Our kids are getting older and it appears, less interested in camping with their parents. This change, is causing us to rethink the utility of our current roof top tent and contemplate what to replace it with.
The current RTT is an Eze Awn 1.8. Its in great shape and it's huge inside, california king sized to be exact. It also weighs 100kg. Canvas, wood and steel aren't light. When we got it the boys were young and all of us could sleep comfortably up top. Now they're teens and they're happy with ground tents (the fact that we're not in Africa anymore made the RTT to ground tent transition easy for them). With only two of us camping a smaller RTT is in the cards.
The two I'm interested in are the new version of the IKamper mini and the Maggiolina AirLand +. Right now I'm leaning toward the iKamper mainly because it won't take up the whole roof rack so I can still put some load out cases, our gas bottle and a couple of jerry cans up top with it. I'd have to reconfigure the rack a bit, move our awning to the opposite side (the iKamper has a directional cover) but that's it. The caveat is I'm getting older so putting those things up top is becoming more of a hassle.
I like the Maggiolina as it appears to set up and take down faster and be a tried and true design. The fact that it takes up the entire rack has a knock on effect however. Where do I put the rest of the stuff I used to carry on the roof. I'm thinking the answer is bumper but that doubles the cost of the project (because I don't have one). Presumably, if I go this route I could stop using the Safari rack all together and just use a couple of cross bars, which further saves weight, but the down side of losing the rack is my camp table stores underneath so I'd have to find a new spot for that as well.
Urgh.
Other salient info.. I don't keep the rack or the tent on all the time. The rack usually goes on in the spring off in the fall. The tent goes on and off throughout spring - fall camping season. A ground tent for us is out. The wife has grown way to accustomed to being up off the ground and using real bedding.
I'd love to hear other folks thoughts on the matter. What would you do given the circumstance? Any better ideas?
Cheers,
Chris
Anyone in the Seattle area (or willing to travel to pick up) want to buy a used Eze Awn 1.8?
The current RTT is an Eze Awn 1.8. Its in great shape and it's huge inside, california king sized to be exact. It also weighs 100kg. Canvas, wood and steel aren't light. When we got it the boys were young and all of us could sleep comfortably up top. Now they're teens and they're happy with ground tents (the fact that we're not in Africa anymore made the RTT to ground tent transition easy for them). With only two of us camping a smaller RTT is in the cards.
The two I'm interested in are the new version of the IKamper mini and the Maggiolina AirLand +. Right now I'm leaning toward the iKamper mainly because it won't take up the whole roof rack so I can still put some load out cases, our gas bottle and a couple of jerry cans up top with it. I'd have to reconfigure the rack a bit, move our awning to the opposite side (the iKamper has a directional cover) but that's it. The caveat is I'm getting older so putting those things up top is becoming more of a hassle.
I like the Maggiolina as it appears to set up and take down faster and be a tried and true design. The fact that it takes up the entire rack has a knock on effect however. Where do I put the rest of the stuff I used to carry on the roof. I'm thinking the answer is bumper but that doubles the cost of the project (because I don't have one). Presumably, if I go this route I could stop using the Safari rack all together and just use a couple of cross bars, which further saves weight, but the down side of losing the rack is my camp table stores underneath so I'd have to find a new spot for that as well.
Urgh.
Other salient info.. I don't keep the rack or the tent on all the time. The rack usually goes on in the spring off in the fall. The tent goes on and off throughout spring - fall camping season. A ground tent for us is out. The wife has grown way to accustomed to being up off the ground and using real bedding.
I'd love to hear other folks thoughts on the matter. What would you do given the circumstance? Any better ideas?
Cheers,
Chris
Anyone in the Seattle area (or willing to travel to pick up) want to buy a used Eze Awn 1.8?
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