Rooftop tents (RTTs) are the darlings of the overlanding world right now. It seems nothing gives you more social media cred than showing off a new rooftop tent on your latest epic, off-grid camping expedition (bonus points if it&#;s captured with drone footage).
Goto Sunday Campers to know more.
It&#;s no surprise that Instagram and YouTube are full of rooftop tent videos. That&#;s all with good reason: They&#;re versatile, comfortable to sleep in, and look damn cool to boot. Plus, they provide most ordinary street vehicles with ultralight travel trailer-esque utility without the sky-high price tag of actually buying an RV. But, there are downsides, especially for softshell rooftop tents. Some are obvious, and some are not so obvious, especially for first-time buyers.
Recommended Videos
If you&#;re shopping for rooftop tents right now, you no doubt know all the advantages. You don&#;t need us to convince you to buy one. Before you drop $3,000 on the best rooftop tent you can find, however, consider the downsides, too. We&#;re not trying to talk you out of buying one and buying a car tent instead, but it&#;s worth understanding what you&#;re getting into.
Before we get into the reasons to not purchase a rooftop tent, let&#;s clear up exactly what a rooftop tent is.
An RTT is a portable shelter that mounts to the roof of a vehicle. It&#;s a type of elevated camping tent that keeps you off the ground. They are typically made of durable materials that can withstand harsh weather conditions. Rooftop tents often come with built-in mattresses, which makes them more comfortable than ground tents. They are easy to set up and take down and don&#;t take up any space inside the vehicle. On the other hand, a car tent is a portable shelter that attaches to the back of the vehicle. It&#;s a non-elevated camping tent, which can be less convenient than a rooftop tent.
If you already own or are shopping for a rooftop tent, you&#;re aware of the most obvious drawback: the price. Rooftop tents are expensive. Some of the best camping tents on the market cost less than $400, while halfway-decent, entry-level rooftop tents start north of a thousand dollars. For upgraded models that are lightweight, made with better materials, and boast integrated features like LED lighting, solar panels, and heated back massagers, that price balloons quickly to several thousand dollars or more.
Plus, pickup owners will likely need to purchase a special rack to mount a new RTT in the bed of their truck. Some car and SUV owners may also need to buy a roof rack or additional hardware to mount a new RTT to their vehicles. That&#;s an additional cost on top of the tent itself. It all adds up fast.
This might be the best reason not to buy a rooftop tent, and the one most prospective buyers overlook. Camping or overlanding with an RTT means that your shelter and transportation are one and the same. Once you make camp and set up your tent, you can&#;t explore the surrounding area with your vehicle without breaking it all down first and resetting it up later.
That might not seem like a big deal, especially with many RTT owners on social media highlighting their (completely unrealistic) sub-60-second breakdowns. In reality, many of the best rooftop tents take ten to 20 minutes or more to break down completely and another ten to 20 minutes to set up again. Depending on your exploration style, this can easily waste an hour or two every day.
If you&#;re a light sleeper, know that sleeping in a softshell rooftop tent can be loud &#; like, very loud. It&#;s not surprising since they&#;re elevated off the ground by design and made of a complex web of overlapping fabric. Wind buffeting, especially in high-wind areas, can cause that fabric and rainfly to flap violently to the point of being downright deafening. For most of us who escape into the backcountry for peace and quiet, that fact alone can be a deal breaker.
Unless you&#;re a bat or a tree sloth, you probably enjoy sleeping in a reasonably level position. Leveling a ground tent is easy. Before pitching, just move it around in the dirt and lie down to check for level. But leveling a rooftop tent means leveling your entire vehicle, which often requires leveling blocks (or at least a decent-sized rock or two), a bubble level (if you want to save yourself some serious headaches), and potentially driving and reversing for a while every time you make camp. It&#;s not difficult, but trust us, it is tedious.
More specifically: They won&#;t come off. Technically, they&#;re not permanent. But most models weigh between 100 to 200 pounds. Add to that they&#;re clunky and cumbersome, which means you&#;ll almost certainly need a friend or two to help with the uninstall. Realistically, once you install yours, you&#;re unlikely ever to take it off, even when you don&#;t need it. It&#;s more convenient and back-saving to leave it on all the time. That leads to the next point.
No matter how lightweight or streamlined the RTT is, your gas mileage will take a hit after installing one. It&#;s simple physics. Your vehicle will be less aerodynamic, especially on the highway, and forced to move more weight than usual. From a gas mileage perspective, it&#;s like having an additional adult passenger in your car at all times. Losing a couple of miles per gallon might not seem like much but for gas-hungry trucks and SUVs, even a minor hit to fuel efficiency stings at the gas pump.
One apparent benefit of rooftop tents over traditional camping tents is being elevated off the ground and away from critters. Realistically, anything that crawls on the ground has no problem climbing the side of your vehicle and onto &#; or into &#; your tent. Depending on where you&#;re camping, that can include spiders, ants, mice, squirrels, wolverines, and most certainly, bears. It might feel more secure than a typical tent. In reality, it&#;s not.
