I have been camping for the better part of 15 years, and I still remember the night my old propane lantern sputtered out halfway through a fish dinner in Yosemite. Since then I have run roughly 30 nights of hands-on testing with eight of the top rechargeable camping lanterns on the market, logging everything from […]

Finding the best roof rack crossbars means the difference between a silent, stable highway drive and a whistling, vibrating nightmare that makes you want to pull over at every rest stop. I have spent the better part of three years testing crossbar systems on everything from Subaru Outbacks to Toyota 4Runners, hauling kayaks, cargo boxes, […]

I have spent the last three summer seasons testing kids rash guards on my own children and nephews across beaches, lakes, and pools. Finding the best rash guards for kids means sorting through dozens of shirts that claim UPF 50+ protection but fall apart after three washes or fit so poorly that kids refuse to […]

I've spent the last three years testing rappel devices on granite in Yosemite, sandstone in Utah, and wet canyon walls in the Pacific Northwest, and I can tell you the best rappel devices are the ones that match your rope, your terrain, and your hands. A rappel device (also called a descender) is a mechanical […]

I've been running the Grand Canyon every spring for the past 12 years, and I can tell you from hard experience: nothing ruins a multi-day rafting trip faster than a soaked camera, a waterlogged first-aid kit, or a floating sandwich. After watching gear get destroyed on the Class IV rapids of the Salmon River, I […]

I've spent the last decade rowing rafts down everything from calm Class I float trips to technical Class IV whitewater, and I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty: the oars you choose will either make your day on the river or break it. After our team spent 60 days testing 8 of the […]

I have spent the last decade rigging rafts on everything from calm tailwaters to Class IV rapids, and I can tell you one thing with absolute certainty. The raft frame is the single most important upgrade you will ever make to an inflatable raft. Without a solid frame, you are stuck strapping coolers to the […]

I've owned a 32-foot travel trailer for six years, and I've wrenched on, swapped, and stress-tested more RV backup cameras than I care to admit. The first time I tried to back into a Florida state park site without a camera, I clipped a picnic table. The first time I backed in with one, I […]

I've spent more than 80 nights under RV awnings across state parks, national forests, and private campgrounds over the last five years. The single upgrade that transformed every campsite I set up was a proper RV awning mat. It is the difference between tracking sand and grass into your rig at every trip and coming […]

When I first rigged my fishing kayak with electronics, I made the classic mistake of using cheap plastic mounts. After watching my phone plunge into brackish water during a chop day, I started searching for the best RAM Mounts for kayaks the same week. Over the past three seasons, our team has tested 14 different […]