I will be tent camping in a 2 room tent with my nephew during the second week of June at John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park, Key Largo, Florida. It will be hot and humid. I am 60 and he is 35. Since we are on a budget, we were going to try to bear it with fans since our tent site has 50 amp electrical provided. A friend of mine is letting us use his his 9,000 BTU Royal Sovereign a/c unit that stands alone on four caster wheels that will be inside our tent, not mounted like a window unit. It has a small hose that goes to the outside to remove the condensation. It removes about 1.5 pints of water vapor per hour. These units run from $350 and higher depending on the BTUs. Some campgrounds in the Keys prohibit window A/C units attached to tents. This will be heaven sleeping in an air conditioned tent. Instead of sweating all nite we will be comfortable. I would like to know your comments. When I was in my earlier years I would not have even considered it, but when you get my age comfort is a blessing. Besides I did my backpacking on the Appalachian trail and in the Rockies years ago. I only like car camping now. I did I mention I will be towing my boat down there for us to snorkel and fish? Eat your heart out. I will only be paying $2 per gal for gas since my nephew is splitting all fuel costs with me otherwise I would not able to afford the gas for this 1200 mile roundtrip. Don't complain about gas-do a splitter!
Go for it, no way I would go to the keys in the summer without A/C, especially at JPK. The Other State Parks down there get more breeze into the CG's than this one.
05 Super Duty XLT CC 5.4/3.73 5 sp auto Torqshift
06 Keystone Hornet 29 RLS/(The"Cracker Cabana")
Reese HP Dual Cam
As long as the campground has no restrictions, why not go for it? A little luxury, even when tent camping is A-OK in my book.
We left the campground today and on my way to the dump station, I passed a site that had tent campers. They had 3 tents on the site. 2 tents were for bedroom space, the third tent, in the middle between them, had a big screen TV with all kinds of gadgets under it, like DVD players or video game consoles. And to beat it all, there in the middle of the camp was their Direct TV satellite dish! It sure blew me away at their set up.
So yes, go for it! Make yourself as comfortable as you can! Why not! Camp in style!
DutchmenSport
2005 Chevy Silverado 3500 Dually Duramax 6.6L V8 Turbo
Century Truck Cap Commercial /Toolboxes
Northeast Outfitters Canoe
I'm all for it. I am not of those holier-than-thou "you can't bring that camping" types who categorizes what is a "necessity" and what is a "luxury". I don't think that camping means you have to give up the technological advances of our society. Camping is about relaxation, and how you relax is up to you. Not someone else's idea of how you're supposed to camp.
I just got back from pitching my new Alps Mountaineering Taurus 2 tent in the mountains. (It worked well, btw; very happy with it) I took my portable DVD player, my iPod and a book. I watched two movies, read a couple hundred pages and spent hours listening to my favorite podcasts. I also managed to get in a little hiking and off-roading.
Bottom line, whatever YOU want to bring camping is up to you. You don't need to justify "comfort" to anyone. If portable A/C's were as available years ago when we bought our first RV, we might not have been so quick to spend THOUSANDS on a RV when a few hundred would have made tenting a lot more comfortable.
I'm very curious as to how well the portable A/C works. Give us a write-up when you get back. And have a great trip. I'm jealous!
68 Me & DW
93 DD
03 DD
06 F150 Screw 6.5' Bed, 4x4, 5.4, 3.73
04 Tahoe 23RB-GL Honda EU2000 Parallel Cables "I hope you like Guinness, Sir. I find it a refreshing substitute for...food." Col. Jack O'Neill, Stargate SG-1.
We had a portable A/C that we used in our tent trailer with great results. I just plumbed the hoses thru a compartment to a vent on the exterior. You'll note I said "hoses"! The portable AC's that work best are the two hose type. If you like your borrowed one, and decide to buy, read this! It can be used at home too! We have a Samsung, with a 3 year in home warranty. I use it in our 5er as a supplemental AC in very hot weather.
If it's 98 degrees outside and 90 degrees inside, any portable a/c unit will have a much tougher time cooling the room than a window unit of similar cooling capacity. As the unit exhausts air from the room, it is creating a partial vacuum in the room which will draw in hot air from adjacent room and through any cracks that could let in hot air from outdoors. Especially true in a tent!
However, this is where the 2 hose systems shines above all other portable a/c units I've seen: These inherent disadvantages of portable units are far less of a hindrance to a 2 hose model than other portables. Apparently this unit has been designed so that the loss of cooled room air is minimized, and it still does a very credible job of keeping a room cool, even in very hot weather.
Last summer I primarily used this type air conditioner in my bedroom area (a little over 300 square feet) and it was able to hold a room temperature no higher than 75 degrees even on days when the humidity was very high and the outside temperature was in the hi 90s! Good luck!
that was the worst part of tent camping years ago when it was really hot ,damp and humid out without AC but they didn't have them back then, go and enjoy it and turn the AC on,we would set up several tents in a circle with one for gear and have a rain fly set up over the picnic table to keep off sun and rain worked out good that way for eating and cooking,had a 20 lb propane tank with a pole lamp on it and the stove could be hooked to the pole for cooking.
1985 Class A Holiday Rambler Imperial 33 +1979 Class C Holiday Rambler Statesman 1000 = 24 ft
Go for it! Why suffer when you can have A/C? Our friends son's did the same thing a few years ago. It was a standard window unit though. They set it on a table outside one of the windows and fixed up a wooden shroud to direct the air into the tent. I thought it was pretty creative.
Last year I saw a tent will a window unit sitting on a couple of blocks at a tent. I looked as though they had made an opening in the side for it to work through. They had it duck taped.
We'll be staying further south at Sunshine Key RV Resort the 3rd week of June, part of a 15-day motorhome/tent family trip from Ft Myers/St. Augustine/Daytona/Canaveral/Keys/Tampa. The rig's an '08 Tiffin Allegro with 3-tipouts and dual AC. At night, I prefer to sleep in my Sierra Designs Base Camp tent with a fan, next to the awning by the flat-screen tv. I guess being raised in the Jersey swamps makes the Florida humidity a curiosity rather than an obstacle, but that's just me. When you see my flag, stop by for a cold drink. Stay for a bowl of Sid & Roxie's Turtle Soup, and we'll split the bill for a sack of oysters!
Not sure what the rule is there or if they even enforce it but you won't be the only one doing that, we always see lots of those setups, they use the AC hose that looks like dryer hose and they make a funnel shape box out of foam board and silver tape and attach the hose to that.
Offline
Online
