The best question someone asked me about my build came before I even began building my Land Cruiser. Nate Day (@somedayadventure) and his dad asked me, “What do you envision for your truck?” At first I was like, “Something cool, big tires, and off road brah!” They laughed at me, I cried ugly tears, Nate didn’t understand, I just needed him to care. It was a real heart breaking moment.
So then I thought about it. We are a family of four who loves the outdoors, seeks adventure, and wants to see the back roads of the United States. I did not want us to be confined to conventional campgrounds and supermarket stores. I knew I needed to solve three very important components, sleep space, food needs, and overall storage.
Sleep space was an obvious answer, a roof top tent (RTT) is the only choice. The advantages of a RTT over a standard poll tent are numerous; elevation off the ground from animals, setup is substantially faster, four season capability, sleep capacity with a comfortable mattress, and overall “bad-assery!” It also frees up space by not lugging around a conventional tent. Only disadvantage is I’ll have to pack it up every morning to hit the trails. (10 minutes of work at max, so not a big deal to me.)
So, who makes the best RTT for the money? Is Tepui better than CVT? ARB over Smittybuilt? Hard shell over Canvas? For me, I needed my RTT to accomplish the following, super comfortable (major back injury at 14 still haunts me), easy to setup and take down, sleeps four, overall quality/durability, fits my roof and factory load bars, and provides a solid annex space. Also high on my priority list is small business support, cool company/people behind the product, and customer service.
Ultimately one company stood out for me; Cascadia Vehicle Tents and their Mt. Rainer Extended Stargazer Pioneer paired with their 72 inch awning. This thing checked all the boxes for me. Bobby, the owner of CVT is an American boy with a whole lot of heart and an amazing personality. He answered all my questions, made sure I was getting what my family needed and truly cared about his tents. The tent sleeps 3+ in its 72x96 3 inch memory foam mattress sleeping area. It has an annex with a floor which can handle an extra cot, and provides a great changing/storage area out of the elements. Since having the tent we’ve spent almost 20 days in it. We’ve camped in 24 degrees with rainfall in the mountains to 80 degrees at the beach. It’s held up like a champ and my family loves it.
Up next... Food!
