opinions on roof top tents

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@concretejungle All interesting points and I appreciate hearing your thoughts on it. Do you mind saying what type of folding tent you had before? I have a guess. ;)

I'll see if I can get a good photo of the mesh used on the Tepui windows. They even call it "no-see-um" mesh specifically because of those small gnats you mentioned.
 
I honestly would have to look back at it to remember what brand my old tent was. It wasn't ARB or any of the main ones and it was about 3 years old when i got it, 3 years ago. It was made by one of the factories in China and i know the cover was made by a company in the US.

I feel confident it was not as high quality as the Tepui tents.

I think a flip pack type tent would be the most attractive one in my opinion. It really doesn't need to have the huge thick poles... i would use real light backpacking type poles and a nice light backpacking fabric like a north face tent for example. Then you can add the rain fly as needed. it would fold over the front hood and brace itself on your front bumper. I'm no engineer but that would be my choice if it was possible.
 
I finally got a chance to try out my new ARB S3 and it was awesome. I was originally going to sleep in the back of the truck on a drawer platform, even bought the mattress, but having such a big space to hang out and sleep in with the RTT was truly great. I'm so glad I went this way instead. I'm a big guy and would have been too cramped inside the rig. It's comfy, spacious, and I slept quite well.














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Any surfers out there tried to use an RTT while travelling with surfboards? Where the heck would I put my 9'6" and 7'2" if I had a big old tent up top?
 
JamesJohnson said:
I'm a big fan of Adventure Sole RT (www.adventuresolert.com) which is headquartered not to far away from me in Spokane, WA. They build great tents and are always competitively priced.

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I bought a RTT a few months ago and prior to that I cant tell you how many times and ways I searched Roof Top Tents or RTT's and NEVER saw these. I might have gotten the large 78" wide one for roughly the same as I paid for my ARB. It's not that mine is too small or anything but, DAMN, that sounds nice!

I just don't get why I never heard of them.




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A few of the james baroud tents have racks on them. They are strong enough to pop open with a large tire on the rack, so i would think a few surfboards would be no problem.
 
I have a Front Runner full rack and their "Tall" RTT mounts that give about 2-3" of space under the tent and above the rack that I currently use to store a folding table. Later I may rig up water storage under there too. I would imagine you could fab up some taller mounts to fit surfboards under there. Or perhaps modding some ladder racks on each side to carry boards.
 
JCruse said:
I have a Front Runner full rack and their "Tall" RTT mounts that give about 2-3" of space under the tent and above the rack that I currently use to store a folding table. Later I may rig up water storage under there too. I would imagine you could fab up some taller mounts to fit surfboards under there. Or perhaps modding some ladder racks on each side to carry boards.
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Thank you guys for the ideas... I'm thinking about doing something like what JCruse mentioned with a Front Runner rack and a small gap under the tent. Only need about 4" maybe 5" at most since the board is ~3" thick plus a bag and some rocker.
 
JCruse said:
I finally got a chance to try out my new ARB S3 and it was awesome. I was originally going to sleep in the back of the truck on a drawer platform, even bought the mattress, but having such a big space to hang out and sleep in with the RTT was truly great. I'm so glad I went this way instead. I'm a big guy and would have been too cramped inside the rig. It's comfy, spacious, and I slept quite well.














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Nice setup and nice spot! Where is that location?
 
i love my tepui RTT. its a great tent. Has held up during some super s***ty rain storms, wind , snow and sun. Kept me and my fiance high and dry every time. the only downside is having to break it down any time you want to drive your rig. So to fix that issue, I will be on the lookout for another trailer to put my tent on. That way I can unhook while I go explore.
 
My personal opinion on the comments about having to take it down to drive around... yes and i'm not being a smart a$$ but so what!? Why not just wait until you are ready to park for the evening before you deploy it? My JB pops up in about 45 seconds. The fold over tents usually don't take longer than 5 minutes maximum to deploy, so just wait....
 
Like I said its my only complaint. And obviously not bad enough for me to ditch the RTT. When its time to pack up, all four rain flys need to be taken down, make the bed, fold it up and climb up each side to secure everything, then throw the cover on. on some mornings there is a lot of dew or rain that makes the tent wet. I hate knowing that my tent is being sealed up while being wet. if I had it on a trailer i could let the tent dry out longer during the day before it had to be packed up.
 
85x said:
Any surfers out there tried to use an RTT while travelling with surfboards? Where the heck would I put my 9'6" and 7'2" if I had a big old tent up top?
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Only 1 RTT made with real additional weight carrying capabilities:flipoff2:and it was made in the USA:grinpimp:

Copy of ebae48ae.webp
 
concretejungle said:
I agree, putting the RTT up wet really sucks.
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Living in the PacNorWest, I've packed my CVT hard shell away wet with no problems. And I mean wet -Willamette Valley wet. No big mystery - the joint between the halfs allows air to pass, but keeps out water. This allows ventilation to dry the tent fabric. Somehow it keeps the dust infiltration to a minimum, also. The joint is just an overlap on 3 sides (left, right and rear). Since it pivots on the front side, it's sealed. It works amazingly well - 3 years now. It's pretty obvious to see how the larger soft shell tents suffer from having to be folded up and then a watertight traveling cover installed. More tent fabric to dry out with less ventilation. It is what it is - larger tents require a bit more attention to avoid mold/mildew damage.
 
85x said:
Any surfers out there tried to use an RTT while travelling with surfboards? Where the heck would I put my 9'6" and 7'2" if I had a big old tent up top?
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I want to know if anybody has any ideas. I would like to be able to carry my surfboards or SUP's with my RTT
 
If your rack goes out beyond the tent (even just a bit) add some rails that are taller than the tent.
that way, the board sits on the roof rack and not the tent. Easy peasy..
 
lcgeek said:
Nice setup and nice spot! Where is that location?
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That is a barrier beach on southern Long Island NY, specifically the south side of Fire Island inlet.
 
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