You’ve heard the call of the Great Outdoors and, somehow, you’ve stumbled on this page. How the hell that happened is a conversation for another day, but let get one thing straight right off the bat.
I am not an “expert”. Henry Ford once said that he wouldn’t employ experts because …. they have closed their minds off to other possibilities. A true expert, he had found, stops learning, stops progressing, stops pushing forward. To paraphrase.
Now, this is an article of my own opinion and it is based on YEARS of camping and four wheel driving. I have been caravanning with my family since before I can remember. I was a Cub, a Scout, then a Venturer (older scout).
I have experience in many different accommodation options over the years, from spending nights sleeping underneath 4wds & cars, to swags, tents, soft floor camper trailers, to hybrid campers. I’ve even spent a night or two in caravans.
So, I ‘ve picked up a thing or two along the way.
But, this is all still my opinion. You are welcome to disagree with any or all of the points but, please note, I am all for reasonable discussion about what you think is important. While I may not think you view is good or bad, I may see it differently, and I’m happy to discuss in a reason manner and take on points I hadn’t considered.
I am not an “expert”, on anything, and I don’t live your life. So take this as a guide.
First Questions that need answering.
Having said all that…. there are things that you need to consider right off the bat. I cover them in more detail below.
- What type of vehicle will you be using?
- What is the max roof load weight, minus the rack system you’re using/going to use?
- or, will it be mounted to a trailer?
- Where will you be using it? (and how?)
- How many people does it need to hold?
- Do you want an “annex” as well?
- What is your budget?
- What type of tent do you think you’ll prefer?
- Fold in Half
- Clamshell
- Pop Top
- Where are you going to store it?
- What is your budget?
What vehicle will you be using it on?
If you own the vehicle that you think you’ll use it on, for instance, you already own a Land Cruiser or Nissan Patrol, a BT-50, or a Ford Ranger or Everest, that decision is an easy one. You will need to consider a few things further on, but you’re pretty set.
If you don’t own the vehicle, the list of things you’ll want to consider may be daunting but not insurmountable. Things like roof weights, or tray frames for utes, comes into consideration. If you’re buying a four wheel drive especially, remember that the centre of gravity (CoG) of a 4wd over a regular sedan is already higher, then you’re going to be putting a heavy roof top tent on top, you are significantly increasing that again. It will not corner like your Mazda3, it will roll like the EverGiven in the Suez Canal. Just something to be mindful of.
If it’s going to be a ute that you’ve set your sights on, how are you mounting it? You CANNOT simply drill holes in a fibreglass canopy and hope it holds. Believe me, I’ve come across many a person who has attempted this and emptied out their RTT and contents on the tray onto the highway after a failure. Any they are never small incidents.
You will need a metal frame of some kind (either internally under your canopy) or as a replacement for your canopy. If you’re replacing your canopy, remember that you’ll need to cover your camping gear so that it doesn’t get dirty. I bet my wife would complain about the dust getting into her undies if the our stuff was left uncovered!
Maximum Roof Load
Something that is overlooked is the dynamic roof load of your vehicle and needs to be explored in greater depth.
Maximum Dynamic Roof Load isn’t the load of my fat arse and that of my wife’s skinny one, and our dog, all snoring our silly heads off after a hard day on the trails. It’s about belting along the highway at full noise.
It also MUST INCLUDE things like your roof racks and any other accessories (auxiliary lights, shower/toilet tents, cb antennaes & mounts and anything else) you have up there. Climb a ladder and take a look. (There’s probably more on there than you think!)
All of these have a weight and, no matter how small, must be subtracted from the total, ideally before you buy your tent. This will give you your allowance for the RTT itself.
Many an insurance company has wiped a claim because of overloading the roof of your car.
Gross Vehicle Mass
A Roof Top Tent will add to your Gross Vehicle Mass. GVM is the absolute sum total weight your vehicle can carry, in or on. Yes, you can get GVM upgrades, but that’s your new limit.
Everything you put in or on your vehicle has to weigh under this value. This includes, but is not limited to fuel, oils, coolants, spares (including spare tyre/s), tools, food, beer, cask wine, cups, plates, your RTT, roof rack system, accessories like bullbar, food going in, spotlights, replacement bumper bars, CB radios, torches, make up, wet weather gear, rubbish that you’re packing out dirty clothes, cleans clothes, spare batteries and clean undies. Everything.
Make absolute certain you factor in you RTT choice into that equation. The heavier your RTTT, the less beer (or clean undies) you can take. And that’s worth considering, in my view.
