ABORON XXL Camping Cot Review After Months of Use

I've spent more nights than I care to count sleeping flat on the ground in a tent, waking up at 2 a.m. with a rock under my hip and a stiff back that took until noon to loosen up. Two summers ago I finally gave in and ordered the ABORON XXL Camping Cot, mostly because my wife Dana was tired of watching me hobble around the campsite every Saturday morning making coffee like an old man. I did not expect a folding cot to change how our family camps, but after a full season of trips, roughly eighteen nights outside between May and October, it has earned a permanent spot in the back of the truck.

This is not a review written after one weekend. I bought the ABORON cot in early May, used it on car camping trips to three different state parks, a week-long stay at a lake in July, and a chilly October trip where overnight lows dropped into the upper 30s. My brother-in-law also borrowed it for a fishing trip in between, so it has logged more nights outside than most cots see in two full years. Here is what actually held up, and what did not.

How I've Used It

I run a fairly simple test for gear like this. I do not put a cot through one trip and call it reviewed. Over the season I set the ABORON up and broke it down probably twenty five times, once in a driveway just to practice, a few times in the dark with a headlamp clenched in my teeth, and once in a light drizzle when I did not feel like waiting out the weather before pitching camp. The steel frame legs have stayed straight the whole time. No bent tubing, no wobble that wasn't already there on day one.

The cot uses a crossed steel leg frame with a printed 900 pound weight capacity, which sounded like marketing copy until I actually tested it. My son Dean, who was twelve that first summer and built like a fullback, used to belly flop onto it just to see if it would buckle. It never did. I'm 210 pounds myself and sleep on this cot most nights of a trip without any sag in the middle that I'd call a real problem, just the expected give you'd want from fabric under body weight.

By the end of the season the ABORON had been rained on, packed wet into the truck bed twice, and left set up outside overnight once when I was too lazy to break it down after a late fire. None of that killed it. That's the kind of abuse that tells you more about a piece of gear than a spec sheet ever will. I've had camp chairs fail after less mistreatment than this cot has shrugged off.

I also loaned it out twice, once to my brother-in-law for that fishing trip and once to a neighbor who wanted to try one before buying his own. Both came back with the same report: no squeaks, no loosened bolts, nothing that needed tightening after being folded and unfolded by someone other than me. That matters more than people think, because a lot of folding gear starts rattling once it's been broken in by hands other than the original owner's.

The Fabric and Frame After a Full Season

The oxford fabric top has a rougher, almost canvas-like feel compared to the mesh cots I used years ago, and it has held its shape better than I expected going in. There's a small stretch mark near one seam from Dean's belly flop routine, but no tearing and nothing that stays sagging once you get off it. Wipe it down after a dusty trip and it looks close to new.

One thing I didn't expect to notice: the ABORON skips the single center support bar that a lot of cheaper cots use, the annoying spine you feel through a thin pad at 3 a.m. Instead it uses a crossed support structure under the fabric, which spreads your weight out more evenly. I slept on a cheaper cot for two seasons before this one and always woke up with a line pressed across my lower back. That has not happened once on the ABORON.

The powder coating on the legs has a few small scuffs from being dragged across gravel pads, purely cosmetic, and the feet still sit flat and stable on packed dirt, grass, and the concrete pad at one state park site that had zero give to it. The stitching along the fabric edges, which is usually the first place cheap cots start to fray, still looks tight after everything I've put it through.

Setting It Up at the Campsite

Assembly is genuinely a two-minute job once you've done it once. The legs unfold and lock with a simple push-button mechanism, no tools, no separate poles to lose in the grass. My daughter, who was nine at the time, could set hers up solo by the second trip, which tells you it's not a two-person job the way some cots can be.

Where it gets less convenient is packing it back down. The folded cot runs close to 40 inches long and weighs around 20 pounds, which is noticeably heavier and bulkier than a basic backpacking cot. It rides fine in the bed of a truck or the back of an SUV, but it will not fit in a sedan trunk alongside a full family's worth of gear without some careful Tetris. This is a car camping cot, full stop, not something you're strapping to a pack for a backcountry trip.

The carry bag it ships with is snug but workable. I've gotten faster at folding the cot down small enough that the zipper closes without a fight, but the first few times I had to kneel on it like a suitcase that's been overpacked. Once you learn the fold pattern it stops being annoying.

