Backpacking requires you to make do with minimal gear, which is why you make do with compact stoves that can squeeze into a tight corner of your pack. Car camping doesn’t impose this kind of restriction, freeing you to carry a much bigger and more versatile camp stove to your outdoor adventures.
As such, larger camp stove setups with plenty of amenities are not uncommon for car camping, allowing you to enjoy a whole host of cooking comforts. From dual-burners and high BTUs to auto-ignition and better simmer control, you can choose from an array of camp stoves that will enable faster boil times, larger portions, and more sophisticated recipes to level up your meals while slumming it in the wild.
These are the best camp stoves for car camping.
Coleman Classic Propane Gas Camping Stove
It’s not the most feature-packed option in this list. If you insist on an economical way to do some good cooking done at the camp site, though, this affordable dual-burner stove from Coleman is, pretty much, unbeatable in terms of value. It has dual 10,000 BTU burners that can boil water at the same speed as most any other stove in the sub-$150 range, all while fitting a 12- and 10-inch cookware at the same time for versatile meal prep at camp. While many stoves in this price range struggle at simmering and other delicate cooking tasks, this one lets you turn on the low flames with excellent precision. We also love the fact that it’s so barebones, making it incredibly easy to clean and even fix, in case anything breaks down. There’s also a three-sided windscreen for windy days at camp, complete with the ability to adjust the side screens to accommodate larger cookware. The only downsides are the lack of an auto-igniter, so you’ll need to pull out the lighter or matches each time out, and the omission of a handle, so you’ll have to tuck the whole thing under your arm when retrieving it from the trunk. At this price, though, we’ll take it.
Eureka Ignite Plus
We appreciate this two-burner camp stove for one reason: the amount of cooking space it provides. If you find your current rig unsuitable for cooking with your larger pots and pans, then you’ll appreciate the generous foot-long distance between each burner that allows it to accommodate much larger cookware than your typical camp setup. At 10,000 BTUs, it’s far from the most powerful stove you can get, as the Everest 2X offers double that at just $30 more, but that generous cooking space does make a strong case for it even if it will take you far longer to get water to boil. It’s compatible with the outfit’s JetLink system, by the way, so you can connect multiple Eureka stoves to create a much larger camp setup. Features include two-turn simmer control for precise flame adjustment, automatic ignition, a stainless steel drip tray, and thick-gauge steel construction for rugged dependability.
Camp Chef Everest 2X
A high-powered camping stove, this gas model boasts a pair of 20,000 BTU burners for some serious cooking power. Seriously, these are some of the strongest burners we’ve used for cooking at camp. Despite its natural propensity to deliver a large and powerful fire, it also allows for more precise flame control, so you can simmer and sauté just as capably as you do on more traditional stoves at home. It has a protective lid that converts into a three-sided windscreen to keep the big gusts of wind away when cooking, while 215 square inches of cook space gives you plenty of room to work on two dishes at a time. Other features include a highly-consistent automatic ignition, a sturdy frame that should hold up to the rugged requirements of camp life, and a bundled regular adapter for one-pound propane cylinders.
Coleman Cascade 3-in-1 Camping Stove
This dual-burner stove combines the burners with cast iron supports that should handle 12-inch pots and pans with no trouble. What we really like about this, though, is that it comes with accessories you can place on top of each burner, namely a cast iron grill and a cast iron griddle. That means, you can make barbecue, roast meats, and even fry eggs without having to bust out a separate cooking vessel. Even better, both accessories pack right into the stove when collapsing, so you get to conveniently bring a full cooking setup in a single bundle. It only delivers 12,000 BTUs per burner, so it delivers average power for a camp stove, with precise simmer control allowing you to dial down the flames to just the right amount you need. Features include a three-sided windscreen, automatic ignition, and a recessed carry handle for easy portability.
GSI Pinnacle Pro 2 Burner Stove
GSI calls it “the thinnest high-performance dual-burner stove on the market.” And they’re not joking, as the darn thing packs into a slimline bundle that looks like an oversized laptop at just 1.4 inches thick, making it ideal for when you want a two-burner stove that will take up as little space on your trunk as possible. It doesn’t have the most powerful burners at just 11,000 BTU, but that should still deliver enough heating power to let you cook most any type of dish at the camp site, while automatic ignition lets you get the stove going in no time. Features include a lid that doubles as a three-sided windscreen, slimmer-than-usual burners that enable the stove’s slim frame, and a design that lets you remove the entire top grate for easy cleaning.
Camp Chef Pro 16
If you plan to do a lot of cooking at camp, then you deserve a big ass camp stove in your stash. This Camp Chef model is one of our favorites recommendations for adventuring cooks who wish to go that route. Equipped with a trio of 30,000 BTU burners, this thing lets you cook three different items at the same time. Even better, you can fit three 16-inch pots, pans, and accessories simultaneously, so you can cook three big batches in one go. It comes with folding legs and built-in levelers, too, so no need to fiddle with tables and other stabilizing structures. Features include a three-sided windscreen, automatic ignition, folding side shelves (one on each side), and a total cooking area of 608 square inches. The catch? The darn thing weighs just under 60 pounds, so you’ll have to work those puny muscles to move this around at the camp site.