Rooftop tent for D2

[Astrid14]

Hey all,

I know there is a wealth of information out there - and in previous posts etc... but i wanted to start another one.. weighing up the pros/cons of soft shell/hard shell tents for the Discovery 2.

I am interested to hear the practicalities of both, if rooftop tents should be considered at all for the Discovery, due to its shape, and how people have found them?

There are so many brands filling the market, despite reading reviews etc, i don't really have any frame of reference as to what is good or not. Also, the practicality of being able to take it on/off and still use a roof rack, which roof rack to chose etc.

There is also quite a price jump, from the top end hard shells, which can be $10k, to James Baroud (4-8k), ikamper (top ends) to the soft shells of frontrunner/kings which range between $500 - $1000.

My philosophy is buy once, buy for life.. (might be ironic liking LRs? :D) but within reason.. they all seem great.

I would mostly be going solo and sometimes with a partner, so a swag would do, but still interested to hear everyones experiences, thoughts and ideas. Is there a sweet spot between something that will last, is practical and not massively priced. Also, might there be ways to find ones that could be cheaper than retail?

Thanks

[V8Ian]

I'd advise Kings (cop that Rick!), its not the best quality available, but I reckon it's the best value. Kings are good with warranty claims and modifications to overcome design flaws.
Another beauty with Kings, is it is an inexpensive was of deciding what you want. e.g. if you buy a soft rooftop tent and don't like it, you can resell it without losing much money, you can then purchase a different model.
Anything you put on the roof will affect off road abilities, regardless of brand or model. Apart from raising the centre of gravity, it will also restrict clearance. That said, I've done thousands of miles touring, both on and off road, without issues, but I don't do hard core, car breaking off roading.

[admiralranga]

The D2's roof rating is pretty poor 50kg on road, 30kg off road. Not that the roof collapses but it's quite noticeable with an empty disco and 100kg's on the roof how much more it want's to tip.

[simonmelb]

We travel fully loaded with around 75-80kg with a Oztent and a double and single kayak spread across 3 cross bars on the original extended roof rails.

Never noticed tipping at all, but do have ACE.


The D2's roof rating is pretty poor 50kg on road, 30kg off road. Not that the roof collapses but it's quite noticeable with an empty disco and 100kg's on the roof how much more it want's to tip.

[RRT]

Run the kings hardtop on the D2, initially just got bars to get the thing home and mates commented on the first trip how much the thing swayed on the tracks. Then onto the full rack on the roof and this has now gone - went the smaller supports as well which are very tight on the standard roof bars but this is not a huge one for me.

Combined with the 270 Darche, the packing and unpacking is unbeatable.
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There has been no noticeable feeling on tracks or road of instability with the RTT and the convinience of it is great compared to the swag. The swag by the way was so big that fitting it across the back seat required quite a shove to close the door.

[Astrid14]

Run the kings hardtop on the D2
There has been no noticeable feeling on tracks or road of instability with the RTT and the convinience of it is great compared to the swag. The swag by the way was so big that fitting it across the back seat required quite a shove to close the door.

Thanks, i didnt see the kings hardtop - it looks like it has quite a discount available. Glad to hear you have found it good. I have gone with the soft shell kings - will see how that goes?

Hopefully it'll be fine :)

I wanted to reduce the weight on the roof as much as possible and this way it does leave me a bit of wiggle room to upgrade in the future if I feel the urge to get a hard top

[ozscott]

I run a 50kg Dometic soft top with electric motor activation. Takes about 90 seconds to deploy including removing the tarp and a out twice that long to collapse and retarp. Fantastic in heavy rain and winds. I have used it on the Triton many times but not on the D2. The Triton is rated a fair bit higher roof rating than the D2. Having said that I have carried 50kg on the roof of the D2 and it did well. However if there were a roll-over with more than 50kg (onroad) it may be troubling for insurance etc. Cheers