Gazelle Ground Tent

[Climber]

I had both hard and soft shelled RTT’s and although they have advantages, I’ve moved to a Gazelle ground tent and haven’t looked back. Two main reasons:

1) If someone moves in a RTT, the whole vehicle rocks. I wish I slept more soundly, but this can wake me.

2) once setup, the vehicle is immobilized until you pack up. Sometimes, it’s nice to dive away from the site.

What are your experiences? An RTT would be excellent if it was just me, but with another a ground tent is working better for me.

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[Gene Dios]

I feel like people have lost the plot between camping and overlanding. Overlanding has come to mean buying a bunch of accessories and kitting your truck to the nines.

Camping = you set up a camp. Static location that you can leave to go fishing, offroading etc. You're staying in one fixed area. Ditching your gear and being nimble is ideal. For example you go to windrock park with friends for 3 days, you don't want to needlessly lug around a 200 lbs tent on the top of the vehicle.

Overlanding = you're traversing a region and sleeping in new spots each night. You can't abandon your gear and leave it behind because you won't be back. Example, you're traversing the Colorado backcountry discovery route and need to be able to set up shop quickly.

I think people just need to determine if they like camping or overlanding.

 

[Valhalla]

You can overland with a ground tent...

 

[Gene Dios]

You can overland with a ground tent...

Of course. And you can camp in one place for a week with a RTT. I can also cut my steak with the edge of a fork. The point is there are two distinct types of outdoor trip here and optimizing for either one looks different.

 

[Enginerd]

This topic has all the horses beaten to death, and back to life, and to death again. On almost every forum, social, YouTube, etc. you can always steer yourself to your desired answer down those rabbit holes.

Do what makes sense for you, many times folks try something different and find it better, or return to what they had, or discover something new.

Too many personal variables to generalize. Your preferences and desires such as what is enough space to change / move around, where do you prefer to be in bad weather and how much space you would like f had to cozy up for a few hours, more or less stuff to haul during explore sessions while maintaining same camp for multiple nights or not, your companions preferences might overrule all of yours if that is what it takes to get them out with you, having or not having to haul a dog up a ladder to a RTT with two people, getting out at night to pee, a kid or kids, people scared of wildlife or big foot in a ground tent.

Just get out there and see what works best for you and your situation. Go play and enjoy nature is what matters end of the day.

For me, I’m team easy pop up ground tent for my camping style and needs.

 

[broadicustomworks]

We reached the same conclusion in our household. We have a T4 that is set up within 2-3 minutes total including the rain fly. It is a bit bulky and a bit heavy to throw on top. But it makes the most sense for US. Others may vary.
We bought a 2nd larger one like you have and found that while we thought the extra space would be ideal, it proved to be too much of a larger PITA to set up and take down, somewhat heavier to throw up top and deal with. The T4 is the sweet spot for us and I love it.
We aren't interested in pulling anything behind us and also feel the RTT route isn't well-suited for what we historically have done.
The Gazelle setup is leaps and bounds better, faster, easier than your traditional Coleman (or whatever brand). The cons and tradeoffs are the weight and footprint it takes up to store and carry. Looks like a cadaver in a sack on top of the Bronco.

 

[Hummell]

I can also cut my steak with the edge of a fork.

This is a lie.

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