Camco 51021 RV Picnic Table & Bench Cover Set

Anybody who's pulled into a campsite knows the picnic table is a coin flip. Some are freshly stained. Most are gray, splintery, and wearing a decade of somebody else's spills. Camco's 51021 set fixes that without any fuss. Roll out the 54 by 84 inch tablecloth, drape the two bench covers over the seats, and the whole eating area looks clean and put together. The red and white checkered pattern is the classic campground look, the one that reads picnic the second you see it.

The material is vinyl straight through, so it shrugs off the stuff that ruins a fabric tablecloth. Ketchup, bug spray, melted marshmallow, a knocked over cup of juice. None of it soaks in. You wipe it down with a damp rag and you're back to eating. That easy cleanup is the whole reason vinyl beats cloth at a campsite. Rain isn't a problem either. The vinyl is waterproof, so a passing shower beads right off instead of soaking through to the wood. When a bird decides your table is a target, that's a wipe, not a laundry trip.

What sets this apart from a plain tablecloth is the bench covers. You get two of them, each 18 by 84 inches, sized to run the full length of a standard picnic table seat. Most cover sets skip the benches and leave you sitting on bare, dirty wood. These don't. Slip them over the seats and nobody's clothes pick up a stripe of grime or a splinter. Camping benches take the worst of it, dirt, sap, bird mess, and they never get wiped down the way a table does. For families with kids who climb all over the benches, that alone is worth it.

When you're done, everything folds down small and tucks into the included 9 by 11 inch storage bag. That's the part that makes it actually get used trip after trip. It's not a wadded up sheet stuffed in a drawer. It packs flat, lives in a basement compartment or a camp bin, and comes out ready the next time you set up. The vinyl doesn't hold odors the way a damp fabric cloth will, so you can pack it up a little damp and sort it out later.

And because it's vinyl and not fabric, it holds up season after season. A cotton or paper cover tears, stains for good, or blows apart after a couple of uses. This one you rinse, dry, fold, and use again. Boaters keep a set in the cuddy for dockside cookouts, and RVers keep one in the rig year round. It earns its spot in the storage bay. One set covers a whole season of cookouts, and it's cheap enough to keep a spare in the truck for the days you forget the first one.

The 54 by 84 inch size covers a standard campground picnic table with a comfortable drape down the sides. It works on the tables you find at state parks, national forest sites, and most private campgrounds. Tailgaters and backyard cooks use it the same way, over a folding banquet table or a home patio table. The packaging is printed in both English and French, which is handy if you're crossing into Canada for a camping trip.

It's a simple piece of gear, and that's the point. You're not buying a high tech anything here. You're buying a clean, dry place to eat that sets up in a minute and stores in a bag. If you want a fitted cover that clamps down in heavy wind, this isn't that. It's a classic drape style cloth and bench set. But for the everyday campsite, the picnic, the reunion at the lake, it does exactly what you need and looks good doing it.