Hunting & Camping

T

TNQuailer

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Looking for some recommendation on how to pull off an early season hunt without staying in hotel/motel. I will be coming from TN and hunting the southern half of Kansas from East to west and back most likely. Like I said I will be travelling probably mid-November and hate staying in hotels/motels. My wife thinks I am crazy since she works in the hotel industry, but I have heard too many stories about nasty hotels for my taste. I will be travelling in a Dodge 1500 and have thought about buying a tent that fits in the bed of my truck that can easily be disassembled to move to a different spots. Would love to see how everyone else is doing it without using hotels? Please post any suggestion/advice or pictures of your set up. Thanks in advance!
 
Lots of variables there . When my wife and I were in our 20's we slept in an uninsulated topper on the back of a half ton pickup. We had one dog and good sleeping bags. 40 years later we pull a travel trailer and love to plug into electric at night, we also have 4 dogs. Motels are hit or miss. Some are great and some I would rather sleep on my dog's crate mat than their sheets. If you are by yourself with just a dog or 2 and don't mind eating breakfast at a convience store and can live without a shower for a few days than truck camping is fine.
 
Ive done the camp / hunt thing a few times , never in Kansas but in Wyoming and Montana. Most of the decent sized towns have some sort of little city park or camp ground that you can use. The set up and tear down process will get old quickly. Id rather set up on the ground somewhere and hunt a particular area a couple of days in a row then move. We have always rented houses or motels in ks. Their state parks have great rental cabins that are clean and reasonable.
 
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I prefer hunting out of the truck personally, but I’ve spent some coin to make it fun and relaxing. Just go for it!
 
I have a truck pop up camper which I love (colorado). Much much more comfortable than a tent with the dogs and can still get into back roads unlike with a trailer. It can get cold in the winter so hotels are sometimes much nicer. Also I'm not sure on Kansas camping access in general but that can get annoying if you are paying for campsites anyways.
 
The problem with Kansas, sw Kansas is finding a place with a shower. I do a few trips where I’ll sleep under a soft topper. Usually just one night but I’ve done up to three. If you only have a 5.5 bed or a ram box I think you’ll have to do something on top or sleep on the ground to be any sort of comfortable. The other thing is you have to button everything down fairly well to keep from filling your bedroom full of dust when you are drive.
It’s kind of fun though in moderation
 
Before you buy a truck tent, I'd look at Coleman's Easy Up tents. I have camped in mine many, many times. And believe the box when it says set up and take down in 5 minutes. Once you figure out how it works, I can have it out of the bag, set up and staked out in 5 minutes. Throw a cot in there and you're set. Then you have your truck freed up to leave your camp set up and go hunt instead of taking it down every morning.
 
Alaskan swamp collies said:
Lots of variables there . When my wife and I were in our 20's we slept in an uninsulated topper on the back of a half ton pickup. We had one dog and good sleeping bags. 40 years later we pull a travel trailer and love to plug into electric at night, we also have 4 dogs. Motels are hit or miss. Some are great and some I would rather sleep on my dog's crate mat than their sheets. If you are by yourself with just a dog or 2 and don't mind eating breakfast at a convience store and can live without a shower for a few days than truck camping is fine.
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Thanks for the reply. I will only have two dogs but I am for sure not in my 20's anymore.
 
esetter said:
Ive done the camp / hunt thing a few times , never in Kansas but in Wyoming and Montana. Most of the decent sized towns have some sort of little city park or camp ground that you can use. The set up and tear down process will get old quickly. Id rather set up on the ground somewhere and hunt a particular area a couple of days in a row then move. We have always rented houses or motels in ks. Their state parks have great rental cabins that are clean and reas
Quailnerd said:
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I prefer hunting out of the truck personally, but I’ve spent some coin to make it fun and relaxing. Just go for it!
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Nice setup!
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Munster927 said:
Before you buy a truck tent, I'd look at Coleman's Easy Up tents. I have camped in mine many, many times. And believe the box when it says set up and take down in 5 minutes. Once you figure out how it works, I can have it out of the bag, set up and staked out in 5 minutes. Throw a cot in there and you're set. Then you have your truck freed up to leave your camp set up and go hunt instead of taking it down every morning.
Click to expand...
 
