When I head out overlanding, I typically use my Turtleback Expedition Trailer with a rooftop tent. However, there are occasions when I like to run and gun a bit, leave the trailer behind, and use a ground tent for shelter.
Over the last six months or so, I’ve been testing the Overlandish Base Camp V2 to see if it’s worth all the hype as an ideal shelter option for overlanding adventures of all types. You can catch my complete hands-on review in the video below.
As the video explains, I’ve put this tent through its paces in varying environments and conditions. Not to spoil the surprise ending, but this tent has been an absolute banger! Why? Well, let’s discuss!
Table of Contents
- Overlandish Base Camp V2 Specs & Features
- How to Set Up the Overlandish Base Camp V2
- >Overlandish Base Camp V2 Interior
- How Portable is the Overlandish Base Camp V2?
- My Experience with the Overlandish Base Camp V2
Overlandish Base Camp V2 Specs & Features
This is a big tent…
It measures 11’8″ from corner to corner when it’s open, and there’s 6’9″ of headroom in the middle of the tent when it’s set up. All told, there is 94 square feet of interior space, which can accommodate six adults sleeping on the floor.
The tent has two doors, both of which are big, so you can easily get in and out of the tent. Also helping in that department are the low thresholds so you don’t trip as you come in and out, and there’s Velcro on either side of the door so you can secure them out of the way. Both doors have bug mesh, so you can get fresh air without the bugs.
The Base Camp V2 tent has five small windows and one large window. Each window has three layers – an insulated interior layer, a bug mesh exterior layer, and a clear plastic layer in between (which is removable).
The tent floor has a super-reinforced laminated material that’s waterproof. The bottom of the tent is also sealed and reinforced to ensure the tent is protected from the elements while also offering enhanced protection from rocks and sticks that might puncture a lesser tent.
The tent has a three-layer proprietary PU5000 water-resistant exterior that’s insulated, making it a true all-season tent. The roof has three air vents to keep air flowing through the interior, all double-sealed (on the inside and out) to keep heat inside when cold-weather camping. Overlandish includes a rainfly for added protection.
All this comes in a bag for easy transport, though Overlandish offers a Tough Bag as an upgrade. The Tough Bag is a more rugged bag that protects the tent from the elements if you transport it on your roof rack.
You can also add the Weather Package, which includes a rainfly and a footprint.
How to Set Up the Overlandish Base Camp V2
As you can see in my video at the beginning of this article, setting up the Overlandish Base Camp V2 is a breeze…
My setup has the footprint, so it’s a matter of finding a nice, flat area for the footprint, laying it out, and throwing the tent on top. Honestly, the most time-consuming part of the setup is getting the footprint squared away!
As for the tent, you can see in the video it’s a matter of unpacking it, popping the walls out, and popping the roof up. Easy breezy!
Overlandish Base Camp V2 Interior
As I noted earlier, this tent is big. It’s nearly 12 feet across from corner to corner, which is way more room than I need. But, with all that space, I can have an area dedicated for my son and I to sleep, an area for setting up a table for getting some work done, and an area for bags, shoes, and other goodies – with room left to spare.
With two large doors, one big window, and five small windows, this tent gives you all the natural light and cross breeze you can handle. The natural light is especially nice in the fall and winter when the days are short and the weather can be gloomy. Meanwhile, having the ability to open the tent up and get fresh air inside is a Godsend when the temperature soars in the summer.
I also have to mention the height of the tent. The original Base Camp wasn’t tall enough for me to stand up straight (I’m 6 feet tall). But the V2 version has a ceiling height of 6’9″ to give me and my buddies plenty of room to stand up and walk around without worrying about bonking our heads on the roof. Nice!
Something else of note about the interior of this tent is that it does a great job of retaining heat. On colder trips, I can keep the tent toasty warm with my portable diesel heater from Planar. Conversely, I can keep the tent cooler in the warm months with my EcoFlow Wave 2 portable air conditioner.
Now, this tent isn’t so insulated that I can keep it 65 degrees inside when it’s -30 or 100 degrees outside. However, its thick walls and insulated windows make it much easier to keep the temperature at a livable point, as opposed to getting freezing cold or roasting hot.
I have to mention how quiet this tent is as well. As I discuss in the video at the beginning of this article, I took the Overlandish Base Camp V2 on a very windy trip to Arizona earlier this year, and while our rooftop tent was blowing around, the Base Camp was strong and steady against the wind.
I was amazed at how quiet the tent was despite the wind. It was hard to sleep at night with all the noise my rooftop tent was making as the wind roared, but when I was in the Overlandish tent, it was so much quieter. That speaks to the level of quality of this tent, both in terms of its ability to stand up to such strong winds and its ability to do so without making a ton of racket.
How Portable is the Overlandish Base Camp V2?
Despite being a big tent, Overlandish designed the Base Camp V2 to be highly portable. In fact, they had the overlanding community in mind when they designed the tent. It collapsed down into a small bag that can easily fit in a short-bed truck (or a really short bed like my Gladiator has).
As we all know, space is at a premium when you’re overlanding, so having a tent that packs down into a compact carrying case that’s less than five feet long is a nice bonus!
My Experience with the Overlandish Base Camp V2
At the end of the day, my experiences using the Overlandish Base Camp V2 have been nothing but good. In cold weather and warm, calm conditions and wind, sunny days and cloudy days, the tent has done its job and given me a comfortable place to sleep, eat, work, and hang out.
The quality of the construction of this tent is next-level good. The floor is ultra thick to protect against punctures, the walls are waterproof and insulated to help keep the interior temperature comfortable, and the tent has incredible ventilation with six windows, two doors, and multiple roof vents.
As I mentioned earlier, setting up the tent is a breeze (as is packing it down). It offers an incredible amount of space whether I’m solo camping, camping with my son, or with a group of friends. It makes a fantastic gathering spot when you’re with a group of folks who have their own smaller tents, too.
So, six months in, and all I can say is this – Overlandish has hit it way out of the park with the Base Camp V2!