But if you’ve ever dreaded any of these scenarios or written-off Spring camping all together, then I implore you to give off-ground camping a try! It might just change your whole perspective on early season camping.