Thread: Roof Tents......

Hi Jerryd
the specs mention the weight at about 49kg for the extended model ...interested to understand where the extra 32kg comes from... or might they have changed the specs? did you buy the so-called "utility"tent with it?

Hi Hoges,
The tent I purchased is the basecamp model, I think it's now a discontinued line. The annexe is actually part of the main tent and cannot be seperated. I do believe it's slightly larger than their other models that they sell, or at least that's what I've been told.

It's also proper canvas and not the ripstop canvas, which is much lighter I'm told. So maybe this is why it's so heavy. I'll post a couple of pics when I set it up on sunday.At the moment it's sitting on the roofrack all boxed up, so it will be interesting to unwrap it and secure it

Evening all,

Further to what tent to use, has anyone used two rooftop tents on top of a Discovery?

I want to try and fit my wife, 8 year old, 6 year old and myself.

Also, does anyone know how much weight you could place on the roof of a discovery before you would start causing issues. I was thinking that you would require minimum of four mounting points either side for the rack as a base of the tents.

Cheers,

CJT

I built my own roof top camper based on the campers you could hire from WA. There is a similar commercial one built by megallan (or something like it) from Italy.
It has a flat bottom with a fibreglass lid over the bed. Hinges at the front and makes a triangle when raised. At the highest point I can stand up (6ft.).
I made the roof rack with a full length gutter brace. I haven't weighed the unit but I'm guessing around 60-70kg. You then add the weight of two adults, (jumping around) you should have as much support for the gutters as you can I feel.
I used to have a 88 Range Rover but now have a 96 TDI Disco, so had to extend the legs of the roofrack. Even with that and the weight of the camper on top of the vehicle, I hardly notice it driving down the road. If I was seriously offroading and getting it on a lean then I might be more nervous but general normal driving and average off road then it is not a problem.

I had a play with the roof tent this afternoon, took about 15 mins to set up as I'm a complete novice Discovered that my homemade rack is seriously too high as you can see in the pics.

I 'm quite pleased with it apart from the ladder is not long enough, so I'm going to make an extension piece for it. Looks like I'll have to re think the roofrack too.

All in all quality seems very good, first outing is to Castle Hill so we'll be putting it to the test

Here are a couple of photo's of my homemade camper.
I had to make the roof rack legs high enough to clear the roof bars, this gave me enough space to slot the ladder in between the car roof and the camper.
The only down side to the long legs is the flexing I am getting, I can feel the roof rack rock a little as I'm driving down the road with my hand on one of the legs. So I am going to have to do more bracing to make it ridged.

Because of the stepped roof line I have a considerable gap in the front. Not sure yet if I will fill it in with something but it doesn't seem to make much difference driving down the road unless your pushing gale force winds, but then you'll have a battle just the same without the camper on.

And no the camper doesn't rock bad in the wind, the stability of the vehicle hold's it quite steady. It is 6ft at it's peak so that I can stand up inside.

Originally Posted by jerryd

I had a play with the roof tent this afternoon, took about 15 mins to set up as I'm a complete novice Discovered that my homemade rack is seriously too high as you can see in the pics.

I 'm quite pleased with it apart from the ladder is not long enough, so I'm going to make an extension piece for it. Looks like I'll have to re think the roofrack too.

All in all quality seems very good, first outing is to Castle Hill so we'll be putting it to the test

So jerryd,,,,, how'd the new tent go,, the girls said we need one, so Im frantically researching before she changes her mind,,,

Originally Posted by Chops

So jerryd,,,,, how'd the new tent go,, the girls said we need one, so Im frantically researching before she changes her mind,,,

Hi Chops,
We've been away twice now and used the roof tent, Castle Hill was not a good experience as it was so cold and windy. But we've just spent a long weekend at Neurum Creek and thoroughly enjoyed it. The tent works fine and seems reasonable quality for the money The ladder is the only thing that lets it down as it has round rungs which are not too kind on your feet, but I'm going to fit some timber treads to it.

If I was to whinge about anything else about it, it would be that as the annexe is sewn in to the tent it's impossible to do a quick "pack up and go" as it takes about twenty minutes and is a bit tricky in the wind The mattress could be better too but now I'm being a "whinging pom"

Overall I'm very pleased with it, the tent part is big enough for my two lads to sleep in and I also like the awnings over the windows which give a bit of shelter from the elements.