Bear safety in RTT's and soft sided campers/tents

[upcruiser]

http://www.electrobearguard.com/Product.html

Wow, that is a super cool product, thanks for sharing.

[Corey]

No grizzly bears where I go, but where I do camp it is black bear country, and I have seen them there in the past.
Never been bothered by them, and I hope never in the future.
The biggest pistol I have is a Glock 21SF (45 ACP), so I am not sure if that is even enough to deter one if it started messing with my rig while I slept in the roof top tent.

As far as hard sided 5th wheels and travel trailers in grizzly country, I hear they can peel those open pretty easily.

[Lemsteraak]

Kristian,

Did some research years ago on how big African cats deal with RTTs and tents in general. I found out that a fabric wall can be effective with cats because they see it like a brick wall. As long as they don't see you or a way in, you are safe. Bears on the other hand think different. I helped a photographer set up for an extended trip in Denali, he had a backcountry permit. The rangers asked him to put his RTT on the top of his truck rather than his trailer to deter bears. He was was pretty familiar with bears, especially polar bears. The young males he was telling me could be very aggressive. He would spend the night awake with a shotgun watching for them and wouldn't let them get close. The sound and the fury of the gun would scare them.

We had a client many years ago who was very afraid of bears. The solution we came up with was noise and light. We mounted driving lights on the front and rear of the RTT and set up a wireless controller. If you hit button "A" it would turn on the front driving lights, button "B" would light the perimeters, "C" would set off all vehicle lights and "D" was panic where everything including the horns would go off. I have no idea how well it worked but it did give him some peace of mind.

One thought we had for the Maggiolina was to make a hard wall accessory. We would make fiberglass panels similar to those funky old plastic expandable camping cups, where the panels nest and you could raise them. The weight was the main concern. The Maggiolina at the time used a different heavier fiberglass and with the added panels would add a lot more weight. The thought was that driving around with the heavy tent would be more dangerous that the bears it would deter. It might be possible with the lighter carbon fiber and glass they use on the new ones.

[lostwolfak]

Listening to wolves around your vehicle would have been quite an experience!

While living in Alaska for many years, I camped in tents, my truck as well as hard-side campers while enjoying fishing, 4 wheeling, hunting and hiking through some amazing areas. Several times there were fresh signs of bear activity in the woods and even a few sightings within campgrounds, but there were never any real concerns of attacks as long as precautions were taken with food items in your campsite and the trash was secured properly. I always had at least one handgun on my person and a shotgun within reach along with large cans of bear spray, but never had to utilize them. I have known some folks to spray the perimeter of their campsites with the bear spray as a deterent, though. Many hikers use "bear bells" to jingle as they walk, but I never bought into that as a real precaution.

Just my thoughts on the camping experiences I had in Alaska.

Have a great trip!

Jeff

[craig333]

None and none. Unless theres bear boxes provided then I'll use them.

[Fireman78]

Just thinking about the fact that bears have a sence of smell that is approximatly 5,029,283,828,347,842,748,348,632,842,394 times better then a humans, I think pepper spray is a good idea ! I was woken up from a dead sleep in my RTT by an elk once literally breathing on the tent. Scared the &*% out of me.

[TemboTusk]

"Many hikers use "bear bells" to jingle as they walk, but I never bought into that as a real precaution."

.




That would explain all the tiny bells in the bear poop!

[DcNexus]

while reading through all the posts I imagined myself lying in my RTT and
awakening by bears surrounding the camp....
Comforting idea not beeing able to see the bear but using my big bottle of bear spray....
could as well jump out and scare the bear off myself - probably hurts the same way
same with using a shotgun in the tent....or am i just beeing sceptical?????


not that I would not have a big bottle of bear repellent/knife in the RTT (unfort. no guns in Europe ;()

[austintaco]

Kristian,

Did some research years ago on how big African cats deal with RTTs and tents in general. I found out that a fabric wall can be effective with cats because they see it like a brick wall. As long as they don't see you or a way in, you are safe. Bears on the other hand think different. I helped a photographer set up for an extended trip in Denali, he had a backcountry permit. The rangers asked him to put his RTT on the top of his truck rather than his trailer to deter bears. He was was pretty familiar with bears, especially polar bears. The young males he was telling me could be very aggressive. He would spend the night awake with a shotgun watching for them and wouldn't let them get close. The sound and the fury of the gun would scare them.

We had a client many years ago who was very afraid of bears. The solution we came up with was noise and light. We mounted driving lights on the front and rear of the RTT and set up a wireless controller. If you hit button "A" it would turn on the front driving lights, button "B" would light the perimeters, "C" would set off all vehicle lights and "D" was panic where everything including the horns would go off. I have no idea how well it worked but it did give him some peace of mind.

One thought we had for the Maggiolina was to make a hard wall accessory. We would make fiberglass panels similar to those funky old plastic expandable camping cups, where the panels nest and you could raise them. The weight was the main concern. The Maggiolina at the time used a different heavier fiberglass and with the added panels would add a lot more weight. The thought was that driving around with the heavy tent would be more dangerous that the bears it would deter. It might be possible with the lighter carbon fiber and glass they use on the new ones.

Wouldn't this be similar to setting off the panic feature on most car alarms? Does noise and light scare off some bears? I am curious to hear some more first hand stories.

[Ala5ka]

I use a SW500 in Ak while I'm fishing. I'd assume it'd work in a RTT as well, or Jurassic Park if need be