Mounting it to a trailer.
Dynamic Roof Load isn’t as big an issue when loading a RTT onto a trailer but whatever frame and the suspension of your trailer you’re mounting it to must also be strong enough. Otherwise, sadness.
Also, don’t forget about your Aggregate Trailer Mass (ATM). This is like the GVM for a car. It’s not a suggestion, nor is it a minimum target to beat. The is the upper limit.
Something else to consider, if you’re attaching to a trailer, and with all trailers, in general, is to consider the Gross Combination Mass, and this is the weight that the car and trailer, in combination, must be under.
Also remember the braked weight rating of your local jurisdiction.
Where will I be Using my RTT? or, How will I be using my RTT?
Ok, so this isn’t as obvious a question to a newbie as you might think.
If you’re the type of person who sits and fishes by a stream all day, moving every 3 or 4 days, or if you stay in the one spot and come back to it each night after driving, then a RTT may not even suit you.
Believe it or not, there are drawbacks to RTTs.
If you go and daily drives but return to the same campsite each night, you have to fold your RTT up each day. It may be wet from rain or just a heavy dew, and you can’t leave until it’s little drier, this may bite into your exploring time. What you don’t want to do is fold went RTT material in on top of your sleeping gear (mattress, sleeping bags, etc)
You either need to limit what you see or extend your stay to see everything you want to. And it’s just bloody annoying to put your tent down to end up putting it back up at the end of the day in almost the same spot. (Mind you, it takes a few minutes, at most, so it’s a petty complaint.)
If one party likes to venture off and the other hangs around camp, looking for an afternoon nap, then a RTT probably isn’t for you, either. Trust me when I tell you that it’s hard to arvo nap when your sleeping arrangement is down the road sightseeing.
If you are legitimately spending most days travelling from one location to the next, stopping in places a couple of nights, max, and walking around or have alternate transport like a push or e-bike, then a roof top tent is an ideal addition.
How Many Bodies Will it Need to Accommodate?
And, what type, probably.
If you’re a couple (older or younger) then the range and options are probably endless. Add a medium or large dog, especially like ours that needs to sleep with you, then you may have issues. It won’t surprise many to find out that dogs can’t climb ladders so a RTT isn’t the solution for you.
Same with children. A small baby (or babies) aren’t going to be a big issue. They don’t take up much room when they’re that little. But a couple of laps around the sun and they’re toddlers you’re passing up or down, especially in the middle of the night when they need to toilet. And then the next one needs to go.
And then they grow into school age kids, and the mattresses start to feel very small.
The sad part, and the happiest part, is they dont stay the same size.
Do you want an “annex” as well?
Some tents come with “annexes” that attach, giving you the option of a “room” underneath. They give you more space and privacy and allow for extra bodies to be camped in them. These are exceptional but only come on some types and still require consideration.
While they do provide extra room for the kiddies, or for a place to change, they also take time to zip on, peg down, place the bedding and/or living equipment inside, then to unpack, load that gear back into the car, unpeg, unzip, fold, and then, the big issue, find a place to store them. Because you’ve got a roof top tent up there, your roof isn’t as available.
They, too, get wet, and packing away wet camping gear isn’t ever fun. Only to unpack it the next night at you next stop.
And taking this time and effort each and every day may be a deal breaker. It would certainly drive me insane. You might as well be in swags (double and/or singles) and a roof rack bags, time it takes.
Personally, I have a swag that has an integrated frame in it that could as easily just lie on the ground and could be set up in the same time it takes to put an annex under a roof top tent.
Then, when you’ve answered all these questions and still want to buy a RTT, then you have a couple more questions that you still need to answer. You’re not done just yet.
What type of RTT do you want?
You mean there’s different types???? You bet your bippity, there is.
There are three main types: The fold in half, the “Clamshell”, and the “pop top” types and all have their pro’s and con’s. There are also about as many different combinations and permutations of the above that it’s hard to cover them all, but I think they all come loosely under these three. (If you find some, let me know.)
The Fold in Half Type.
These are the tents that have a black cover over them with the three “steps”. across, then up, then back down. They wouldn’t be lost in an Olympics Medal ceremony. The cover comes off, the ladder extends, you use the ladder to lever the tent out and fold it down. It opens up like a Sydney Harbour Bridge (if the Sydney Harbour Bridge folded down for travel). You put the spring poles in the window and you’re done. But are you?
They greatest two advantages of the “fold in half” design is they weigh bugger all and you can attach an “annex” to the bottom of them to create an extra room.
