Thread: Roof top tents

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

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