Kamp-Rite Cots and Tent Cots

What Kamp-Rite makes for hunters and campers

Kamp-Rite's own site sorts its gear into six groups: tents and shelters, camp furniture, camp kitchen, sleep gear, disaster relief cots, and accessories with replacement parts. On this site, the grid covers two of those: cots and camp chairs.

Inside the cot group there are four kinds:

• Single tent cots: a cot with a fitted tent over the bed
• Double tent cots: the same idea, wide enough for two
• Plain single cots: the Kwik-Cot and EZ Fold, no tent
• Plain double cots: the Double Kwik-Cot

The chairs are a padded club chair, the Kozy Klub, and a two-seat folding chair. The grid changes as listings come and go, so I'll write about the kinds and what separates them, not about what's listed this week.

Kamp-Rite also sells tables, sleeping bags, self-inflating pads and mattresses, and coolers on its own site. This site's grid doesn't list Kamp-Rite tables or coolers, and this site doesn't cover sleeping bags or pads. The cooler page and the camping table page cover those types with other brands.

How to read a Kamp-Rite cot listing

Most of the cot specs in the grid came from Amazon listings, and those listings are short on numbers. So for sizes, weights and capacities I went to the maker's own product pages, and the figures below are theirs.

Two habits help:

• Find the model code. Kamp-Rite uses letters and numbers like FC711 or TB343. The maker's site lists the same codes as SKUs, and that's how you match a listing to a spec sheet.
• Read "Tent Cot" with care. It's in the company name, so it lands in titles of cots that have no tent at all. The Kwik-Cot FC711 and EZ Fold FC811 listings both say "Tent Cot". On the maker's site, both are plain cots.

The maker's own pages aren't perfect either. Several list one weight under specifications and a slightly higher one under additional information. I give the range when that happens. The higher number is probably the one with packaging, but the pages don't say, so I won't either.

Kamp-Rite cot lineup: tent cots

What a tent cot is

A tent cot puts you on a cot frame and wraps a small tent around the bed. Kamp-Rite's About page calls its Original Tent Cot a fully enclosed, off-the-ground sleeping shelter. You get the cot's distance from cold, wet ground, and the tent's walls, mesh and zippers against bugs and weather.

The trade is plain and simple: more frame, more fabric, more weight, and a smaller sleeping space than a regular tent gives you to move around in. You sleep in it. You don't change clothes, stack gear or play cards in it. The tent cot page compares tent cots across brands.

The Anniversary Series tent cot

The Anniversary Series is the maker's 25th-year version of its Original Tent Cot. Per its page, the specs are:

• Setup size: 84 in long, 28 in wide, 35 in high
• Bed height: 11 in off the ground
• Tent height above the bed: 24 in
• Weight: 24 to 30 lb, depending on which line of the page you read
• Capacity: 300 lb
• Fabric and frame: 190T polyester body, no-see-um mesh on windows and doors, powder-coated metal frame

The maker says the tent top attaches with Velcro and the tension straps close with buckles, where the original used C-clamps. It also calls the design free-standing, so you can move it around camp without taking it down. The page doesn't mention a rain fly for this model, and Kamp-Rite sells rain flys separately. Factor that in if the cot will sleep under open sky.

Twenty-four inches over the bed is about the height of a kitchen chair seat. You'll sit up on your elbows, not on your backside.

The Double Tent Cot

For two sleepers, the grid has a double tent cot listed with a rain fly. Its listing doesn't give a model code. The maker's own Double Tent Cot is the TB343, and its page lists:

• Setup size: 84 in long, 53 in wide, 51 in high, with 40 in of tent height
• Bed height: 11 in, on an aluminum frame
• Weight: 51 to 56 lb
• Capacity: 500 lb total
• Included: a fitted rain fly and a 600D carry bag

A center support bar divides the frame into two sleeping areas, per the maker. So it's two beds under one roof, not one wide mattress. The maker says one person can set it up alone. At over 50 lb, one person will also be the one carrying it from the truck, so pick your parking spot like you mean it.

Tri-Fold and Collapsible series

Kamp-Rite sorts its tent cots into two series on its site. The Tri-Fold Series holds the Original, Double, Oversize, Anniversary and Kid's models. The Collapsible Series holds the Compact Tent Cot (CTC) models. The site doesn't explain the names.

What the CTC Standard page does explain is useful. The tent top joins the cot base, and spreader bars at each end keep the top stretched out. Detached, the top becomes a one-person ground tent and the base becomes a standard cot. The maker lists 300 lb capacity and a fitted rain fly for that model. The CTC isn't in the grid right now, but if you see one listed, that's the model with two lives.

