Why I DON'T Use This Camping Gear Anymore

regina and i are getting ready to leave for colorado in the next two days and so i'm taking a little bit of time and going through the trailer and just making sure we have all the gear we need and as i'm going through the trailer i'm thinking about all the gear that i've used over the years and the stuff that i don't take with me anymore and i thought today in this video it might be fun to talk about some of that gear that i'm not using anymore and why and maybe that'll help you in making a decision on what gear you want to get for your next camping trip but first i need to finish doing my inventory [Music] welcome to trail recon i'm brad and today we're going to talk about gear that i don't use which isn't usually a conversation that we have on the channel but i think it's an important conversation to have now over the years i've done a lot of backpacking i was in the military for many years and did lots of field ops and deployments i've done a lot of car camping and long overland adventures and i love gear i love figuring out solutions for problems and being comfortable when i'm out and about and over this period of time there are things that i've used that i just no longer use and so i thought today it'd be fun to talk about some of the gear that's really just kind of sitting on my shelves collecting dust not that it's bad gear it's actually really good gear i've just found that i didn't either need it or i found something that i like a little bit better so today that's what we're going to talk about and let's start off by talking about this heater all right the first piece of camping gear that i don't take with me anymore most of the time is the mr heater portable buddy heater and this is a great little compact heater that runs off of propane you can run it off your standard propane canisters like this or you can attach it to a hose and run it off a propane bottle and it's got a little ceramic plate in here and it puts off a good amount of heat for a small space like a tent and i have used this while awake in my rooftop tent and my ground tents and it does add some really nice warmth on a very very cold night and usually what i will do is i will run this for about 10 or 15 minutes before i even get in the tent to go to bed just so it's warming the sleeping bag up it warms things up sometimes in the middle of the night i'll turn it on and just kind of warm things up if it's super cold before and then just go back to sleep and turn it back off and in the morning it's great it's really nice to have in the morning because you can warm the tent up before you get out of your sleeping bag just reach over there and crank it on the only challenge is sometimes i've had a hard time just getting it lit and you have to clean out the little nozzle there and so that's happened a few times and so you know you have this and you're expecting to be able to warm things up in the morning before you get out of your sleeping bag and just can't get it lit so that's happened to me a couple times the other thing is having propane inside a tent can actually cause more condensation so you got to be careful how long you run it and lastly this does have a carbon monoxide monitor and so if you don't have enough of your tent windows open to allow enough fresh air in there this will automatically shut off which is a good thing it also has a little motion sensor so if it falls over it will turn off but again i've only used this while awake and so i kind of stopped taking it with me because what i realized was i was taking this piece of gear with me just so i could have a little bit of comfort for a few minutes before i went to bed and in the morning when i get up so what i found is if i have the right clothes and the right sleeping gear i really just don't need this you know some gloves a beanie some good thermal underwear a good warm jacket the right sleeping bag for the cold climate while it is a good piece of gear i'm just not taking it with me anymore and it just kind of sits here but who knows i may use it again in the future if we're going to go do some i don't know some long-term camping in the snow or i don't know ice fishing i've never been ice fishing but that would be a good use for this okay speaking of staying warm let's talk about sleeping bags all right let's talk about sleeping bags and the ones that i just don't use anymore and that is synthetic sleeping bags it took me a long time to convert over to down sleeping bags and really it was just the cost for me i just like is it really worth spending that much money for a down sleeping bag because i've been using synthetic sleeping bags for decades i mean for as long as i can remember i've only been using down sleeping bags for maybe the last three years and after i got this sleeping bag and used it for the first trip i was asking myself why did i wait so long to spend the money on a good sleeping bag so let's just talk a little bit about temperature ratings for sleeping bags before we get into why i switched and some of the pros and cons of these so if you buy a sleeping bag and it has a degree rating on it like let's just say this one is a 15 degree bag that means that esses has been independently tested by a company that says that this will keep you alive at 15 degrees it won't keep you comfortable and i think that's important to remember if you're going to go buy a sleeping bag and it says you know 15 degrees don't expect that you're going to be warm at 15 degrees you're just going to be able to stay alive and it once it gets below 30 you know it starts getting a little chilly and that's when i start putting on some extra layers when i'm using this now women and men have different body temperature ratings and so there that's why you will see sleeping bag ratings for men and sleeping bag ratings for women so just keep that in mind when you're looking at sleeping bags now there are some benefits to synthetic sleeping bags one they are very cost effective this is a fraction of the price of this down sleeping bag two if it gets wet it will dry off much faster than a down sleeping bag if a down sleeping bag gets wet it's going to take a while to get that thing dry a downfall of the synthetic one is they're bulky and they're big and if you compress it more and more putting it in like these stuff sacks over time that compression of that synthetic material that's inside there it's going to lose some of that insulation warmth and it's not going to be as effective down the road so that that's one thing to keep in mind and then it's just you know they pack down much bigger i mean here is here's this one is a zero degree bag this one inside here is a 30 degree