How we pick
How we pick your car camping kit
Six answers, one kit, every item in stock on Amazon today. Here is what each answer changes.
What each answer changes
One sleeping bag, one pad and one chair per person, and a tent with room to spare for the group.
The trunk decides how big everything can pack:
- compact car (Civic, Corolla, Prius)
- A tent that packs down to a duffel - no cabin tents. A cooler of 35 quarts or less - a family-size cooler does not fit beside the rest of the kit. Backpacking-style chairs and air or folding pads first - full-size quad chairs and rolled foam only when nothing compact is in stock.
- midsize SUV or wagon (RAV4, CR-V, Outback)
- A tent that packs down to a duffel - no cabin tents. Any cooler up to the 52-quart family size fits. Standard quad chairs, which pack to a 36-inch bag each.
- full-size vehicle (minivan, truck, full-size SUV)
- Any tent, cooler or chair we list fits - nothing has to pack small.
In the vehicle means no tent: the folded seats are the shelter, and the bag and pad still have to suit the season. A compact hatchback sleeps one; a sedan needs the tent.
Starter, Essential and Premium are quality levels, not budgets. A family's Essential kit is $880-1,160 today because four people need four of everything personal. If the total is more than you want to spend, the tier below is one click on the result.
Warm weather means bags rated to 30-40°F and pads of R-value 2-3. Year-round means 20°F bags and R-value 4 or better, which costs more.
Yes adds a stove and a cook set and sizes the cooler for ingredients, not just drinks. No skips the stove and keeps the cooler small.
What you will never see
- An item that is out of stock on Amazon this morning.
- An item your store does not sell, or that does not ship to you.
- A price from the other country's store.
We earn a commission on Amazon purchases at no extra cost to you. Nobody pays to be in a kit.
Common questions
Do you earn money when I buy?
Yes. Every product link goes to Amazon with our Amazon Associates tag, and Amazon pays us a small commission on what you buy at no extra cost to you. Nobody pays to be in a kit, and the picks do not change with the commission rate.
Why is my kit different from my friend's in the other country?
An American sees amazon.com listings and prices in USD; a Canadian sees amazon.ca listings and prices in CAD. Some products are sold in only one of the two stores, so the two kits can differ. Neither of you is ever sent to a listing that does not ship to you.
How current are the prices and the stock?
Every listing is checked each morning. An item that is out of stock or gone drops out of every kit and page the same day and comes back on its own when it restocks. Prices are the store's from that check; the listing has today's.
What if a slot comes back empty?
Some combinations are hard to fill from what is in stock (a family, a compact car, cold nights and a Starter tier, say). The kit still shows every slot it could fill, and an empty slot says what it needed and opens a live Amazon search for exactly that, so you are never left with a hole.
Something wrong with a pick? hello@gear-gadget.com reads every message.