When you are planning your next camping trip there are some things to take into consideration about your gear. If this is your first trip then getting all of the necessary gear can be daunting or confusing. You may not own any gear and since it is your first trip you will need to obtain quite a few items to be safe and successful.  While your first impulse may be to head to the sporting goods store, know that you have another option?  You do.  In addition to buying your own camping gear, you may also be able to rent it. So should you buy or rent your camping gear?

When determining whether you should buy or rent your camping gear, you may have a difficult time deciding what to do. It all depends on your needs.  If you are wondering what you should do, you will want to continue reading.  Below, we share the pros and cons of both buying your own camping gear and renting your camping gear.

Buying Pros and Cons

Let’s start by looking at the top three cons first and get the bad news out of the way.

Cons

When buying your own camping gear, you will find that the biggest con or downside to doing so is the cost.  Depending on what you need to buy, it can get pretty expensive to purchase your own camping gear.  With that in mind, there are a number of camping gear equipment pieces, like tents or sleeping bags, that can be purchased for affordable prices.  If you are looking to camp on a budget, you can still buy your own camping gear, but you just need to know where to look.

Check out our top three tents for families.

The next thing that you have to consider is where you are going to store all of the gear that you purchase. Not all of us who need to or love to get into the outdoors have copius amounts of space to store things. So after you buy all of that wonderful equipment you need a place to store it. This could come at an extra cost if you need to rent a storage locker. Even smaller lightweight backpacking equipment takes up some space. Some small apartments may not be able to accomodate the storage need.

Finally, the gear you buy may end up sitting with lots and lots of downtime if it is weeks or even months between your outdoor excursions. This means that the items may degrade if they are not stored properly or start to detriorate and not perform the way they were intended. All of that will lead to more costs as you continue to replace the products.

Pros

Although there are a number of downsides, like the price, to buying your own camping gear, you will also find that there are a number of pros or plus sides to doing so as well.

One of those plus sides is the fact that you will own the camping gear in question. This means that you can use it as little or as often as you would like.  If you are planning to take a number of camping trips in the future, you will find that it is easier to just grab your gear and go where you want to go.

Additionally it is cheaper in the long run, to buy your own camping gear. This is because you are not paying a premium for someone else to purchase, store, and manage the rentals of the gear. Also you will get more use out of each item because you can ensure that it is being properly cared for as opposed to rental equipment which could be damaged by those who don’t know how to use it.

It is also important to mention the freedom that you have when buying your own camping gear. When buying your own camping gear, you can buy basically whatever you want. For instance, if you would like a camping tent that is the color black, you are free to do so.  You have the ability to be picky if you want to be and buy top of the line or starter gear.  With a large selection of camping gear pieces to choose from, from a number of different retailers, the decision as to what you want to buy is yours to make.

Renting Pros and Cons

If you are unable to buy your own camping gear or if you would prefer not you, your other option is to rent your camping gear.  When it comes to renting camping gear, you will also find a number of pros and cons.

Cons

Let’s start with the cons again for renting.

The first con of renting your camping gear is that you may find that you are faced with a limited selection of camping gear pieces to choose from.  Many camping gear rental stations only carry basic items, like tents, hot plates, and coolers.  While you may have some choices, you will mostly find that your selection is limited. Besides limited selection they may have all of their equipment rented out leaving you unable to go when you want. This can be significantly detrimental when planning your trip. If you aren’t prepared you are going to have a bad time!

The next issue that you may face is higher prices during certain periods of the year. You will find that with some rental companies they increase prices during peak times of the year because they know people will be seeking to get outside in the warmer months. If you need to be budget conscious then this may end up pricing you out of the trip you want. worse yet it could forse you to postpone your trip.

With these first two cons we primarily focused on the rental of the items themselves. However, for our third con it is user based. The fact is that people who rent things generally do not treat those items with the same respect as if they owned them. You cannot be sure that someone hasn’t damaged the item to a point where it is usable but maybe not safe. This is concerning when dealing with things like camp stoves that use propane. While many rental companies do safety checks between uses there is some risk associated. You definitely don’t want to be in a rented tent with a pinhole leak during a rain storm!

Pros

The pros of renting are essentially the opposite of the cons for buying, as you may have guessed.

If you are only planning a single camping trip or just trying it out then you will find that the cost is much more affordable. Instead of laying out a huge amount of capital up front for something you may not like rentaing can be affordable. You can get beginner type items to test and see if you truely like they way they perform. Even better you can determine if camping is something you want to do longer term.

With rented gear you will not need to find space to store the items in your apartment or home. In fact you will return the gear at the end of your trip and never have to think about it’s storage or maintenance again. It does provide some piece of mind to have someone else handle that for you.

You will also find that camping gear can typically be rented for as little as one day or as long as a couple of weeks. Renting your camping gear is nice if this is your first time going camping and if you are unsure as to whether or not you would be interested in doing so again. Having the ability to rent for only a couple nights and then return it would allow for you to give camping a go without the investment necessary.

So Should you Buy or Rent Camping Gear

	Buy	Rent
	High Initial Cost	Low Initial Cost
	Requires Storage Space	No Storage
	High Non-Use Time	One or more day rentals
	Meets User Needs	May not meet needs
	On Demand Use	Limited Availability
	Low long term cost	Higher Repeated Rental Costs
Recommended For:	Experienced or Frequent Campers	Just Starting or Those with Limited Space

As you can see, there are a number of pros and cons to both buying your own camping gear and renting it.  It really depends on the person, their financial ability to purchase, and the space that they have. If you have the money and space to store your camping gear then buying is the best option. This is because you can easily pick up your gear and go whenever you want. It is your gear and you know it will be taken care of correctly, and in the long run it is cheaper. However, if this is your first time going camping or you have limited space and time then renting would be the best fit for you.

Tell us in the comments your camping gear rental experiences!