bag and this is the same bag here which is a 15 you can see those are almost the same size so it takes a lot more material and synthetic to give you the same warmth with the down now down is nice i got to tell you when you slide into a down sleeping bag it almost feels too light on you and it's so nice this is this sleeping bag is a good sleeping bag but it definitely feels like you're being confined a little bit where you feel a little more free in this down sleeping bag and you still stay really really warm and so i really like these these are expensive i mean you're gonna pay upwards of three four i've seen them as much as six seven hundred dollars depending on the bag and the temperature rating but they're they're really good they're very compressible a compact down very nice they store very nice you just got to make sure that when you're not using them you allow them to breathe a little bit and uh and that's important so i'm no longer using synthetic sleeping bags i am a down sleeping bag convert all right i've got some more sleeping things to talk about now when regina and i head out to colorado we're taking the trailer and so we're going to be in the rooftop tent which has a very comfortable mattress in there but when i'm taking the jeep and taking the ground tent well sleeping directly on the ground is not fun and in the military for years and years this is what we were issued something like this it was green but we would take these with us and it was basically better than sleeping on the hard ground it gave you some level of comfort and so i bought one of these and realized quickly that there are so much better sleeping pads out there and so i actually don't even know why i still have this but they do work it's better than sleeping on the ground unless you find a nice you know patch of sand that'll take some of the edge off of if there's rocks or ruts or whatever on the ground so when i was backpacking i bought this little guy and this is a very nice compact air mattress that actually has two baffles and it's about three times maybe four times the thickness of this thing and it's very comfortable compared to that thing and you get a pretty good night's sleep on here the problem with this is is that it is on air and so there's i mentioned there's two baffles of air that you have to blow up to make it inflate but if if you're sleeping on a cold night you're sleeping on just air and so there's no insulation underneath you and so while this is good in the summer it's not so great in the winter and that leads me to the therm-a-rest which i just converted to this year to this thing and it's big it's bigger than both of these and it's bulky and it takes up a lot of space and i don't care because this is so comfortable it's thick it's got some foam inside of it so you get some insulation but you also add some air so you get a nice thick pad to sleep on and getting a good night's rest when you are at camp is so valuable and for me this is a luxury item that is absolutely worth taking so i don't mind that it's big and bulky it's awesome having a good night's rest on this thing and yeah it takes a little bit more to blow it up and to break it down than these two but well worth it all right before we jump into some other gear one more sleeping thing to talk about that i'm not using anymore and that's this little tiny pillow when i was activity in the military we would go out to the field you don't bring pillows you basically take a jacket and you bunch it up and that's that's what you're sleeping on but when i was backpacking i wanted something that was small and compact and so i bought this little guy and it's great you just blow it up and it works it's not big it's not super comfortable but at least it's a pillow and i used this for a long time and then i realized i have a jeep i don't have a backpack anymore i can bring something a little more comfortable on so i bought this guy which has some foam insulation and it's a little bit bigger it's a lot more comfortable and it works really well for me and this is what i'm currently using however in the rooftop tent uh we have full-size pillows my wife regina insists on using a full-size pillow i tried to get her to use this and she just said this is much more comfortable for her and that's all right with me because we have the space in the rooftop tent so i'm not using this little guy anymore now before i talk about some of the water systems that i've kind of gone through and i'm not using anymore i want to give a plug for our website trailrecon.com if you have not been over there at the end of this video go check it out we've got all kinds of gear over there to outfit your next adventure including a lot of the stuff that i'm showing here in this video today so go check us out over at trailrecon.com all right let's talk about some water systems some water storage so in the beginning i would carry these one gallon water jugs that i would pick up at the store and on a like a three-day trip i was carrying you know four or five of these and it just wasn't practical these don't store well and i just don't feel good about buying these and then just disposing of them in the landfills i think that we are using way too many water bottles in this country and so shifting to a permanent storage water container that i can reuse over and over again was something i did so i went with like these roto packs and these are great they they're easy to pack away in the jeep you can refill them the only challenge is if you need to wash your hands or something it's a little awkward or wash your dishes it's a little awkward but they are good little containers they're very strong durable and they're reusable so i like that then i transitioned to this lifesaver water can which is a great little water storage jerry can style thing that's got a built-in filter i did an entire video on this and i will leave a link down below for that but this has a water filtration system in there and then you can pressurize it and it's got a spray nozzle on the end and it makes washing dishes washing your hair washing your hands very easy but the cool thing is is you can go down to the river and fill this up well make it it's getting away from me you can walk down to the river and fill this up and then it filters that water right as you're using it the only challenge that i've had with this is i was actually in texas when it was super cold and the filter froze which means i couldn't use the water because the water inside here while it's potable and it's probably clean i have put stream and river water in here a couple times and so i had to wait until i could thaw that out for the filter to work so that was just kind of a