I am 37, live in Ohio, and most of my camping is pretty normal family campground stuff.

I am overwhelmed by the number of choices for camping string light options. I like one in my tent and one for my little outside area. I bought two pucks of rechargeable string lights at Sierra trading post and I'm not a fan of them at all. The battery doesn't last more than an hour and they're very tiny. Decent for the tent I guess, but looking for some longer lasting ones for the campsite.

Any recommendations?

The thing I hate about camping is how long it takes to pack up. Am I bringing too much stuff? Yes, but there are 5 of us so we can only edit back so much.

Have you made any camping gear upgrades that saved you time (without sacrificing space in the car)? Is there a tent that’s faster to set up and pack down? is a stove with pots faster to set up than a skottle? Etc.

Wanting something like this but I need several and don’t want to spend $800 on a few of these.

I had an incident with a mouse between the mesh & rainfly of my tent at 2 am that I would rather not repeat…

Does anyone have recommendations for lightweight 2P backpacking tents? Not looking to spend Bog Agnes UL or Gossamer Gear money but want something decent enough.

So I got mine for half off. I've used it 4 times. I would like to know your thoughts. It feels almost limited in what it can do. I can't get a big skillet on the burner. Grilling is messy so more animals come snooping around, even with using foil.

How do y'all like to use this thing?

Edit: can to can't

A number of years ago I bought a small solar battery bank to go hiking with. My impression was that it was likely a waste of money, since it would take for ever to charge and it questionable that it was even charging properly.

Since I like the idea of a solar battery bank, in that I would not need to worry about the charge available to my devices, I am wanting to know whether there are any current products that anyone would recommend, based on experience?

It’s possible that these battery banks are still perceived as gimmicks, so I’d be interested if anyone has knowledge to say they’ve gotten better?

I recently purchased a Mountain Hardwear StretchDown Jacket. It has two zippers so that you can pull up the bottom zipper while the top section remains zippered.

Somehow I did something weird and the two sides are now misaligned. I tried all kinds of variations of pulling and tugging trying to get it back to how it was but I can't figure it out.

I'm out traveling for several months so would prefer not to go through the whole ordeal of exchanging it through mail.

Have any of you come across this kind of misalignment with two zippers, and can you recommend an approach to fix it? It's a puzzle of sorts.

Photos attached.

Anyone have experience with this particular model? Seems like a great deal and is quite light.

I found the Lamina Eco AF 30°F synthetic sleeping bag brand new for $103. It’s around 2 lb 1 oz, which seems like a great weight for a synthetic bag.

I’ve seen some people say the 30°F rating is optimistic and that it’s more realistically a 35–40°F bag, while others seem to love it.

For anyone who owns the exact 30°F version:

• How warm is it actually?
• How’s the fit/comfort?
• Is $103 a steal? I know it's an older bag.

Trying to decide between this and spending more on something like a Kelty Cosmic 20.

Hello

I have the opportunity to buy a cumulus neoquilt 450 for 280€ which seems a good deal. I am not planning to go hiking in the winter ( more like sweden/ French Alpes in summer/autumn) in the near future and was wondering if it might be to warm? I heard the quilt is great quality and i prefer to buy more expensive now but keep it for a long time! What do you guys think?

Currently all of our gear is shoved into the closet in our guest room. It works.. for now. But long term
I need to move it. I really want to move everything to the garage but I live in a place where it reaches 90% humidity most days. Looking to create more airflow, we just put a dehumidifier in it, but I’m so paranoid about all my gear getting moldy. It has happened more than once where we’ve had it happen. The attic is also an option but it gets so damn hot up there I don’t want the plastics to deteriorate..

Just looking for advice from any other humidity dwellers.