They have a small weight because of their design and ability to use lightweight “poles”. The spring steel poles they use are so thin, you’d think Karen Carpenter had a hand in designing them.
They cantilever out over the side or rear of the vehicle making up for their compact travel size. This doesn’t look very sturdy but, believe me, if they can survive my hefty lump, then they’re ok for regular sized humans. Obviously, there’s still a limit, but Mrs Middo and I weren’t near it.
They have a small covered “porch” area where the ladder comes down and this provides some limited cover while you’re climbing up or down the ladder. Great for when dew falls down but, add even the slightest whisper of breeze, and be careful!
This “porch” is also where the “annex” zips to and this provides some privacy and most come with a zip both front and back, allowing internal access to either the rear or side doors (depending on how it’s mounted) of the vehicle from inside the annex.
In the annex is where you’d (*ideally) sleep a pet or kiddies on mattresses. They also provide a change room (for those who are shy) or a meshed area out of bugs.
While the tents themselve take a small footprint on your roof rack, they do add quite a bit of height. As a friend of mine recently found out, the increase your height to the point where you can’t get under shopping centre carparks that you normally would be able to. (Thankfully, there was no damage in this instance but I’ve heard of plenty of other stories where they weren’t nearly as lucky) It also extends the centre of gravity up even further.
The biggest drawback of this style or RTT is that you often can’t store your sleeping gear in them. And definitely not pillows unless they’re wafer thin. (I stored an inflatable pillow – which was perfect and I loved it – in my ‘fold in half’ RTT, forgot to deflate it and/or pack it away, and it exploded when I folded the tent back up. Sounded like a bomb went off in the canyon I was in! Damn I miss that pillow. I haven’t been able to replace it, yet.)
So, every stop, you’re back to packing out your sleeping bags, pillows, etc, into and out of the tent. This consumes very valuable drinking time. Then add an annex and all the other “necessities” in there, and you might as well have stayed home.
They can also be easily lifted by two people to pop them onto the roof for a trip, then taken off when not needed. Often, though, they are also just left on the roof, too.
The Clamshell
The clamshell design look like an A frame once opened. They are a large (often) metal box with hinges at one end and over-centre latches to the sides near the other. They (almost always) come with those hydraulic arms to help put it up and keep it up. They are a little larger and wider than the mattress contained within them. And they are usually HEAVY., an are, by far, the heaviest alternative.
They also have a much lower roof profile for aerodynamics and CoG, although the weight does count against them when calculating CoG.
These are one of the quickest to set up. You unclip the over-centre latches, and push. Teh arms do the heavy lifting. All you have to do is install the ladder (which can often be stored in the tent, along with you bedding), climb up, and you’re snoring.
Pack down is as easy as set up. Pull down on the handles (or on ropes you’ve attached before pushing it up) and it just falls down. Tuck in the canvas, clip the latches and you’re rolling. (Vertically challenged people can use sticks – our friend used a piece of aluminium flat, about 20mm – 3/4″ – wide, at whatever length is needed, as her canvas poking stick. We’ve christened these “The Julia” (tm pending). You can round the corners, and even create a handle for them, if you want…. Just dont go crazy with it or you’ll poke through the canvas.)
These allow you to attach awnings and those shower tents to them in the rails, so they can come on or off with the tent.
You can also attach roof bars and carry (VERY LIGHT) larger stuff on top of them, but I wouldn’t carry much more than a surfboard or two. It’s definitely not suitable to carry a spare wheel up there, although I’ve seen it done. Remember 2 things when doing this, though. 1: Your arms need to be able to lift the weight of whatever it is you’re putting up there and any extra gram is going to affect its ability and longevity. And, 2: You need to be mindful that, when unfolded, a long item is going to lower, possibly into the roof of your car!
The major downside, apart from the weight, is that there is very little coverage outside of your tent. Unlike the “Fold in Half” models, there is no little cover over the ladder and, if it’s raining when you unzip to get down, you just get wet. It also provides no extra cover around your car, like the “Fold in Half” jobbies. You have to have another awning for cover.
These are also subject to getting moisture inside of them because of the heat generated by one or two bodies inside all night, even in Summer, so that also has to be managed.
The “Pop Top” style
The pop top style of RTT are simply a rooftop tent with a hard shell (generally fiberglass, to keep weight down) with a latch in each corner and a mechanism inside to help lift and hold the roof up. You simple unlatch the four over-centre latches, give them a short shove upward, and they pop straight up to tighten the canvas.