For more roof top tent on top of the carinformation, please contact us. We will provide professional answers.
With all of this said, we don&#;t hate rooftop tents. They&#;re awesome for the right style of camper with the right discretionary income. But if you&#;re considering buying one, don&#;t rely solely on overlanding influencers for your research. It&#;s just not as simple as they make it look.
Permissible roof load &#; what is this? Do I really have to stick to the limits? How do I find out the roof load of my car? What problems can arise if the load is exceeded? Below we are trying to answer those and a few other questions, to help you to find your perfect roof top tent:
ROOF TOP TENT + ADDITIONAL LOAD ON THE ROOF RACK < MAXIMUM LOAD OF THE ROOF RACK
For the popular VW T5, which is by no means could be considered as a leightweight vehicle, the permissible roof load recommended by the manufacturer is for example only 50 kg. Only a few vehicles allow a roof load of up to 75 kg, and even less a roof load of up to 100 kg.So before you buy a roof tent, it&#;s important to find out which roof tent is right for your vehicle. While the decision for or against a roof top tent used to fail because of the permissible roof load, the concept of inflatable roof top tents for the first time offers an option for vehicles with a low roof load as well as an alternative for vehicles with higher permissible payloads.The permissible roof load of a vehicle is stated in themanufacturer. The roof load cannot be found in the vehicle registration document. Only the permissible(empty weight plus maximum additional load), which may not be exceeded in total, can be found in the vehicle registration document.The permissible roof load of a vehicle is specified in the operating manual of the vehicle manufacturer. The roof load cannot be found in the vehicle registration document. Only the permissible total weight of the vehicle (empty weight plus maximum payload) can be found in the vehicle registration document, which must not be exceeded in total. Also this has to be taken into account.For the roof rack
For the roof load
ROOF TOP TENT + ROOF RACK + ADDITIONAL LOAD ON THE ROOF < PERMISSIBLE ROOF LOADFor the total weight
UNLADEN VEHICLE WEIGHT + ROOF TENT + LUGGAGE + PASSENGERS < TOTAL PERMISSIBLE VEHICLE WEIGHTMany of the available roof tents are already above the permissible roof load without the weight of the beams! Until now, only inflatable roof tents constitute a solution for vehicles with low roof loads. Even if the rule in a stationary vehicle states that the load must only be below the total mass of the car, the integrity of the car and the passengers is at risk, if the permissible roof load is exceeded by the roof tent and carrier.
If the vehicle roof is over-loaded, its road safety is endangered, which will be punished with a preregistration in the driving licence register. Observance of the permissible roof load falls under the load securing obligation and can result in legal penalties of up to &#; 5,000. Apart from that, it endangers the life of the passengers and the lives of others and entails consequences.
In addition to the obvious loss of driving dynamics due to the increased difficulty of accelerating and braking, caution is also required on winding roads. In addition, dangers can arise due to the air stream and the increased centre of gravity of the vehicle. In the worst case, the increased centre of gravity can lead to overturning in the bend in the event of overloading. To be on the safe side, GentleTent has developed the model with the smallest packing size and the lowest weight.
No, clearly not! Please be aware that in the event of an accident, an exceeded roof load can lead to the exclusion of liability of the insurance. It is therefore more than advisable to invest in the lightest roof tent on the market with the smallest packing size. With 25 kg and 1 meter x 1 meter x 15 cm you are on the safe side with the world&#;s first inflatable roof top tent.
Also important: all vehicle manufacturers do not officially distinguish between dynamic and static roof loads. They can thus withdraw from the warranty and are not liable for damage caused by overloading the car roof (even when standing). If they were to distinguish these, the dynamic roof load would indicate with which roof load one can still drive safely. The static roof load would indicate the maximum load when standing.
Other roof tent manufacturers are faced with the problem that it is almost impossible to solve: matching the permissible roof load of cars with the conventional roof top tent construction materials. This problem was one of the reasons for the innovative idea of the inflatable roof tent. The developers of GentleTent no longer wanted to tolerate this danger and developed a light and easily stow-able alternative that can be assembled in just a few minutes.
GentleTent´s GT ROOF is with 25 kg the world´s lightest roof top tent. With a pack size of 1 m x 1 m x 0,15 m it is small enough to fit on every car roof and does not cause driving resistance. Despite this unbeatable minimalism during transport, the roof top tent is set up within the shortest time and offers a lying surface of 2.2m x 1.4m including a pleasant and generous interior height of at least 1.3 m.
For Double Cap Pick-ups GentleTent offers the special model GT PICK UP Tent, which is a light and cost effective alternative to off-road cabins.
TIP: You can also find good information about roof top tents from the German community of the Dachzeltnomaden!
The company is the world’s best overlanding tent supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.