RTT and High Wind

[Pick Teej]

For those of you with a Rooftop tent, the wind will occasionally pick up and it turns your tent into a sail. One time I returned to my tent only to find it practically packed back up because the wind had flipped it closed. How do you all deal with this? what are some good tie down methods/ anchor methods that will prevent this from happening. We plan to go to Assateague Island in August and would like to have a good plan in place.

 

[smritte]

Ive been in 30+ winds twice. The window awnings were flapping so hard I couldn't sleep. One time I wrapped my tie downs all around and made it better, the next I slept in my vehicle. Neither time did I fear for my tent just my sanity. I do stake my ladder down so it doesn't move when I climb in and out. I do position it so the platform is opposite the wind direction.

Scott

 

[Etoimos]

If you know what direction the wind will be coming from, park so that the vehicle mounted side is in the wind. When I can't do that, I tie the tent down to my rock sliders. You could also park on some guy lines and then attach them to the tent once it is deployed (can be done the other way around as well, but a bit fiddly with someone having to hold up the ladder/tent while you drive one them).

 

[Sparky]

My Tepui has d rings on what becomes the underside of the floor when it flips open, where the ladder attaches. If it’s windy I’ll throw a cam strap from one of the rings down to my slider.

I’ve never been concerned about it folding up, more about it lifting up enough to drag the ladder in, causing the tent to overextend. Either way never had an issue, just run a guy line.

If it’s super windy and you’re having trouble sleeping, just think of all the poor guys stuck in a ground tent getting covered in sand.. that’ll put you to sleep fast .

 

[Tim N Michele Davis]

We just stake out the two guy wires and never have any problems. We stayed at the beach this weekend with wind gusts over 30 mph and had no problems other than had to tighten the rainfly up to stop it from flapping.

 

[Todd Jackson]

Ive been in 30+ winds twice. The window awnings were flapping so hard I couldn't sleep. One time I wrapped my tie downs all around and made it better, the next I slept in my vehicle. Neither time did I fear for my tent just my sanity. I do stake my ladder down so it doesn't move when I climb in and out. I do position it so the platform is opposite the wind direction.

Scott

I 100% agree with Scott.
Couldn't sleep the entire night when we were in high winds even with positioning the rtt into the wind. What was recommended to us and what we do now is carry a tent as back up if ever the rtt failed or we are in high winds again.

 

[smritte]

If it’s super windy and you’re having trouble sleeping, just think of all the poor guys stuck in a ground tent getting covered in sand.. that’ll put you to sleep fast .

Oh yea or the guy in the ground tent that just collapsed on him.

Scott

 

[Sparky]

I 100% agree with Scott.
Couldn't sleep the entire night when we were in high winds even with positioning the rtt into the wind. What was recommended to us and what we do now is carry a tent as back up if ever the rtt failed or we are in high winds again.

I’ve been in some obscene winds in my Tepui without a hitch. Others couldn’t sleep but I’ve gotten used to the peripheral noise.

Have there been any reports of a rtt catastrophically failing in high winds? Anything is possible but I don’t think I’ve come across any. I’d be curious to see what happens.

 

[Todd Jackson]

I’ve been in some obscene winds in my Tepui without a hitch. Others couldn’t sleep but I’ve gotten used to the peripheral noise.

Have there been any reports of a rtt catastrophically failing in high winds? Anything is possible but I don’t think I’ve come across any. I’d be curious to see what happens.

The sensation that you get when a gust of wind from h@ll comes along and seems like it's lifting the entire truck really impressed the wife, to the point that it was my fault.
That wind did bend 2 of the spring rods for the rain cover to the point that they looked like hockey sticks. An easy fix in the morning. A friend in Gothenborg has had a plastic joint break in high winds, that's the only real failure that I know of.

 

[Pick Teej]

when mine folded over i did not have any damage luckily, though i did find some of the spring poles a good distance from the tent as they must have sprung from their mounts when closing. if anyone was around that could have been like an arrow I'm sure.

 

[Bob (Fishingbob)]

Love my Tepui Ayer RTT, used it for three months last year camping , fishing, hiking Northern New Mexico and Colorado. It's like anything else there are trade offs. Some things I have done in the past overland trip seem to minimize the situation:
Watch the weather before heading out or going to bed. possibility of storms, cold fronts etc. remove all the window rain fly rods-basically reducing the overall size-less to flap around.
My Tepui RTT has "D" rings mounted on the underside of the tent- build using a small pieces of chain, large turnbuckle and snaps -attach from the tent bottom to a support frame and tighten as needed.
Tepui also make an Alum fabric cover, that basically covers/encloses the entire tent-I just received mine today, easy to slip over the tent-again reducing what the wind can get a hold of and flap around.

Note: I had winds come up while I was in the sand dunes on south padre island in February in access of 50 MPH -tightening the straps down on the rain fly did no good. flapping caused the straps to simply continue to work loose. This caused damage to the fly and the tent area where the poles actually slip into small pockets-good thing i had researched the tent manufacture and noted their warranty on seams, and also noted their exclusive-Zipper Gimp-they replaced the entire cover/canopy I simply unzipped the old and zipped on the New cover-no charge.

Heading out in two days for another 6 month overland adventure-Northern New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.

Bob

 

[Etoimos]

Heading out in two days for another 6 month overland adventure-Northern New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming.

Bob

When and where in CO? Might could meet up for some trails and camping if you are interested.

 

[FJ81]

If you have enough beers the wind won't bother you!

These were taken at TDS 2018, the wind was rough at night, but I slept fine. But I am not a light sleeper. When I parked I faced the Drivers side(left side for non US folks) towards the wind and left the awning and fly down on that side. When I woke in the morning I could hear a little flutter from the other two window awnings. Overall it was a good experience.