Camping cots you can sleep on for years

What to buy first

If you camp out of a car and want one cot for years, start with a base-camp cot rated well above your weight, with a 600D-or-heavier sleeping surface, a warranty in writing, and a maker that sells the bed fabric on its own. On our scoring, the TETON Sports Outfitter XXL checks every box. TETON rates it to 600 lb on an 80 x 35.5-inch bed of 600D canvas, backs it with a limited lifetime warranty, and lists the canvas top, legs, end bars and feet as spare parts. It weighs 26 lb, so it belongs at the campsite, not on the trail. The full ranking, with the lighter and budget alternatives, is on our best camping cots page.

A cot is only half a bed, though. It keeps you off rocks and wet ground, but it's fabric under tension, not a mattress. Plan on a pad from the start.

How the category divides

Base-camp cots are the steel- and aluminum-framed cots most people picture. The singles we list weigh from 19.85 lb (Coleman Pack-Away) to 36 lb (Disc-O-Bed 2XL) and sit anywhere from 11 inches (Disc-O-Bed XL) to 22.5 inches (ALPS Escalade X-Large) off the ground. Height is comfort you can measure: a higher deck is easier to sit on and stand up from, which is why our camping cots for bad backs weigh deck height and a published no-center-bar design so heavily.

Lightweight low cots trade height, width and capacity for weight. Helinox's Cot One Convertible weighs 4 lb 9.5 oz and ALPS's Ready Lite 5 lb, and both pack to 21 inches long or less. The catch: they sit 6.5 and 6 inches off the ground and are rated to 320 and 300 lb. Helinox sells leg extensions that raise its cots to 15 inches. If you're torn between Helinox's short and long models, Helinox Cot One vs Cot Max shows what the extra 8 inches of length costs in weight and packed size.

Heavy-duty cots are the ones rated to 500 lb or more: the TETON Outfitter XXL and Disc-O-Bed 2XL at 600 lb, the Disc-O-Bed XL and REDCAMP Oversized at 500 lb. Our heavy-duty camping cot picks rank them on what backs that number up. Long cots matter once you're past six feet. ALPS lists the Escalade X-Large at 90 inches, the longest cot we cover, and the best cots for tall sleepers rank everything 80 inches and up.

Two-sleeper setups come in two shapes. Disc-O-Bed's bunk kits are two separate cots that stack or stand side by side. Kamp-Rite's Double Kwik-Cot and Coleman's Airbed Cot - Queen are single double-width beds. Our camping cots for two explain why that difference changes how you read the weight rating.

What actually decides durability

Four things, in this order. Rated capacity comes first, and it's always the maker's number. Buy headroom above your weight instead of sleeping at the limit, and read our camping cot weight capacity guide for what the rating does and doesn't tell you. The sleeping fabric comes second, because it's the part that tears. The base-camp cots here publish 600D (TETON, ALPS Escalade, REDCAMP, Kamp-Rite) or 1200D (Disc-O-Bed). The lightweight Helinox cots publish 300D and the ALPS Ready Lite 420D. Coleman publishes no denier for any of its four cots here.

The warranty in writing is third. Terms run from limited lifetime (TETON, ALPS) through 5 years (Disc-O-Bed, Helinox) down to 1 year (Coleman, Kamp-Rite). REDCAMP publishes no warranty term at all, only a 30-day return policy. Replacement parts are fourth. Our rubric treats the sleeping fabric as a cot's main wear part, so the real question is whether you can buy a new bed for the frame you already own. TETON, Disc-O-Bed, Helinox and ALPS (for the Ready Lite) sell one. Coleman's Consumer Care says its cot canvas isn't sold separately. Cot replacement parts, brand by brand lists what each maker actually sells and how to order it.

The mistakes buyers make

The first is buying on the capacity number alone. REDCAMP rates its Oversized cot to 500 lb but publishes no warranty and lists no spare parts. ALPS rates the Ready Lite to only 300 lb, but gives it a lifetime warranty and sells its bed fabric. On our rubric the Ready Lite scores 7.2 and the REDCAMP 4.4, because when the fabric finally goes, only one of those makers sells you the fix.

The second is measuring the sleeper and forgetting the tent. Disc-O-Bed lists the 2XL's outer length as 87.5 inches, and the Escalade X-Large is 90 inches on its own, so check your tent floor before you order a long cot. The third is expecting the cot to keep you warm. On a cool night you need insulation under you, not just a heavier sleeping bag on top. How to stay warm on a cot covers the layering, and our best cot pads rank the pads made to go on top of one.

How to use this section

Not sure you want a cot at all? Cot vs air mattress and cot vs sleeping pad compare the options on durability, warmth, packed size and setup. Already sure? Open the roundup that matches your problem (weight, height, a partner or a sore back), read the “skip it if” line on every pick, then check the parts guide for your brand.

Every score in this section comes from published specs, written warranties and listed parts, scored with the bands on our Built-to-Last methodology page, and every figure links to the page it came from. Products we claim to have tested: 0.