Roof top tents

[simmo]

I'd like to hear from users of roof top tents, that have a couple of children.

I plan to go to the simpson desert and Ayres rock next year. Usually I just pack the camp on the roof rack , tables, chairs tarps, tent etc, etc.

I like the idea of a camper trailer/van but, that might come later.

I have been considering the ease of the roof top tent , sleeping two on the roof, and two, (11& 14) on the ground in an awning affair. I saw testimonials of Gordigear RTT, and it sounds good.

But i have concerns ,
i) how heavy is a big RTT suitable for 4 pax?
ii) do you find them effecting you cars handling a lot?
ii) big drag and increased fuel consumption?

My roofrack is steel 2.2m long and the width of the defender roof and has a rail all round, about 100mm high, it's decked in 1 mm aluminium, with holes above the transverse rails for tying things down. Did you sit/secure the RTT on the rails, or trim the rail down and secure the RTT to the deck of the Roof rack?

To get a good one with an awning looks like about 2K, did you think it was a good buy after you used it a few times?
What brands did you buy? If the subject has been done before I appreciate a direction to the link to save your trouble. Thanks in advance for your advice, Cheers simmo:)

[rar110]

We used a cheapy tigerz11 on two alloy roof bars on a Simpson trip in 2013. My kids are younger. My wife and kids slept in the tent and I slept under them in a swag on the ground. This set up worked well with moving every day. Here's a pic. 91580

I had a separate roof rack on the front for jerrys and other gear. All the stuff on the roof probably did affect fuel use in the HW.

The RTT weighed about 50kg. We left pillows and sleeping bags in the tent.

The RTT will sit on top of the highest part of the rack, not inside the rack, so the base sits flat when folded out.

[Mick_Marsh]

The thing that concerns me about roof top tents is they are on the roof. When you are packing and unpacking, they are at height. I often see people walking around on top of their 4WD's strapping them down. They also tend to get ripped by low hanging branches.
If working at height is no problem for you, I think they are a great idea but, I also think the best type of vehicle for a roof top tent is a passenger car.

[rar110]

Mick raises a good point. Height is a problem on a defender when it comes RTTs.

Packing and unpacking involves zips and straps. I used the front rack to pack & unpack the front side. I have double jerry holders on each side at the back. I would stand on the jerrys to pack unpack the rear side. Otherwise you need a small ladder.

I set up mine to fold out to the side.

[loanrangie]

The only time i have seen a rooftop tent that i thought was appropriate was on a 2dr rangie in a camp ground in Tanzania.

Sent from my GT-I9300 using AULRO mobile app

[ballbag]

Recently switched from rooftop to a Kulkyne elevated swag to avoid strain on roof and high centre of gravity when travelling rough roads.

We often camp in sub-zero temps so rooftop served to keep us off cold ground but in the end I was tired of the worry.

Also tired of having to pack up to collect wood.

Ours was a fairly streamlined, hard-cased wind-up job so fuel economy wasn't too badly affected, but now that it's off the Disco is much nicer to drive around corners and on trails.

[Tusker]

We've been using on of these for about 10 yrs now

Roof top tent (http://www.mrswagman.com.au/Roof-top-tent.shtml)

Still watertight, still very comfortable, many more years to come.

We looked at the fold in half designs like eezi awn and hannibal. We think the Mr Swagman type is better because

- bigger instant shelter under the awning.
- bedding stays put when packing up. We leave 4 pillows & sometimes 4 sleeping bags up there.
- lower aero profile.
- kg load on the roof is the same as the fold ups. The fold ups certainly free up half the roof, but it's not usable without loading up the roof too much.
- and, as a bonus, Mark at Mr Swagman made ours 6 inches longer to suit my tall frame.

Overhanging branches aren't a problem, no more than a loaded roofrack. There aren't many problem trees in the Simpson Desert, or Cape York for that matter.

With all designs, it's great to be able to move the car into the sun in the mornings, to aid drying.

Disadvantages? It's easy to reverse into a tree, dislodging the rails in the roof gutter. That applies to all designs, just ensure the spare tyre hits first.

The 3:00am walk of shame is a pain, that applies to all designs.

And the cover over the windscreen catches water quite nicely. Not ideal to pour over your newly dried tent. It's just a matter of tipping out & letting dry as the tent dries.

The pics of the Defender on the Mr Swagman website show 4 roof rails. Only 3 are needed. The middle one is not bolted to the tent, it just gives support when you're up there. If you're ever seen the twist in a Defender roof panel when cross axled, you'll understand why the middle rail needs to be able to move!

One last thing - we've noticed the same tent badged under other brands as well. The 3dog here

3DOG camping – A very special kind of RoofTop Tent (http://www.3dogcamping.eu/en/topdog.php)

looks identical in the flesh.

Regards
Max P

[Robmacca]

They appear to be very similar to the original "Shippshape" ones from years back.... I believe the Shippshape have started back up as well....

Priced similar too......

The 2nd hand value seems to hold up as well....




We've been using on of these for about 10 yrs now

Roof top tent (http://www.mrswagman.com.au/Roof-top-tent.shtml)

Still watertight, still very comfortable, many more years to come.

We looked at the fold in half designs like eezi awn and hannibal. We think the Mr Swagman type is better because

- bigger instant shelter under the awning.
- bedding stays put when packing up. We leave 4 pillows & sometimes 4 sleeping bags up there.
- lower aero profile.
- kg load on the roof is the same as the fold ups. The fold ups certainly free up half the roof, but it's not usable without loading up the roof too much.
- and, as a bonus, Mark at Mr Swagman made ours 6 inches longer to suit my tall frame.