Sleeping On It Across Three Seasons

Summer nights on the ABORON are simple: it breathes well, you don't wake up sweating the way you can on a thick foam pad, and being off the ground means less condensation soaking into your bag overnight. That part surprised me the most after years of ground sleeping.

The October trip was the real test. Cots are notorious for sleeping cold because there's open air moving under you all night instead of ground insulating you from below. That held true here. Without an insulated pad underneath, I was cold by 4 a.m. even bundled in a 20-degree bag. Once I added a foam pad on top of the fabric, that problem disappeared completely. I go into that setup in more detail in my guide to sleeping warm on a camping cot, but the short version is that any cot, ABORON included, needs help once temperatures drop into the 40s or below.

The July lake trip was probably the most comfortable stretch of nights I've had camping in years. Warm air, no ground moisture creeping through the tent floor, and enough width on the cot that I could sleep on my side without feeling boxed in. That's the version of this cot I'd point most people toward when they ask if it's worth buying.

Who This Cot Is Built For

The 78 by 32 inch dimensions matter more than people expect before they buy. This cot is built for taller or larger-framed campers, and for anyone who has ever slept on a narrow cot and felt like they were going to roll off if they shifted wrong. At 6'1" I have a good six inches of legroom I didn't have on my old cot, and the extra width means I can actually turn onto my side without my shoulder hanging off the edge.

That size is also exactly why it doesn't work in every tent. Our family's smaller three-person dome tent cannot fit two of these side by side, not even close. It works fine in our larger cabin-style tent where we have the floor space to spare. If you're trying to decide between a cot like this and a ground pad for a smaller tent setup, I laid out the tradeoffs directly in this comparison of the ABORON cot against a sleeping pad, and floor space is usually the deciding factor either way.

For anyone who has dealt with a bad back, a bad hip, or just doesn't bounce back from ground sleeping the way they used to, the case for a cot over a pad is pretty straightforward once you've tried both, and I've written more on that in why cots tend to win out over pads for car camping.

Where It Falls Short

The ABORON is not a perfect cot, and I'd be doing you a disservice if I pretended otherwise after a full season with it. The weight and folded size are real drawbacks if you're tight on cargo space or hiking any distance from the parking lot to your site. This is not a cot you carry more than a couple hundred yards comfortably.

It also sleeps cold without an added pad, as I mentioned above, which caught me off guard on that first October trip. And at nearly 89 dollars at today's price, it's not the cheapest cot on the shelf, though I'd argue the extra width and weight capacity justify it if you're a larger-framed camper who has outgrown the standard-sized options. If you camp exclusively in summer and never plan to sleep two cots in one tent, some of these tradeoffs won't apply to you at all.

Cots I Considered Instead

Before buying, I looked at a couple of narrower, lighter cots aimed more at backpackers, and a military-style low profile cot a friend swears by. The backpacking cots were tempting for their pack size, but every one I tried felt too narrow for how I actually sleep, restless and prone to rolling around. The low-profile military style cot sat closer to the ground, which some campers prefer for stability getting in and out, but it lost the under-cot storage space I've come to rely on for boots and a headlamp. For straightforward car camping where you're driving to the site, the ABORON's size and height off the ground won out for our family.

I also almost bought a bunk-style double cot, thinking it would save space for two kids sharing a tent. In practice the bunk versions I tried at a friend's site felt flimsier under weight and were a hassle to set up alone. One solid XXL cot per person has been the simpler, more durable answer for us.

The first morning I woke up on the ABORON without a sore hip, I almost felt guilty for waiting three years to buy one.

Who This Is For

If you're a car camper, meaning you drive to your site and aren't counting ounces in a backpack, and you've got a larger frame or just want more room to move at night, the ABORON is worth the trunk space. Families with a cabin-style or larger dome tent will have no trouble fitting one or two of these, and anyone who has aged out of comfortably sleeping on the ground will notice the difference the first night.

Who Should Skip It

If you're backpacking any real distance, or your tent is on the smaller side and you need two cots to fit next to each other, look elsewhere. The size that makes this cot comfortable is the same size that makes it a poor match for tight spaces and long carries. It's also not the cot to buy if you camp mostly in cold weather and don't want to bring along an insulated pad to go with it.

For a shorter, blunter rundown of the same cot, including a few gripes I only glossed over here, my honest review of the ABORON cot covers the specific tradeoffs I'd want to know about before ordering one.