Before you Buy Rooftop Tent

[Johnmosessa]

Hello
Like you, I had a lot of questions before buying a Rooftop tent. I created a video all about it and answered questions I had to learn for myself.


I hope this helps

 

[Apoclapedia]

Im not a fan of RTTs. I think theyre a waste of money and not particularly practical. Theyre a gimmick for weekend warriors IMO. Way to many short comings. I wouldnt want to use one when i was drunk, sick or injured. I dont like the idea of having to empty my tent of all my gear and closing the tent every time i want to drive anywhere. If you camp anywhere with rain or snow putting your boots or gear on or taking it off to get in is a pain. Then where do you stow it to dry out up there once its off so you dont get everything else wet or dirty in the tent?

The only practical use i see is if you put it on top of a trailer that gets parked at a base camp in a region that has critters on the ground that want to bite or sting you. Sure makes sense. But anything North of 42 degrees I wouldnt run one. Id personally rather have a hot tent on the ground.

 

[grubworm]

i can see where a RTT would come in handy....

 

[lhoffm4]

i can see where a RTT would come in handy....

View attachment 217179

That there is funny. Don’t care who you are!

 

[Bpjr07]

Im not a fan of RTTs. I think theyre a waste of money and not particularly practical. Theyre a gimmick for weekend warriors IMO. Way to many short comings. I wouldnt want to use one when i was drunk, sick or injured. I dont like the idea of having to empty my tent of all my gear and closing the tent every time i want to drive anywhere. If you camp anywhere with rain or snow putting your boots or gear on or taking it off to get in is a pain. Then where do you stow it to dry out up there once its off so you dont get everything else wet or dirty in the tent?

The only practical use i see is if you put it on top of a trailer that gets parked at a base camp in a region that has critters on the ground that want to bite or sting you. Sure makes sense. But anything North of 42 degrees I wouldnt run one. Id personally rather have a hot tent on the ground.

I close my RTT with 2 pillows, 2 sleeping bags, 2 blankets, and ladder
Its my extra storage,

Hot tent? Used my RTT in 5 degree weather kept us warm, we used the sleeping bags as blankets.

But yes the worst thing is trying to go out and pee in the middle of the night.

Takes seconds to crank up. And <2 min to crank down.

All depends on the quality of the RTT

 

[SWLands]

But yes the worst thing is trying to go out and pee in the middle of the night.

Pee bottle. I sleep solo, my Falcon Roofnest has pockets that work perfectly. I also have a T4 Gazelle and a cot, but the rtt goes up in seconds. OK - I have to toss up sleeping gear etc but it is all laid out in my 4Runner to be very easy. And the Falcon has a bag for dirty shoes.

I am new to overlanding this year, having retired and I go out a LOT. I have spent over 50 nights out at least, this year. With both options to hand I use the rtt as it is so fast. Also works well in a wind so long as the truck is facing into it. I have got up to turn the truck as it gets noisy and rocks the truck more otherwise.

What bothers me is cooking in the rain, not getting in and out of the rtt. Tomorrow I go pick up an awning with room. I will see how that works.

Also I have my stove in a slide out drawer, so I can cook out the back. I was inspired by Donald with Softroadingthewest when he had his Subaru. I did the same thing, just a little better with drawer slides. But I think I should pull it out of the vehicle to fry up steaks and bacon and stuff so animals should have no reason to come sniffing around the truck.

I am not so new now, and it is clear every individual is unique in needs and solutions. Which frankly is a royal pain in the arse when you just want a solution. You have to do your own work, make your own mistakes. Also, everything is going to break, eventually, so it is good to have backup plans.

 

[Apoclapedia]

Im not a fan of RTTs. I think theyre a waste of money and not particularly practical. Theyre a gimmick for weekend warriors IMO. Way to many short comings. I wouldnt want to use one when i was drunk, sick or injured. I dont like the idea of having to empty my tent of all my gear and closing the tent every time i want to drive anywhere. If you camp anywhere with rain or snow putting your boots or gear on or taking it off to get in is a pain. Then where do you stow it to dry out up there once its off so you dont get everything else wet or dirty in the tent?

The only practical use i see is if you put it on top of a trailer that gets parked at a base camp in a region that has critters on the ground that want to bite or sting you. Sure makes sense. But anything North of 42 degrees I wouldnt run one. Id personally rather have a hot tent on the ground.

I close my RTT with 2 pillows, 2 sleeping bags, 2 blankets, and ladder
Its my extra storage,

Hot tent? Used my RTT in 5 degree weather kept us warm, we used the sleeping bags as blankets.

