Surviving a severe wind , rain storm tips

[Ghillie_Ohio]

Any tips on camping in S.Dak during a high wind and strong lighting storm . Safe to sleep in a RTT tent or better on the ground (tent design for extreme winds ,etc ) ? How would you park your truck to with stand this type of storm ? If you use a ground tent how would you place your tent . near the truck or somewhere else . I know of campers who had to stay in garage to survive a overnight storm . Their tents were destroyed .

[BIGdaddy]

We camped several times in Glacier national park in our maggiolina tent in 30-40mph gusting winds and rain every night. We slept like babies. Then again, those tents are VERY ruggedly built.

I'd say any well built "taffeta/poly cotton fabric-over-a-frame" style RTT would likely flap quite a bit, but would fare very well in a storm, since it'd anchored to a vehicle. What direction a car is faced isn't as important IMO as WHERE it's parked. If you can park in the shadow of a large boulder, or amongst a sturdy stand of tree's, it's been my experience that the effect of the wind and rain is much lessened.

Ground tent? It's all about profile, pole quality and staking.

A nice low-pro REI or mountain hardware tent properly staked with a good rain fly is likely going to be just fine.

Pretty sure they used springbar canvas tents up on everest, so it would seem that those are on the sturdier side, too.

[Hill, Bill E.]

If using an RTT, try and set up with the ladder 'down wind'. I have had wind gusts fold up my tent, allowing it to get wet inside from the rain. (not a problem while in the tent, can also be anchored down with a strap)

I've had no problems other than that, and have camped in high winds, heavy rains and thunderstorms.

Then again, most of it has been in areas that aren't quite as wide open as SD can be. The forests are a bit thicker up here.

[crazyeyez]

i've always heard to park into the wind. that was the wind isnt blowing on the truck crossways. that way the truck isnt acting as a sail.

[LaOutbackTrail]

We just replaced our coleman sundome tent with a Kelty Grand Mesa 6... because the coleman would collapse on us. Hoping the Kelty proves to be a better tent. We couldn't afford the Oztent that we really wanted (and still travel).

[brianwj]

I was camping on the beach in Maryland and a storm came trough just before dinner and destroyed many ground tents. One of the boxy Coleman family tents next to us literally folded over with a big gust of wind. Our dome tent survived but just barely and I had sand anchors instead of regular tent stakes. I think you just need to make it so the smallest side of your tent is facing the wind and use good anchors and tie outs. I have to say though after that trip I'm not a big on camping in open spaces anymore give me the woods.