Kamp-Rite cot lineup: plain cots

The Standard Kwik-Cot (FC711)

The Kwik-Cot is a plain single cot. The maker's page lists:

• Setup size: 79 in long, 29 in wide, 19 in high
• Folded: 39 by 8 by 7 in
• Weight: 19 to 20 lb
• Capacity: 300 lb
• Extras: a mesh storage hammock under the cot, a padded head section, 600D fabric and a carry bag

The page calls the frame aluminum in one place and powder-coated steel in another. I can't settle that from here, so I won't.

The EZ Fold Cot (FC811)

The EZ Fold shares the Kwik-Cot's setup size, 79 by 29 by 19 in. The maker says it sets up in one motion without an extra pair of hands, and folds just as easily. Its page lists 25 to 26 lb and a capacity of 250 lb for one person, and it comes with a 600D carry bag.

So against the Kwik-Cot, the EZ Fold weighs more and carries less, by the maker's numbers. What you get for that is the one-motion setup. If your hands are full of cold, that may be the whole decision.

The Double Kwik-Cot (FC321)

The Double Kwik-Cot is a two-person cot without a tent. Per its maker page:

• Setup size: 85 in long, 55 in wide, 19 in high
• Folded: 42 by 11 by 11 in
• Weight: 33 to 37 lb
• Capacity: 500 lb total
• Extras: a mesh storage hammock underneath, a padded head section and a 600D carry bag

A double cot is a wide bed. It wants a wide tent floor, a wall tent or a cabin room to go with it. The camping cot page covers cot widths and heights across brands.

Kamp-Rite camp chairs

The Kozy Klub

The Kozy Klub CC420 is a padded club chair. Its listing describes a steel frame and a folding quad design, meaning four legs that fold together into a bundle. The maker's site carries a related version, the Kozy Klub with a detachable footrest, and describes it as having extra cushioning, a deep seat and padded armrests, at 18 lb. That's a different model from the CC420, so take it as a family resemblance, not a spec. The camping chair page compares chair styles.

The Double Folding Chair

The two-seat chair is what it sounds like: a loveseat that folds. The maker's page for its Double Folding Chair, the CC352, lists a powder-coated steel frame, a cup holder in each arm, a carry bag and a capacity of 250 lb per seat. It sets up 42 in long and 17 in high, and folds to 40 by 7 by 9 in.

One caution worth repeating: 250 lb per seat means per seat. Two people can't pool their numbers and give one side the extra. If you want more room per person, the heavy-duty camping chair page is the place to look.

How to choose within the Kamp-Rite lineup

Start with where you'll sleep

That's the question that sorts the whole lineup. Here's my one opinion on this page: if you sleep under a roof, a cabin or a wall tent, buy a plain cot and skip the tent cot. The maker's numbers show why. The plain Kwik-Cot lists 19 to 20 lb. The single tent cot lists 24 to 30 lb, and the double tent cot over 50 lb. Inside a building, the tent part is weight and fabric doing a job the roof already does.

Hemlock Run's cabin has a roof, most years. (The east corner is negotiable in a hard rain.)

Where there's no roof at all, the tent cot earns its keep. Off the ground, out of the bugs, with one structure to set up instead of two.

Then count sleepers

One sleeper or two decides single or double. The doubles in this lineup list 500 lb total. If two adults plus two winter sleeping bags push that, buy two singles. Two singles also mean nobody feels the other one roll over at 3 a.m.

Then check capacity and height

Cot capacities in the lineup run from 250 lb up to 300 lb for the singles, per the maker. Bed height runs from 11 in on the tent cots to 19 in on the plain cots. A higher cot is easier to sit on and get up from. A lower one fits under a lower tent roof. Neither is better. It depends on your knees and your tent.

Then think about the carry

A folded tent cot is a long, flat bundle. The maker lists the Anniversary Series at 35 by 31 by 6 in folded, and the Double Tent Cot at 56 by 34 by 8 in. Measure the truck bed or the trunk before you buy, not when you're loading for opening day.

Setup and care notes

The maker's pages don't give written setup steps; they point to a video library on the Kamp-Rite site. Watch the one for your model once, at home, with the cot in front of you.

A few things the maker's pages do say, and a few that come from plain shop sense:

• Check every hinge and pin before the first trip. A missing piece is a phone call at home and a bad night at camp.
• Dry the tent body before storage. The fabric is polyester or nylon, but the bag it goes into doesn't breathe.
• Store the rain fly with the cot. The rain fly and carry bag have their own part codes on the maker's site, and losing one means ordering by number.
• Keep the receipt with the bag. The warranty needs the original invoice with the purchase date.

Kamp-Rite facts

Here's what the maker's own site states:

• Founded: 1999, as Kamp-Rite Tent Cot, Inc.
• Founder: Bill Ferrari, listed as president and founder
• First product: the Original Tent Cot, a fully enclosed, off-the-ground sleeping shelter
• Warranty: one year against manufacturing defects, with the original invoice

The site doesn't say where the cots are made, so that's left out.

Pick the cot for the roof you've got, or don't have. Everything else on the spec sheet comes second.