The pop-up tents do work pretty well. The only problem is leaving your camp unattended while you're hunting. If you are ok with that, that's the way to go. I did get ripped off once, but once out of hundreds of camping/hunting trips is not bad. If you want a quick, easy camp, get the tallest camper shell you can live with. It makes getting up a lot easier, but it will be tight. If you really enjoy camping, get a good tent, remember that a 6 man tent is about right for one guy, dogs, table, cot etc.. My profile picture is inside my buddies Cabela's, Alakanc with the wood burner. It makes for a very comfortable camp. There are also the truck tents that fit on the back of your truck. Also keep in mind camping and hunting is a lot of work. By the time you get back, get a fire going, take care of dogs, make supper, clean up camp, you will be ready for bed!! I still get a camp or two in every year during squirrel and turkey season but as far as out of state hunting trips, I'll take a ratty motel. It can't be any worse than my sleeping bag that hasn't been washed in years!
 
I was looking at a topper lift for a while. Kind of a cool setup and if you set it up right you could set up/take down camp in a few minutes and still be able to hunt out of it too.
 
I built a Chevy Express Cargo Van into a hunting vehicle. Bed inside to sleep two east to west, and the space beneath the double bed is where my son sleeps on the foam floor north to south. I have two dog crates for my labs inside secured to the floor, led lighting, and a Jackery for power. We use a rear hitch cargo rack for the cooler and water jugs. Beneath the bed is a built in gun closet, and the ammo get locked in a ammo box and stored away. Hoping I can do the 4X4 conversion on it next year. Nothing special but it does the job for two or three of us to hunt away weekends.

On the road we sleep at casinos, Walmart, Truck stops, Cabela's, Bass Pro............
 
Lots of good advice and again it depends on your needs. My wife is my hunting partner, but we can get by with a shower every three or 4 nights, many people can't. We leave our trailer and drive to spots in the day. We found one county fairground last fall that had a 100 spaces with water and elec., working warm showers for $20 a night and we were the only campers. I could have stayed there for weeks, never saw another soul except horse people on Sat night. The trailer seems to fit us best in that we can come back at night to a warm dry spot, clean birds and microwave supper. Also the trailer will handle wind better than a tent, was so windy one night it would set off the car alarm, but the trailer was fine, don't know how a tent would have done.
 
Today is motel if I know is a good one or my travel trailer. The TT way is an expensive way to go and to get your money worth it should be use for every other travel etc. In the past I use a "truck slide popup camper and the truck shell method. If you do your research either can be had for a reasonable price and establishes a more permanent type set up. If your hunting trip are to other states then this may pay-off in the long run. Don't over look renting a tent/truck set up if you are near a major city for just a trip or two. That goes for a small travel trailer as well.
As you go in SW Kansas etc, you may find that decent motels will be in short supply and often not close to where you want to hunt. That said I know many that do it. Finding suitable camp sites may vary but are available. Do your research here as well to plan your trip accordingly. Above all have fun and make it memorable. Good luck on your trip.
 

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I’ve done it out of a truck with a capper before( in Kansas) with a single bed on one side, 2 dog beds on the other side of the bed( my dogs religiously sleep on their beds at night). There are quite a few rv parks in Kansas - some have bath houses too. Research this before you leave- you should be able to find several( I try to remain as flexible as I can- moving when I need to). I have a storage box with an extension cord, very small electric heater, small microwave, small coffee maker that I use in rv spot with electricity. I also have a 6x 12 cargo trailer/ rv conversion that I hunt out of. It has heat and rv a/c unit. I’ve used this 2x last year in hot southern climate while quail hunting. Both times , I had my generator with me due to the fact that I was off the grid in a wma with no power or water. The coldest I ve done the bed capper was in the 20’s with the small heater set very low. I’ve sat out blizzard and ice storms in the cargo trailer, along with take a nap in 100 degree weather in it.
Because of the price of diesel, I may do the capper thing this September in ND while I hunt on the prairie.
 
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I’ve truck camped and tent camped, but the weather can fluctuate too much when you’re hundreds of miles from home. No fun going to the bathroom outside in the middle of the night in the rain and/ or in single digits.
We rented a couple RVs (try rvshare.com) and trailers to see what worked best for us before finding an 18’ toy hauler- makes a great basecamp. Easy to pack up and relocate and dog knows it as his home so can be left alone if we go into town for supplies, dinner, etc.
My second plan was to buy a cargo trailer and outfit that for camping (lots of YouTube videos on customizing utility trailers). Good luck.
 
TN. Check out the rvshare.com. Try something out. I have a custom pop-up. They are not good in rain or snow. I'm thinking of a small hard shell pull behind camper.
 
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