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Oh yeah, that's another pain, if you want to do anything to set up before you go camping you have to put it on your car and set it up to do so.
I made the mistake of putting it up on the ground once and it was a real bugger to fold up and zip up so I never did that again.
You also don't want to have side rails on your rack as they make it a knuckle smashing PITA to unzip and zip up the cover.
As far as taking it off on my own, ours was a 1.8 and there was no chance when unbolted from the rack for 3 people to lift it onto a lifted Disco so I never tried to take it off by myself until I got a fork lift which made it easy to just lift the rack and all off and put it all up on the pallet racking until I needed it again.
Found it spent 99% of the time on the pallet racking and we tended to take the camper trailer everywhere or swag it in a small tent so we got rid of it.
I also found that awning to be a PITA thus why I said don't bother with it.
I found I had to tie it down to the car if I didn't want to put the walls up as it may take no more than a few mins to put up the walls but they are a pain to fold up again especially if they are wet.
Oh yeah I also had ladder trouble, I almost went through the back window of the Disco one night when the crappy little bracket broke on one side and broke on of the crappy little bolts on the other and turned sideways on me.
Not too far to fall and I think it was more shock than injury that caused the torrent of swearing that followed.
For the right people they are a great idea, for us maybe not so great but I still think it was well worth the try and we had some great times in it even if they were not as frequent as we had initially planned.
Cheers Casper
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Hi Casper,
I have read with interest your comments on roof top tents etc. What you have said has made me look at them in a different light, so thanks for sharing your experiences.
cheers,
Terry
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I bought my roof top from pinnacle Wholesalers on ebay.
This is exactly the same tent as the ARB simpson2 and the pakage came with Tent, Annexe (closed in floor) awning, flyscreen room and ladder extension for my lifted D2.
The whole package was 1/2 of the ARB, tent only, price.
As mentioned by others, you need to weigh up what you expect to use the tent most for and how agile/ fragile you are.;)
A strong hook on the garage roof allows a pully and rope to lift and lower the setup with one person onto the truck or trailer.
I have made brackets to fit the entire roof rack to my trailer depending on what the trip is for.
i.e if it is a touring trip with only 1 overnight required at any given time, then the tent on the roof is great.
If we need/ want to camp/stay longer, then I mount the entire rack to the trailer and then the trailer becomes a camper and ideal for longer stays. I can then use the car for sightseeing etc and dont lose my campsite and dont have to pack up completely.
This setup also lets me use the tailer for general duties also.
cheers
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I picked up a cheapie an ebay a few years ago. The only problem I found was that on one occassion when using it a southerly buster ( approx 50 knots) came through at around 3am. The tent didn't seem to be in any danger of breaking but the whole car shook so badly it made it impossible to sleep. Had to fold it up and lay the front seat down so I could go back to sleep. I would suggest that you keep an eye on the forecast for any strong wind warnings and if possible set up in the lee of something large for protection.
Brett
