8 Best Multi Tool for Camping

A ferrocerium rod, a whistle, and a diamond sharpener live in the Signal’s frame, and there’s a small hammer at the butt end. Nothing else on this list is built around a night at a campsite rather than a job site, and that’s the whole reason it’s here.

The hammer turned out to be the part we reached for most. It sets a tent stake in ground that has gone hard, taps a pot lid, and knocks a peg loose at packing-up time without a rock hunt. The fire starter is a real second option when a lighter dies, though it needs dry tinder and a bit of technique — treat it as a backup rather than a replacement for matches.

The cost is the highest on this list, and it buys camp extras rather than a better blade. The pliers can be stiff to swing out when the tool is new — work the pivot a dozen times and it frees up. Coyote tan Cerakote hides scratches well, and a rinse and a dry after a wet trip keeps the finish looking new.

The Suspension NXT answers the question the Sidekick raises: what if you want full-size pliers without Leatherman money? Fifteen tools, a butterfly frame that fills the hand, and a price well below the top pick’s.

At 8.48 ounces and 4.25 inches folded it’s a pack tool, not a pocket one, and that’s the honest trade for jaws wide enough to bite a stake or a stubborn nut. A tool lock holds each implement open, the drivers cover three flatheads and two crossheads, and the scissors and can opener are the ones camp actually asks for.

The one thing that decides it is the lock release: it’s small and stiff enough that cold, wet hands or a pair of gloves turn it into a two-handed job, so practise opening each tool before you’re fumbling for it in the dark. The implements themselves feel solid, and the value is real — you’re giving up refinement here, not capability.

454 grams is the number that decides this tool. That’s more than twice the Sidekick’s weight for the same core job, and it’s why the Mossy Oak belongs in the camp box rather than on your belt for a ten-mile day.

What the weight buys is a genuinely full kit: 21 functions, needle-nose and regular pliers, wire cutters, a saw, a wood and metal file, a ruler, and a magnetic hex sleeve that takes the included driver bits. Everything self-locks, and the bits ride in an elastic pocket on the front of the sheath.

The layout is the part we appreciate most. The implements sit on the outside of the handles, so you open the one you want without unfolding the pliers first — a small thing that decides whether you bother reaching for it. The sheath is stout nylon with a belt loop, which suits a tool this size; nobody is pocketing it.

One thing to know: the pouch, not the steel, is what wears out, and a spare sheath is cheap insurance. Otherwise this is the tool to buy when the camp kit lives in the back of the car — the function count and the locking frame are worth far more than the weight costs you.

Spring-loaded pliers are usually the line between a budget tool and a good one, and this WETOLS has them at a price below most of this list. That, plus 21 functions on a 4.13-inch closed frame, is why it earns a place.

The jaw set is the camp-relevant one: needle-nose and regular pliers, wire cutters, a wire stripper, a hardened stainless body, and a sandblasted handle that gives your palm something to hold. The tools self-lock, the frame opens butterfly-style, and a hard-wearing sheath comes with it.

The catch is mass. At 334 grams it’s heavier than tools that fold smaller, so it belongs in a pack or a glovebox rather than a pants pocket. For a basecamp tool you leave on the table and pick up a dozen times a day, that’s the right trade — it’s the toolbox you didn’t have to pack.

The hammer head is the smallest thing about this tool, and that’s the honest summary: a stubby little peen on a 5.3-inch folding body. It drives a stake into soft ground and taps a jar lid loose, and it is not much use past that.

For the jobs it does, we’re glad it exists. Pliers, a wire cutter, a saw, and a serrated cutter fill the handles, and the nail claw pulls a stake out of hard ground without you digging at it with the blade. Weigh the 0.3 kg against everything else in the pack, though — this is a car-camper’s tool, and the nylon case keeps it tidy in the trunk between trips.

Every glovebox wants one of these. Four inches folded, half an inch thick, and small enough that you forget it’s under the seat until a cooler lid won’t latch or a bottle needs opening.

Thirteen functions: needle-nose and regular pliers with a wire cutter between them, a slotted screwdriver, can and bottle openers, and a blade that comes sharp and handles packaging and cord. The anti-skid grip helps when your hands are wet, and there’s stainless steel under it all.

Where it falls down is leverage. The jaws are small, and squeezing hard on anything stubborn digs the edges into your palm — fine for the odd repair, no fun for a real one. We like it as the tool that is always there rather than the tool you plan a trip around.

Read the word hatchet carefully here. The axe on this RoverTac is a small head on a folding frame, sized for splitting kindling and trimming thumb-thick branches, not for felling anything — and once you accept that, the rest of the tool makes a lot of sense for camping.

Fourteen functions in one green frame: the axe, a hammer at the poll, pliers, a saw, a knife, wrenches, screwdrivers, and openers, with a lifetime warranty behind it. The hammer earns its keep on hard ground, where stakes go in with a few taps instead of a rock hunt, and the pliers and drivers cover the repairs a hatchet can’t.

Two things to watch. The rubber edge cover is the weakest piece in the kit — check that it’s seated before the tool goes in a pack, and replace it with a proper sheath once it starts slipping. The latch on the plier handle can work loose while you’re hammering, so glance at it between swings. Neither is a reason to leave it home; where the wood at camp is bigger than a twig, this replaces three separate tools.