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Roof top tents

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:08 am
by Hemi
Howdy.

To those who use roof top tents im Curious to get some feedback.

Pro's & Cons etc.
Hard shell tents or soft? Good experiences and bad. Please tell me what you think.

Cheers.

Re: Roof top tents

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:07 am
by olfart
Talk to Nika mate, he's got a great set up.

Re: Roof top tents

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:14 am
by sheps
I mounted mine on a trailer, great setup for a light go anywhere camper. The biggest hassle with a rooftop is having to pack it up if you need to
Move the car. I would like to mount one on my boat trailer.

Image

Try to have a look at the tent before buying it as some of the mesh used doesn't keep sandflys out

Re: Roof top tents

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:28 am
by Hemi
Sheps, you hit the nail...

Im going to put one on my tinnie trailer.
Ive got the rack sorted just looking at tents now, im thinking the hard shell streamlined tents?

Just need to hear from a few people what works & what doesnt...

Re: Roof top tents

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 5:41 pm
by Sdelectrix
Great thread guys,

I've been looking at getting one of these too and have been wondering which way to go. The tinny idea is a pisser, I hadnt given it much thought about moving the car each day - the ads make out as if the setup/pack up process only takes a few seconds, is this remotely true or a huge exaggeration???

Re: Roof top tents

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 9:52 pm
by uniball
How heavy are those tents? I love the idea of this tinnie tent, would solve heaps of problems, but not sure I'd take that on any rough roads. Would be some high stresses going on the bottom mounting areas if the weight of the tent was getting thrown around. Then again, I'm not an engineers freckle, so can and probably am wrong!

Re: Roof top tents

Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 11:05 pm
by Hemi
Hi uniball.

Theres quite a few tents on the market so finding one is personal preference i guess.
The weight im looking at is in the 50-60 kg range.

The rack ive sorted for my trailer doesnt actually have a max loading?
It has been tested with several kayaks and fair amount of camping gear attached to it, definately more than 60kg and proved very well.
Im not too stressed about really rough roads as my travel plans wont include such roads, im limited anyway as I dont have a big 4x4.
But if you were going to really hit the rough stuff it may be a concern i guess???

I think its going to serve my purposes ok?
Im still after peoples views on their roof top tents by the way.

Re: Roof top tents

Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 9:48 pm
by billo20
Hey guys

We have had our rooftop tent on top of the 4WD for nearly a year now and are really happy with it. At first it took me
about ten minutes to setup and take down (like a normal tent). But we normally setup once we have found a place
we might camp a night or two and it now takes about five minutes get organised thankfully. I few things that I have
discovered in that time are.

If you head south take a lot of blankets they can get bl..dy cold at night without them.

Up here make sure you have one with a lot of ventilation found that out the hard way haha.

They are quite good and my better half really prefers it to our swag. By the way I reckon the idea on the tinnie
trailer is a cracker and the weight of a soft top like mine would work fine as the weight on top of the 4WD isn't
too bad for me.

Re: Roof top tents

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 1:35 pm
by Scottie5.3
I have used arb ones and never had concerns other then being really bl..dy hot, just wish we had one when in Africa. They think it's normal sleeping in a tent with hyenas, lion, hippos etc running around, didn't sleep much for four days
The tent on the boat trailer is a brilliant idea but have to agree with uniball, mountings would cop a hiding up here on some tracks so making it bulletproof would be a good idea

Re: Roof top tents

Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 6:41 pm
by Till
Only thing with putting it on the trailer is I usually pull my boat out every day so I would have to pack it up again. Maybe have it on a set of rollers with legs that fold down so you could just set it up and pull the trailer out from under it.

Re: Roof top tents

Posted: Mon Jun 30, 2014 9:42 pm
by Gilly
I recently purchased a roof top tent and awning mate.After lots of research I went for the Tjm Boulia tent and it came with a free 2.5x2.5 awning $1299.Tjm and howling moon tents are made in South Africa and the quality is fantastic compared with all of the Chinese made tents (arb iron man tigerz11 etc) I mounted mine ontop of my patrol ute on the cage.Long way off the ground after a few beers but great breeze and comfy as hell.