Thread: tent on a roof & storage system.

All this talk of small kids reminds me of how we used to go camping with a cot. Yep!! A cot. A small one that folded flat with the legs cut off...worked a treat.

Numpty's Missus

Boy am I glad to see all this talk about camping with kids. I thought i was the only one. We have tried caravans, camper trailers and tents all have their own pit falls. Regardless they all take 30min to set up and pack up. I can set up our dome tent, the kitchen and blow up the beds and crack a beer befor my mate finishes with his camper trailer.

Roof top tents are great for over night stops but the suck for anything over that. Go for a long week end with one and you either stay put or pack up every time you want to go for a drive. We brought a ship shape roof top but decided against using it for this reason. We will onsell it and put the money into a quality box trailer.

We took our four and six year olds to the cape this year and they had a ball, but it is easier now they will play while we pack up. we take turns with the duties I do the major set up while the wife does the kids then she dose tne minor details while I play with the kids and have the first beer, or coffee if we are packing up.

Originally Posted by Captain_Rightfoot

I've been talking to the Hannibal distributor/importer in QLD.

He seems to be very helpfull and is going to do a demo just for us of the 1600x2.4 M one. I think this would last us until we don't want the kids sleeping with us anymore. That should be at least 5 years.

Then apparently there are annexes that can be attached to it. We must stay focused on the goal of all this and that is to have a quick setup though

how did the demo go

have you thought about the 'i need to go to the toilet in the middle of the night tap on the shoulder'

Small kids - you don't want them falling out of a roof-top tent - I have one 2 year-old and you have 2 little ones.... need eyes in the back of your head and I personally would not risk her crawling out of a tent 7 foot off the ground.

What I have (not tried with the little one yet) is a 10x8 touring tent - enough space to fit 4 adults comfortably, set up take less then 5 minutes: if I am slack it's 4 pegs and the centre pole. With that I had a self-inflating mattress: unclip strps let it self-inflate... rolling it up took a bit longer. It ain't that heavy for me (16kg) and it packs quite flat. Used to live at the bottom of my SII. Good zips and mesh kept the unwanted guests out.

The mattress was just chucked in the back at the end... after a few days you get to be an expert of folding the tent and it takes less and less time to set up and put away. If you're close to town and run out of milk (or worse - beer) and the little ones are asleep you can leave them one of you and get more supplies. Dare ya to drive away with the kids in a roof-top

If you have the space, port-cot is not a bad idea - you can use it at night and also as a play-pan during the day.


Laura - Cape York, 2000

Originally Posted by Turtle61

If you're close to town and run out of milk (or worse - beer) and the little ones are asleep you can leave them one of you and get more supplies. Dare ya to drive away with the kids in a roof-top

Very good point dare having to drive away in the middle of the night for an emergency. Of course we all would not want to find a situation when off relaxing and 4WDing.
Personally in this drought parched land we live in if I woke up to a bush fire about to roar through or a snake bite, I would like to just leave the tent start the car and put it in D.
If you have kids and feel the tent thing is to much wait and save for a Camp Trailer.

Ok... the update is we haven't had the demo! I am still procrastinating on this. I just don't know what to do!

I like the idea of the rooftop tent for the following reasons.

1. quick to set up.
2. up and away from pests (could be a positive for a cape trip)

The downsides are.

1. Can't go anywhere and leave it set up.
2. Heavy on the roof and expensive.
3. Falling out of bed.
4. Even a 1600x2400 one will be quite small for 4 people. It will only be useable for 5 years tops until the kids get bigger.

We already have a tourer tent. The problem is not packing the tent so much as all the bedding. I really need a solution that enables me to fold the tent and all the bedding into a bag or something and whack it up on the roof.

None of the people we travel with have kids, and there is just too much work with kids to keep up with them. I need a competitive advantage so that packup and setup isn't stressful.

As I was riding on the bus last night I thought about making a fibreglass box to stuff the tent into that could then be slid up on the roof. **sigh**

there no way megs would have ever travelled the trips you are doing with two little one 3 or there abouts and under, actually megs does not rough it any more

are you planning on fitting a roof rack or is your roof storage limited to the capsule thingy that i think you purchased

if you go the full roof rack than i think the quickest will be your tourer along with swags. swags i like as its only 1 minute to roll up/roll out and everthing is together matress, sheets, doona, pj's, pillow, tourch etc downside is they take a lot of room.

i'm not convinced you will be able to reduce your setup time by a big margin

is the pplan still to do the canning stock route, how many weeks for the whole trip return to brizzy

Originally Posted by weeds

there no way megs would have ever travelled the trips you are doing with two little one 3 or there abouts and under, actually megs does not rough it any more

are you planning on fitting a roof rack or is your roof storage limited to the capsule thingy that i think you purchased

if you go the full roof rack than i think the quickest will be your tourer along with swags. swags i like as its only 1 minute to roll up/roll out and everthing is together matress, sheets, doona, pj's, pillow, tourch etc downside is they take a lot of room.

i'm not convinced you will be able to reduce your setup time by a big margin

is the pplan still to do the canning stock route, how many weeks for the whole trip return to brizzy

Roughly the plan is through the simpson again (why not??) and then up the canning. The time is 6-8 weeks at this stage. The details though are still hazy. Any of the above could still change but that's what I'm working on.

I know I'll probably have to buy a roof rack of some description. It depends on what way we go with all of this as to what I do with the roof. I'm sure the rooftop tent is the quickest. I know I'll only get 4-5 years out of it at best though. I just don't know yet, but time is a ticking :O

I'm determined not to leave it to the last minute like last time. I want to have all the car improvements finalised by a proposed Fraser trip in March. I think MR could write it into their business plan