i was a rookie seven years ago when i purchased my used maggiolina and here's what i found and why i'm thrilled i went hardshell.
i arranged to meet up with the seller in slc on the agreement he would be up bright and early to help me get it mounted so i could meet three others in laramie that afternoon for a 9 day trip. two in 94s with 33" tires, myself and another in 95s with 35" tires. i had the maggiolina, one had a mombassa fold over, one had an eezi awn fold over, and the fourth had a roof rack with 20 glns of fuel, so all about the same setup.
three days in , we rolled into farson to fuel up, the other three were on fumes, i had 1/8 tank. after that, i started paying a bit more attention to fuel consumption, monitoring my scangauge and the maggiolina affects mileage minimally enough that it's not noticable.
while on the trip, we camped at the base of an enormous sand dune in the killpecker dunes. it was windy, so while i sat in the car watching mike spend 20 minutes fighting to get his eezi awn set up and staked down, i figured i could wait since it took one minute to set my tent up. the wind never did die down and his tent ended up with damage from the wind and trying to get it folded up and ratcheted down so we could get the heck out of there. i've since been out in horribly windy conditions multiple times and no issues at all.
no matter which way i parked, i could get into my tent. i didn't need to worry about having a specific side with a lot more space than the other. i didn't need to worry about any side having any space at all, just overhead space with all rtts need. i can get in on either side and if i have enough room to open the doors, i have more than enough room for my ladder.
lastly i learned that they're a pita for tall people and i'm short, so no way could i set one up. you have to be able to climb up onto the roof rack to deal with the straps and the cover, you have to be able to reach up to get to the ladder on the top and "gently fold the tent open". i can not do that. with the hardshell, i just undo three clips, get on the tailgate and crank it up.
things i miss out on are extra space on the rack for fuel/firewood/whatever and an overhang, which doesn't seem like much, but your entrance is covered and you can hang muddy boots off the ladder and you have a small patch of shade underneath.
since that first trip, i've also realized how much more durable hardshells are. mine already had some spiderwebbing from a po putting the ladder in wrong and cranking it down...i just this last year got around to patching it. it wasn't leaking, i just figured it was time. i have used my tent to push trees up as i've driven under them. they were small, yes, but i could do it. not going to happen with a soft shell. i've had tree branches try to gouge the side of the tent. with a soft shell, you're at least dropping a couple hundred on a new cover. no issues with my hardshell.
i arranged to meet up with the seller in slc on the agreement he would be up bright and early to help me get it mounted so i could meet three others in laramie that afternoon for a 9 day trip. two in 94s with 33" tires, myself and another in 95s with 35" tires. i had the maggiolina, one had a mombassa fold over, one had an eezi awn fold over, and the fourth had a roof rack with 20 glns of fuel, so all about the same setup.
three days in , we rolled into farson to fuel up, the other three were on fumes, i had 1/8 tank. after that, i started paying a bit more attention to fuel consumption, monitoring my scangauge and the maggiolina affects mileage minimally enough that it's not noticable.
while on the trip, we camped at the base of an enormous sand dune in the killpecker dunes. it was windy, so while i sat in the car watching mike spend 20 minutes fighting to get his eezi awn set up and staked down, i figured i could wait since it took one minute to set my tent up. the wind never did die down and his tent ended up with damage from the wind and trying to get it folded up and ratcheted down so we could get the heck out of there. i've since been out in horribly windy conditions multiple times and no issues at all.
no matter which way i parked, i could get into my tent. i didn't need to worry about having a specific side with a lot more space than the other. i didn't need to worry about any side having any space at all, just overhead space with all rtts need. i can get in on either side and if i have enough room to open the doors, i have more than enough room for my ladder.
lastly i learned that they're a pita for tall people and i'm short, so no way could i set one up. you have to be able to climb up onto the roof rack to deal with the straps and the cover, you have to be able to reach up to get to the ladder on the top and "gently fold the tent open". i can not do that. with the hardshell, i just undo three clips, get on the tailgate and crank it up.
things i miss out on are extra space on the rack for fuel/firewood/whatever and an overhang, which doesn't seem like much, but your entrance is covered and you can hang muddy boots off the ladder and you have a small patch of shade underneath.
since that first trip, i've also realized how much more durable hardshells are. mine already had some spiderwebbing from a po putting the ladder in wrong and cranking it down...i just this last year got around to patching it. it wasn't leaking, i just figured it was time. i have used my tent to push trees up as i've driven under them. they were small, yes, but i could do it. not going to happen with a soft shell. i've had tree branches try to gouge the side of the tent. with a soft shell, you're at least dropping a couple hundred on a new cover. no issues with my hardshell.