But yes the worst thing is trying to go out and pee in the middle of the night.

Takes seconds to crank up. And <2 min to crank down.

All depends on the quality of the RTT

Yeah, but you have to pull all your gear out to close it up. You cant stand up in it to change. You cant dry out gear in it or sit down and work on something, or cook a meal. You have to climb in to it with wet gear on. Your dog cant hangout with you when youre in it.

If youre the kind of person that just gets out on the weekends. Only sleeps in it for a night or two. And packs up in the morning and continues on. Sure, makes sense. But if you’re the kinda person that spends two or three weeks in the bush in all kinds of weather. A hot tent is definitely the way to go.

 

[Bpjr07]

My Hard shell RTT you can leave all your gear in it.

Our 2 20lb dogs sleep in the RTT with us.

We can sit up and lean on the frame.

 

[SacFett]

Im not a fan of RTTs. I think theyre a waste of money and not particularly practical. Theyre a gimmick for weekend warriors IMO. Way to many short comings. I wouldnt want to use one when i was drunk, sick or injured. I dont like the idea of having to empty my tent of all my gear and closing the tent every time i want to drive anywhere. If you camp anywhere with rain or snow putting your boots or gear on or taking it off to get in is a pain. Then where do you stow it to dry out up there once its off so you dont get everything else wet or dirty in the tent?

The only practical use i see is if you put it on top of a trailer that gets parked at a base camp in a region that has critters on the ground that want to bite or sting you. Sure makes sense. But anything North of 42 degrees I wouldnt run one. Id personally rather have a hot tent on the ground.

I think there's probably a lot of us on here that are "weekend warriors." I know I am. I'm not retired, so I can really only go out on the weekends. The last time I camped for more than a weekend was some 30-35 years ago when I went on a family vacation as a boy. I wouldn't mind the convenience of being able to toss a couple coolers of food and drink into the bed and just go because the sleeping bag, pillows, and tent area already packed up and ready to roll.
I don't have any experience camping north of the 42nd parallel, and have never camped in the snow, but I think it would be interesting to try out a hot tent!

 

[NMBruce]

Yeah, but you have to pull all your gear out to close it up. You cant stand up in it to change. You cant dry out gear in it or sit down and work on something, or cook a meal. You have to climb in to it with wet gear on. Your dog cant hangout with you when youre in it.

If youre the kind of person that just gets out on the weekends. Only sleeps in it for a night or two. And packs up in the morning and continues on. Sure, makes sense. But if you’re the kinda person that spends two or three weeks in the bush in all kinds of weather. A hot tent is definitely the way to go.

For what you do, you are right. I had a nice Kodiak Tent, loved it, if I was staying someplace for a few days. It wasn’t that great when going to Alaska and the Arctic Ocean, up and down every day. I sold it to a guy who wanted it for him, his son and grandson when they went hunting, he loves it’s.
My TuffStuff Alpha ll RTT has been great so far, I love sleeping in it. I don’t find it problem getting up and down. So far it has a large enough over hang to protect me from rain and snow. I sit down at the opening and take my boots off, set them on a mat in the corner and crawl in. You right no room to stand up right now, but after I mount this on my trailer and hook up the annex that came with it, I will have plenty of room. But if I am moving every day, I just climb in, sleep, pack up and move on.
For me this works.

 

[MOAK]

Hmmm. We are not weekend warriors. We live outta our RTT roughy 10-12 weeks a year. Locally we occasionally do overnighters. So add another week or two. Our RTT has an annex. It takes about 10-15 minutes to deploy the annex. That is our dry out, changing room, and bathroom. Our boots come off and clean sandals are worn to go up and down the ladder. We have a system and we stick to it. So for anyone to proclaim that they are used only by weekend warriors or posers, simply is not true. If an RTT doesn’t work for you, that’s cool, so you’ll not read my ranting about it with baseless proclamations.

 

[Gillityr]

Much like the approach of "any vehicle is fine for overlanding" the same is true for your sleeping arrangements. They all have positives and negatives. I have experience spending weeks at a time sleeping in hammocks, tents, RTT's and traveling by bike, adventure motorcycle, dual sport, kayak and powered vehicles. It would be foolish to declare any sleep system as anything other than an option.

 

[12C20]

I’m definitely a weekend warrior, fully employed, happily married, with kids still at home.

I have a small, (relatively) inexpensive RTT that spends a lot of time hanging in my garage.

Like a ground tent, or a camping trailer, it has its drawbacks. And it has places where it really shines. It’s comfy and warm with the windows shut and the rain fly on. It’s breezy with the vents all open.