downfall on this but it is a good durable container now recently i purchased this dometic water container which is a good little storage container and i like how compact this is but the cool thing is that it comes with this little electric faucet so it's got this faucet you just tap it on here and you can wash your hands wash your dishes you could you know wash your hair with it if you wanted to i i've only used this once so i don't want to say that this is my new favorite but so far i like it quite a bit but i am no longer using these that's for sure next up let's talk about some cookware that i don't use anymore and i know some people think that i don't cook but i do cook i'm just not an elaborate cook i keep it pretty simple at camp but i don't use stainless steel cookware anymore and i know that there's probably some people out there that are coming unglued right now because they probably swear by stainless steel but for camping purposes you know i used these for years and this was perfect for me this little pot which is really nice and this little pan was perfect for me the problem with these is they are hard to clean and you end up using a lot of water and water is a it's an important commodity when you're out camping and so i don't like using stainless steel these will last a lifetime i'm sure that's why i still have them i just choose not to use them at camp anymore i am a fan of nonstick and i like these little kits because they collapse inside each other but this one is old i don't know how old but it's several years old and you can see i've already kind of worn off some of that non-stick compared to this one that i think we just got a couple months ago so this one is you know it's expired i think it's probably time to say goodbye to it so that's the downfall of non-stick is that it's not going to last forever and ever but this one did last me a long time but cleaning these is easy you can wipe them up most of the time and get 95 percent of the food particles off there and then just a little bit of water and it's nice and clean and you're not using a lot of water and especially since i do the dishes most the time i prefer nonstick the next thing that i don't take with me anymore is anything that requires an alkaline battery so flashlights headlamps lanterns i can't tell you how many times over the years i would try to remember to pack all the double a's and triple a's and c batteries and i would try to check and make sure everything was good to go before i left but inevitably a battery would go dead and i wouldn't have the right one and it really became pretty frustrating and so now i have gone away from alkaline batteries and everything that i take with me these days is rechargeable so my headlamps are rechargeable my flashlight is rechargeable my lanterns are rechargeable and they almost all use the same usb connection which is really convenient and so if one of these does go dead i can throw it in the jeep and turn the jeep on or plug it into a little battery pack and get a little bit of life out of it until i have the opportunity to fully recharge it so these are very convenient and i am glad that i don't carry around alkaline batteries anymore all right i'm a little bummed about this next one because i don't have it i have these ones and these are plastic sporks and i don't do sporks anymore they just i i just don't it doesn't work for me i need if i want a fork i want a fork if i want a spoon i want a spoon and i remember when i was really hardcore into backpacking i got a titanium spork for christmas because it was slim and it was lightweight and that's what you wanted when you were backpacking and i have no idea where that high speed low drag spork is but we don't use sporks anymore and so we're using regular silverware for a while and it's just kind of big and bulky and so we've recently come on to this new little utensil kit it's on magnets and so it's super fun to sit here and play with but you've got in this little kit right here are four actual forks there's four knives and there's four spoons and if you wanted to you know do two and two you could do that as well but i like it that packs away nice and easy you don't have a bunch of utensils all over the place and you're not using a spork so i believe having the right comfortable chair on your adventure is essential because you spent a lot of time hanging out with your friends around the campfire eating chow sitting in a chair and the last thing you want is a chair that's not comfortable and this chair here is one that has surprisingly lasted me many many years i'll bet this chair is about six years old and they don't even make this one anymore because there's been so many knock-offs of this over the years but i remember my friends would give me a hard time because it's kind of small and i was low to the ground and honestly it's comfortable for a short period of time but if you're hanging out around the campfire for a couple hours it's not the most comfortable chair in the world however it's pretty compact and it's nice and in light so it's a good little chair and it's held up i've recently switched to a little bit more adult chair this is the front runner camping chair and i like this it sets up very easy it's taller off the ground it's very comfortable and so far it's held up really well my wife's chair however the stargazer is its next level this was a christmas present that i got for her these chairs are not cheap but she really likes it and it's like a little hammock chair and it's super comfortable it's a little bit of work to set it up and break it down but it makes her happy and every once in a while we'll take two of these if we know we're going to be at camp while it does make a very nice nap chair but for the most part i'm pretty happy with this one but i am not taking this little guy anymore so there you have it guys there is all the stuff that i am not taking with me when i'm on my camping trips anymore i would love to hear from you about stuff that you used to take with you that you're no longer taking with you let me know down in the comments i think that'd be very interesting make sure that you check us over at trailrecon.com and until next time we'll see you in the next video

Channel: TrailRecon

Views: 410,248

Keywords: trailrecon, jeep, wrangler, overlanding, 4x4, adventure, trail, review, light, lift, tires, led, overland, rock, crawling, desert, forest, rubicon, socal, California, product, jk, tj, yj, cherokee, toyota, fj, cruiser, overlander, truck, bronco, four wheel drive, offroad, off-roading, off-road, overland vehicle, news

Id: fV4Q_0SM68E

Length: 19min 34sec (1174 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 23 2022