Overhanging branches aren't a problem, no more than a loaded roofrack. There aren't many problem trees in the Simpson Desert, or Cape York for that matter.

With all designs, it's great to be able to move the car into the sun in the mornings, to aid drying.

Disadvantages? It's easy to reverse into a tree, dislodging the rails in the roof gutter. That applies to all designs, just ensure the spare tyre hits first.

The 3:00am walk of shame is a pain, that applies to all designs.

And the cover over the windscreen catches water quite nicely. Not ideal to pour over your newly dried tent. It's just a matter of tipping out & letting dry as the tent dries.

The pics of the Defender on the Mr Swagman website show 4 roof rails. Only 3 are needed. The middle one is not bolted to the tent, it just gives support when you're up there. If you're ever seen the twist in a Defender roof panel when cross axled, you'll understand why the middle rail needs to be able to move!

One last thing - we've noticed the same tent badged under other brands as well. The 3dog here

3DOG camping – A very special kind of RoofTop Tent (http://www.3dogcamping.eu/en/topdog.php)

looks identical in the flesh.

Regards
Max P

[spudboy]

We've got a ShippShape - 15 years old now and still an excellent piece of kit.

Can't see any way that you'd get 4 people in it though, even if 2 of them are very small kids.

It weighs about 40Kg from memory, so you can almost lift it up onto the roof on your own, but 2 people makes it easy. Takes about 20 minutes to put on/pull off.

[simmo]

Thanks for the info, and good advice gained from experience. It looks like they are very wells suited for couples, but a little bit difficult for 4 pax.
Maybe a combination of RTT and big side awning, I've seen some of them that are fully enclosed and insect proof. Mr Swagman looks like a top product, and getting 10 years use will soften the pain of high purchase cost. I would have to leave my roofrack and get some new roof bars would be best for mounting.

But as you say getting up there is an issue, 33" wheels and a 2" lift makes it a bit of a hike.

I like my roof rack, and considered cutting the rails off of the back part , (about 1.4 meters) to allow the RTT to sit flat on the deck, the front part ( 800 mm) could hold some other camping gear. Though I heard from other they just bolted the RTT to the rails of the roof rack. ( sounds better but the RTT is another 4" higher)

No need to put anything heavy up there, I figure with 120 liters of fuel in the tanks, there is no need to carry jerry cans. Even in the sand the consumption of the TDi seems reasonable.

The only other heavy thing would be water, I figure some plastic jerry cans, or a bladder inside the car under the back seat.

Last time i went to the little desert, we camped under a tarp, but that might be a bit too blokey for madam and daughter. :)

[joel0407]

We bought ours early last year. We have 2 kids, aged 3 and 8.

The initial plan was that we would unload the back of the Disco into the anex then I would sleep in the tent with my daughter while my wife slept in the rear of the Disco with my son.

That plan didn't work. The tent turned out to be big enough for me to sleep diagonal and my wife, 8 then 3 year old to sleep across with me across all their feet.

The anex is a great idea if you plan to stay somewhere for a few days but it was more hassle than it was worth to set up for a single night. Not really a great deal of hassle but just when I weighed up the benifit, I didn't bother.

For weekends away. The RTT is really handy. I had it on for most of the dry season up here in Darwin but....

For 4 weeks across the Gibb River Rd, I was just jack of every morning, swinging of the side of my 50mm rasied Disco 2, even with the air bags down, trying to zip up the cover, poking in the little bit of tent that would always stick out. I was plenty over it by the end of the trip. It's worse when you spend 2 nights at the same place and want to drive somewhere because you have to completely packup and setup in the morning and night at the same location.

My plan for this year is. I have a small but relativly strong trailer that is basically a 1.2m square steel crate. I will mount the tent on top of it which puts the tent about head height and easy to packup. If we stay at the same place for more than a day, I can drive off without the need to packup. I was a bit worried that a trailer is just something else to go wrong but as chinese Axle, Spring and hub packages are so cheap, I will buy 2 so I have a complete spare set of running .Should something fail on the trailer. I will keep it light, under 400kg and at the very worst I could tie a log under it and skull drag it to somewhere to repair it.

Another reason for going this route is fuel. I bought the tent in Brisbane and towed it on top of the same trailer back to Darwin. On that trip, I used 10.4L/100km. All loaded up, even just for the highway sections while getting to the Gibb, cruise set at 100km/h on the GPS, I was using 15 - 16L/100km. Since being home I have done another simple highway run to check that something wasn't wrong with the Disco and I still got down to 10.5L/100km.

For our Gibb trip I was right on 2800kg on the weight bridge with the Disco GCM 2815kg. The trailer will let us spread that weight and I can put things like jerry cans, both fuel and water in the trailer rather than in the Disco. I'll just have to be carful that I dont get carried away and add more things than I need like extra jerry cans and things like that. Just having the rear of the Disco was good to limit both myself and the wife.

Happy Days

[simmo]

Thanks Joel, very informative.

Since the plan is initially only for a one off Simpson desert trip, I might use tents or a tarp, your points about climbing up on the car is well made. Fuel consumption you quote are similar to my defender when cruising below 11 l/100 km.

I like the idea of a lightweight trailer and RTT fitted to it, but worry about how it will go in the desert sand.

I think the worst fuel consumption i ever got was 11 l/100 kms for a stretch of high speed ( for a defender) highway driving fully loaded with the roof rack full. Even is the desert the fuel consumption didn't seem so bad, probably because you're going so slow, less than 40km'hr. a 50% increase in fuel consumption is definitely not an incentive. thnaks simmo