It’s small and cramped and hard to get in and out of.

But it’s off the ground, never muddy, and I don’t worry about finding critters in there.

It works for me right now.

 

[CR-Venturer]

Let me just leave this here...

 

[KAIONE]

Let me just leave this here...
View attachment 222604

That an indoor trampoline???

 

[CR-Venturer]

That an indoor trampoline???

Cot tent.

Has the benefit of being up off the ground like an RTT and comfy like a camp cot, but weighs a fraction of what an RTT weighs, is more compact, and only cost me $50 Canuck bucks on sale.

 

[Get Out GO]

Come and camp with me (and the lions and hyenas) then we'll talk again

In all seriousness though, I use an RTT practically full-time (have been for the last 20-odd years). Only time it might get a little tedious is if you're base-camping for a long time in one location. This means potentially setting it up multiple times a day if you're going for short / day drives (with naps in between ). The type of RTT makes a difference as well though. I prefer a hard-shell as it's quick (my iKamper sets up in around a minute), you can leave your bedding in some and shoe bags work well for boots and gear.

I think it depends greatly on your application but it's certainly not just for weekend warriors...

Im not a fan of RTTs. I think theyre a waste of money and not particularly practical. Theyre a gimmick for weekend warriors IMO. Way to many short comings. I wouldnt want to use one when i was drunk, sick or injured. I dont like the idea of having to empty my tent of all my gear and closing the tent every time i want to drive anywhere. If you camp anywhere with rain or snow putting your boots or gear on or taking it off to get in is a pain. Then where do you stow it to dry out up there once its off so you dont get everything else wet or dirty in the tent?

The only practical use i see is if you put it on top of a trailer that gets parked at a base camp in a region that has critters on the ground that want to bite or sting you. Sure makes sense. But anything North of 42 degrees I wouldnt run one. Id personally rather have a hot tent on the ground.

 

[CR-Venturer]

A friend of mine recently switched from softshell RTT to a walled canopy attached to his roof rack, and he's said he prefers the RTT.

I still think RTT is an awesome option for many reasons, especially the hard shell version. If I ever buy an RTT, I would want it to be a hard shell.

The biggest reasons I avoided the RTT option were cost, size and weight constraints. When you're rolling in a 99 CR-V, you need every inch of cargo space on the rack and you're careful about weight limits. The vehicle is only about 3000 lbs dry.

I'm actually playing with an idea for a highly inexpensive "hard shell" type roof top "cabin" that folds flat like an RTT. I may go ahead with prototyping that idea when money is less tight. If I build it, I'll try to remember to post it here.

 

[NMBruce]

Come and camp with me (and the lions and hyenas) then we'll talk again

In all seriousness though, I use an RTT practically full-time (have been for the last 20-odd years). Only time it might get a little tedious is if you're base-camping for a long time in one location. This means potentially setting it up multiple times a day if you're going for short / day drives (with naps in between ). The type of RTT makes a difference as well though. I prefer a hard-shell as it's quick (my iKamper sets up in around a minute), you can leave your bedding in some and shoe bags work well for boots and gear.

I think it depends greatly on your application but it's certainly not just for weekend warriors...

View attachment 222620

I don’t think I would camp without one or guards

great picture

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

Yeah, but you have to pull all your gear out to close it up. You cant stand up in it to change. You cant dry out gear in it or sit down and work on something, or cook a meal. You have to climb in to it with wet gear on. Your dog cant hangout with you when youre in it.

If youre the kind of person that just gets out on the weekends. Only sleeps in it for a night or two. And packs up in the morning and continues on. Sure, makes sense. But if you’re the kinda person that spends two or three weeks in the bush in all kinds of weather. A hot tent is definitely the way to go.

Like @MOAK, we got for long periods in our RTT (usually a month at a time).

My lens is that the real value of an RTT is for the exact opposite of "weekend warrior" -- if you are basecampjng (i.e. going out to your state park to camp, run some trails or see some sights during the day, then back to camp -- which describes 99% of the "Weekend outing" types of trips) then the RTT is going to have some negatives. But if you are touring -- and by that I mean, camping in a new location every day, often whatever looks nice and not in a manicured campground, the RTT is vastly superior to ground tents in my experience. The benefits are numerous - from storage of bedding to ease of setup to not having to worry about ground conditions to having a bit more time before being munched on by a hungry bear -- so much so that I would likely go with a van build and sacrifice off-road ability before going back to a ground tent.

@Apoclapedia, have you spent much time using RTTs, and if yes, what was your use case?