Good day, I’m looking at some extra things you need for winter camping to bring on your next adventure.
These are just a handful of items that we take to make it much more enjoyable.
Where We Sleeping Tonight
When you find that nice spot that you want to take camp at, I think the biggest question should ask is wind going to be a problem. Wind in a tent especially if it is a 3 season tent isn’t much fun and can chill you right out.
I recommend a four season tent, The tent that I have use for hiking and all year around is a Nemo Kunai 2 person tent. I really like this tent for how light it is and durable it is. Has only one door at the entrance but I find it fit 2 people and our Australian Shepard perfect. This tent has protected us from wind, snow, and rain very well. There are lots of 4 season tents you can get your hands on.
We also have a 4 season roof top tent, an Ikamper mini. This is also classified as a 4 season tent that you are able to fully insulate for the cold winter month which is amazing.
Campers depending on the make and model can be used in the winter as well. We have a Forest River Nobo 10.6 that we use most of the time in the winter. This keeps us off the ground which is huge for heat loss, also provides us with more room and we can pump heat into the camper using a heater and retains the heat much better.
Sleepy Time
We have tested a few Sleeping bags and recommend the cold rating on your sleeping bag be rated for colder than you are actually going in. What we use in the winter when we don’t have heat hot core – 20 sleeping bags. We don’t go much colder than -15 cause then it doesn’t feel as enjoyable in that kind of cold.
Sleeping mats are a game changers for keeping you warm. It greats that void from the ground and you so you can keep your body heat in the sleeping bag much better. Some mats are able to go inside your sleeping bag which I find to be super nice and keep you toasty.
Pillow for you night sleep are great ideas cause you lose a lot of heat through your head cause it is not as protected as your body. We us Klymit camping pillow that we find to be great.
One more thing don’t sip your face into your sleeping bag, reasoning for this is that your breath will create condensation in your bag and could have the possibility to freeze.
Let There Be Fire
Having all the things to make a fire. We just recently started using electric chainsaws and there are a game changers for bucking up some tree fall. I have used both Makita 16″ and Milwaukee 16″ saw and found both are fantastic for a weekend get away. All depends on your stay if you’ll need to charge the batteries but what I found was for a 2-day weekend it worked perfect.
A good axe will save you a lot of energy when it comes to splitting wood. Make sure it is sharpened and good to go. The two that I take with me on every trip is a Fistars axe and a Dewalt log splitter axe. They both make it super easy to split wood.
Having some fire stater will save you the stress of or trying to light just paper. I like to bring water proof fire starter sticks every where I go.
Heat Sources
We Used to us the buddy heater to heat up our trailer on some occasions but I don’t like the risk of them and the condensation build up you get in your camper from them. They are very good and work great but I don’t like having them running when I’m not awake in my opinion. We just recently switched to a Chinese diesel heater and that has been so much better. It provides us with some dry heat and it runs outside and there is no need to worry about it burning anything.
Camp Spot
When you go you should pack a shovel of some sort to clear away your camp spot. We have also used traction boards for clearing snow away and they work great as well. I hope this info has helped you in preparing for your next camping trip this winter.
Thank you
OTN Overland.