Group Buy: Roof Top Tent (RTT) Hard Shell (SOCAL)

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1973Guppie

1973Guppie

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Hi Everyone,

I am considering ordering in 10 roof top tents from one of the chinese roof top tent manufacturers. As you may or may not know all of the roof top tents out there are made in a handful of factories in China. I had a chinese made generic fold over tent before and felt the quality was good for what I paid. Most mfg are simply slapping on a label and importing these. Some I am sure are better at quality control but this comes at a hefty middle man cost.

This is not a thread for debate on the quality of brand name versus chinese made tents. Mfg's please keep your comments to yourself. I am looking to simply save some money by bringing in a lot of tents for other mudders to benefit from. Full Disclosure: basically for doing this I am hoping to get a free tent out of the deal. This is going to be a one time bulk order deal.

From my research others have had good success in importing these tents directly from overseas. I will be using Alibaba and from my research they have assurances in place against losing the funds if the product does not show up or shows up damaged. That being said I can't guarantee the exact quality of the end units. We are collectively taking somewhat of a risk together. I can't be responsible if you are unhappy with the perfect stitching, yadda yadda. For what it is worth I am not worried about it but some folks are more critical than others.

From the quotes I have received the tents should cost $1300 each. The only color that will be available is white plastic with dark grey fabric. I will require a $300 non refundable deposit and will need 9 other people to commit to the group buy. I will be picking these up at the san diego, ca port via a rented uhaul. Tents will be brought to my home in Carlsbad, CA and will have to be picked up there. Balance in cash due upon pickup. I will not ship these. I have been a long time ih8mud member so I am hoping this will carry some weight. I feel I am a part of this community and am not looking to walk with anyone's money.

Please let me know if you are seriously interested in this and willing to put down a deposit when asked. If you are not please don't say you are as it will only give a false impression of mudders true interest.

Thank You,

Noah Baldwin


NEW-Camping-luxury-safari-Hard-Shell-4wd.webp
 
ARB777 said:
Hey noah is it as pictured above? Hard case pop up right? Just curious as of now. Thanks.
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yes that is exactly what the units will look like, thx, if there is enough interest I will start answering questions, really just trying to see if this is possible at this point and if there is an interest level. The cost savings are huge when you order direct. Working on quotes now. They will ship me only one unit and I may just go that route if there is not enough guys interested. Noah
 
1973Guppie said:
yes that is exactly what the units will look like, thx, if there is enough interest I will start answering questions, really just trying to see if this is possible at this point and if there is an interest level. The cost savings are huge when you order direct. Working on quotes now. They will ship me only one unit and I may just go that route if there is not enough guys interested. Noah
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I know the price is great but are you still negotiating or thats pretty much it?
 
ARB777 said:
I know the price is great but are you still negotiating or thats pretty much it?
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it may change as pricing comes in, but that is the best for now, will update, basically going to go with the vendor with best pricing in the 1 unit and 10 unit range, that way I can choose to do either. I will pass savings on to other mudders once I have my unit paid for.
 
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Noah,

I'd be interested in this for sure! I know I have yet to install the other tent I bought from you, but these hardshells have a lot more of the checkboxes checked than soft sided tents do.

Keep me on the list as numbers and specs solidify.

Kraig
 
Just want to chime in on Sunday Campers. I recently imported multiple tents from them via Alibaba. Overall they seem to be good. As the OP noted, most of the tents for sale are made by a handful of companies. We're not even 100% sure Sunday Campers are a manufacturer versus a distributor. With the Chinese vendors it's really hard to tell. The soft tents we received are all quite nice. They're pretty much identical to the tents sold by CVT.

We did order one hard shell. The tent is decent but on this one we had some issues. The latches supplied were not what they indicated and substandard. They're also installed in the wrong location or the bails are too long because as it ships they can easily pop open. With an extra pad and sleeping bag inside this is much less of an issue. There was also minor fiberglass damage (a small hole in the bottom). Speaking of the fiberglass, it's decent but not the highest quality. Overall, for the price it was a good deal and we have no complaints.

All the tents we got were for sample purposes so every one was a different color fabric.

Speaking of the price, beware of "hidden" fees. There were plenty we didn't anticipate from the U.S. based freight forwarders and warehouses (we also brought them into San Diego). If the OP would like more information feel free to contact me.

Good luck!
 
OpenTrackRacer said:
Just want to chime in on Sunday Campers. I recently imported multiple tents from them via Alibaba. Overall they seem to be good. As the OP noted, most of the tents for sale are made by a handful of companies. We're not even 100% sure Sunday Campers are a manufacturer versus a distributor. With the Chinese vendors it's really hard to tell. The soft tents we received are all quite nice. They're pretty much identical to the tents sold by CVT.

We did order one hard shell. The tent is decent but on this one we had some issues. The latches supplied were not what they indicated and substandard. They're also installed in the wrong location or the bails are too long because as it ships they can easily pop open. With an extra pad and sleeping bag inside this is much less of an issue. There was also minor fiberglass damage (a small hole in the bottom). Speaking of the fiberglass, it's decent but not the highest quality. Overall, for the price it was a good deal and we have no complaints.

All the tents we got were for sample purposes so every one was a different color fabric.

Speaking of the price, beware of "hidden" fees. There were plenty we didn't anticipate from the U.S. based freight forwarders and warehouses (we also brought them into San Diego). If the OP would like more information feel free to contact me.

Good luck!
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thx for that, interesting you mention the latches, the lady I was messaging mentioned they have upgraded to metal latches and hooks like it was a big deal, sounds like she gave you the same story but did not come through on it? were the latches plastic?

anyhow I am also trying to source via a vendor called unistrength. Another member in houston @ga89hoss sourced a tent from them and has had good reviews. I am quoting them now but they need to get their shipping costs down to compare with others. They quoted me 1k for shipping which is retarded compared to other vendors that have quoted me $230 to long beach harbor. Since he has had good results it makes sense to use the same vendor.
 
I'm headed out of town for the long weekend but I can give you more info when I get back. The latches were metal but not what they promised and pretty chintzy. We talked to Unistrength as well but decided not to go with them.
 
OpenTrackRacer said:
I'm headed out of town for the long weekend but I can give you more info when I get back. The latches were metal but not what they promised and pretty chintzy. We talked to Unistrength as well but decided not to go with them.
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yeah I am ok somewhat with cheaper hardware as really that kind of stuff I can fix and or swap out myself with upgraded mcmasster car hardware fairly easily if necessary. Was that the only issue with the hardshell tent? how was the fiberglass and fabric?
 
OpenTrackRacer said:
I'm headed out of town for the long weekend but I can give you more info when I get back. The latches were metal but not what they promised and pretty chintzy. We talked to Unistrength as well but decided not to go with them.
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if you can also please post some pics of the hardshell tent you have that would be beneficial, thx.
 
I am very interested.. Let me know via pm if you get the remaining mud members to commit.. Sorry if you covered it, but from the time you put in order, what's the shipping lead time?
 
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