ROOF TOP TENT : What Should We Get?

wayoflife

wayoflife

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Okay boys and girls, I'm gonna be honest and say that when it comes to roof top tents, I don't have a clue as to who makes what or why I should by this over that. If any of you have any experience with one, I'd be grateful if you could help school me on what I should be looking for and why. Cost is a factor and so please take that into consideration. Also, whatever we get, it needs to be no longer than the bed of our Gladiator.

Thanks for your help :cool:
 
Check out James Baroud...I’ve owned two, and they are excellent...but they are in the upper end cost wise. Best thing I can say about them is for one...they have a very low profile being a fiberglass clamshell...two, they are the easiest thing to set up; unlatch four latches and the spring up on gas struts, with your sleeping bags, pillows and pads inside already...three, super easy and fast to break down...
 
While I have never owned one (or even used one), it seems like the natural starting place is to decide whether you want the clamshell style Brute runs or the flip over soft top style (like a Tepui).

If you want the former, I'd go with Brute's recommendation because he has experience with the product. If it is the latter, It seems to me that there is a lot more competition in the flip over soft top style these days which hopefully means you can find great quality for a better price than the long-time market participants like Tepui.
 
,compact for those Uber rad ascents...
 

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Thanks guys, I really like the idea of the hard or clam shell type but they're on the long side and the bed of the Gladiator is short. We'll be running the EVO bed rack and it sits lower than the cab of the truck so I don't think it's an option for us.
 
wayoflife said:
Thanks guys, I really like the idea of the hard or clam shell type but they're on the long side and the bed of the Gladiator is short. We'll be running the EVO bed rack and it sits lower than the cab of the truck so I don't think it's an option for us.
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Tupui has a small clamshell I am looking at for Brute for that very same reason...it only opens from one side like a laptop...
 
I'm no expert, but I have a Freespirit Recreation RTT and love it! It's a few years old now and has held up great. I use the Annex downstairs for the dogs. Mine has aluminum diamond plate floors instead of a plastic composite that some RTT's come with. I've seen things puncture through composite. Also, the type of ladder you have is important. There's two types that I'm aware of, telescoping and sliding. Telescoping let's you fine tune the level and keeps even spacing between the rungs. FB_IMG_1567026858285.jpeg

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jjlong said:
I'm no expert, but I have a Freespirit Recreation RTT and love it! It's a few years old now and has held up great. I use the Annex downstairs for the dogs. Mine has aluminum diamond plate floors instead of a plastic composite that some RTT's come with. I've seen things puncture through composite. Also, the type of ladder you have is important. There's two types that I'm aware of, telescoping and sliding. Telescoping let's you fine tune the level and keeps even spacing between the rungs.
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That looks cool but probably a bit more than what I'm needing. Thanks for posting up though.
 
wayoflife said:
Okay boys and girls, I'm gonna be honest and say that when it comes to roof top tents, I don't have a clue as to who makes what or why I should by this over that. If any of you have any experience with one, I'd be grateful if you could help school me on what I should be looking for and why. Cost is a factor and so please take that into consideration. Also, whatever we get, it needs to be no longer than the bed of our Gladiator.

Thanks for your help :cool:
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Have you looked at Roam Adventure Co. ? The Rambler is a hard shell tent that’s nice.


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As much as I try to stay away from Smitybilt products, they have a RTT that the 2nd version seems to actually be decent. but of course time will tell. but the price point is reasonable.

i don't run one or plan to but i have seen it on vehicles and it is a far cry better then the 1st version they came out with. i think 2nd version is pt# 2783
 
We had a tepui kukenam Sky 3 person tent for a while and did a month long cross country roadtrip with our kids(0 and 3 at the time). We hit up Route 66 beginning to end, Grand Canyon, moab, San Juan’s in Colorado, LA to pismo beach, and a ton of national parks in between. For 2 adults it was PERFECT. I highly recommend it for a soft shell style tent and if you go with it go ahead and get the premium mattress. That thing provided me some of the best camping moments of my life. I’ll update this post with pics from that trip. Excuse me being a subaru owner at that point in life.

It’s kind of important to note that almost all soft shell tents are made in the same factory like campers and just use different colors, branding, and materials. I’m not 100% positive but I believe tepui, fsr, and cvt are all essentially the same.


https://tepui.com/products/explorer-series-kukenam-3

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I don’t have many pics of it set up, we usually explored until night time and didn’t stick around long in the mornings so we could cover more ground. But it was a great time even with the kids being so young
 
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wayoflife said:
How long would you say it takes to set one of these up or fold it back up?
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I just updated my previous post, but you’ll start out around 10-15 mins for setup and take down. You’ll get better rapidly. By the end of that trip I could set that tent up in pitch black wilderness with a phone light by myself in under 5 minutes. It’s so easy once you get the choreography figured out.


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A few years ago I was dead set on a RTT and Tepui was my choice. My main reason for them over others is that they are local to me in Santa Cruz. If I were to have any problems I could just drive over and have them take a look.

During a demonstration they had it folded up ready to roll in minutes. Obviously that would take me 10x longer till I got the hang of things. But it looked simple enough. They had me and my wife set one up and break it down also part of the demo. Super simple.
 
Roam Adventure Vagabond is on my radar. Gets solid reviews and doesn’t break the bank. You could get one and let me know if it sucks or not. Lol


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