These are almost as quick at the clamshell varieties and take little effort to put up. Along with the clamshell type, these allow you to store your bedding and ladder inside but dont allow you to put anything on the roof of them. They also don’t have the same facility to mount awnings from. Despite the weight saving, they are still awkward to lift, so they would still require assistance to fit and refit onto vehicles.
With limited experience with this type of RTT, I am not sure if they suffer from condensation but assume they would.
Like the clamshell type, they offer no protection for the ladder (in all but one model, at the time of writing this, and that is a VERY expensive exercise.) and cannot have an annex fitted to them to add extra room.
Other styles
The market is becoming saturated and there so much innovation now in the RTT market that aren’t talked about here. Most of these are variations on a theme or a combination of some of the above. Some are like the clamshell that fold out on the long side of the tent. Some do that, then they fold out more to make more room. It worth doing your research but note that some of these come at the added expense of weight, money, or both.
Storage of your RTT
Good practice before purchasing a RTT is knowing how and where you’re going to store it and it’s something worth considering before buying one. It’s a lot more complicated than “Have I got the space on my roof.”
But I’m only going to need it for this one trip.
Yeah, Right! This is one of the biggest traps you can make when thinking about RTTs. You’ve got a big trip across the Simpson Desert planned and you kit yourself out and think “I’m only ever going to need my RTT for this one trip, and then I’m done. It’s six weeks on the road and then I can sell it again. It’s a trap that many, many person has fallen into.
You’re 2 days into the desert, about halfway across and one of your party, around the campfire, says “I’m heading up to Cape York in a couple of years. You should think about coming along to that.”
Fine, but after that trip, I’m done.
Two years pass, and something happens and the trip gets delayed 12 months.
I can last 1 more year.
Then you go and it’s amazing, but you didn’t get to see all you wanted to see, so you’ll have to go back.
And this is where it begins. You now own a roof top tent forever. And that’s not a bad thing.
You Just got to store this thing now. Where? And you rent, so you have to shift it each time you move house.
Garage Storage Space
How much garage space will it take up, if it’s not going to be on the car for any reason. And how awkward is going to be to shift it if it’s not in the right spot, or something has fallen below or underneath it, or you have to move house. And also, if you don’t own your house, are you going be able to rent a house with a garage big enough to store it in.
And, again, how awkward is it going to be to install and uninstall on the roof of my car when I want to use it? (This could also be summed up by: How much is it going to cost me in beer and pizza to have my mates around to do this?)
Leaving it on the roof
Leaving it on the roof or the back of the tray seems a smart options, you’re going to be out in it every weekend and all holidays from now on. Sorry, but life happens and we never get camping as often as we’d like, and then you’re living with this extra weight on the roof of your car, fighting the daily grind and the Red Light Drag Race.
The extra weight on the roof will decrease your fuel efficiency and will increase your weekly fuel bill even if you only drive your car short distances. Kids have sport. Or dancing. Or debate club. Or playdates. And, if you have more than one, chances are you’re going to be lugging around a roof top tent and it’s added weight.
Then there’s the matter of fitting your vehicle under carport or into the garage still.
Shopping centre carparks will also become no-go zones. Most carparks, in the modern era, are barely tall enough for a 4wd with even a moderate lift. Add another 100mm (at best!) on your roof, plus the roof rack system it’s mounted on.
This presents a challenge at the best of times. With a roof top tent, you can forget parking anywhere near a major shopping centre.
The next challenge will be a loss of maneuverability in traffic, generally, and crash avoidance in those (hopefully) very rare times when we need to do so. Remember where we talked about the change in Centre of Gravity, right back in the beginning? This is where that comes home to roost and it’s not just about crawling across a bank when you’re offroad.
With drivers becoming less and less careful, vehicle crashes are becoming more and more of a thing. From increased stopping distance from the extra weight up high, to the instability of your vehicle with the weight pitching forward and the nose of your car pointed down, your vehicle will not drive the same.
And that’s only talking about an emergency braking situation, in a straight line.
Add a swerve to avoid wildlife into that mix when you’re unprepared for it and you’re about to have a very bad day, if you’re not prepared for it. That extra weight up to will throw you around like a sock in a washing machine.
And vehicles on their sides or roofs are written off.
What is your Budget?
Finally, you’ve still decided on getting a roof top tent and now, as it always does, comes down to how much money you’ve got to spend on it.
The advice here is simple: Spend the money you can afford.
The wildlife doesn’t care what money you’ve spent (on your entire rig), only that you’re out there, having a go, and having fun. And that you’re respecting nature.
And: More expensive doesn’t mean better. Cheaper does always mean junk.