World Traveler III
Let’s be honest; Roof Top Tent- Yay or Nay?
- Thread starter Wanderlost
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Member III
I have many options when I Overland. From a converted bus, 10’ Alaskan pop up camper with my Cummins 4x4 truck, to my Jeep Cherokee. I have 6 different ground tents, big canvas tarp and a nice cot, plus mosquito netting. I sleep in the Cherokee, most of the time, tent the rest. My ground tents, range from Mountaineering quality, to light backpacking, to stand up in camping tents. I can see the practicality of RTTs. But, I have $3000. in my hard sided pop up camper, if I want that security and comfort, I take the truck and camper. The rest of the time I use a ground tent, and use the best one for conditions. 50 plus years as an outdoors junkie, I have gear to choose from! Vance.
Explorer I
I say nay to the roof top tent. My sign picture shows the second trailer I have built with a roof top tent. I have spent many nights in it, some large wind storms. I will say they are comfortable and nice to have however, thats where it ends. For me a ground tent is faster, easier to setup, and lighter. There are down sides to a ground tent that we all know. But I just ran the Mojave Road again for the 4th or 5th time now. Ive done it with trialers, with ground tents, and with roof top tents. I can say that a ground tent with no trailer was the best way. Setup was extremely quick, we where very mobile, and didn't have to worry about dragging a trailer into a situation. Now both of my trailers are built tough but I will admit there was something really nice about just pointing the jeep in a direction and driving without having to think about maneuvering a trailer. I did take some video of the trip if anyone cares to watch it heres the link to the channel. You'll see what I mean about being mobile or even just going into places like sand dunes. This was a solo vehicle trip too.
Explorer I
If you carry a high-lift you could jack up on the slider with a little pressure just to remove the rocking. I know exactly what your talking about. I fixed the issue on my trailer with some extended lift leveling jacks. The idea is just to put just enough pressure on the rig so that springs cant move or the vehicle cant rock side to side. I can say that it takes very little pressure since your just stabilizing and not lifting. That little sway does get annoying!
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We are primarily a ground tent family just because there is 5 of us. But, I wouldn't say no to a RTT. There would be two people in the truck camper shell and 3 in the RTT. For me the attraction of a RTT is being off the ground, but then again being 7 foot off the ground may not be that fun at first either.
Member III
Thanks everyone for keeping this post informative, and positive for both sides of this discussion! Vance.
Great insight. I have always said if I get a trailer due to lack of space I would put a RTT on it. Otherwise I agree its far easier to throw up a tent.
As an old fart I am beyond any kind of tent. But as a young guy mountaineering, a tent was essential. With a young family, tent(s) were again the only affordable choice. When I got married, I assumed a room at the Inn I managed was a no brainer until I was told we were fully booked. So I rented a motorhome, 1980. Used it for the wedding night as well as a camping honeymoon. I've never considered a tent again.
Waking in a campground, watching everyone else scramble in the rain while I was brewing coffee in my shorts, my wife in next to nothing on the bed.... I was sold on solid walls forever.
To me RTTs make less sense and are less practical than an old fashioned tent trailer. Some of which are pretty luxurious. But the biggest drawback to an RTT on the SUV.... is needing to pack it up to go for groceroies or ... Even the ones on an Expo trailer with a ladder, why not just buy a stand up in tent trailer?
Right now, at 64 years old, I prefer cooking outside, I love a full mattress to sleep on and I like a solid roof with hardwalls. So the home built SquareDrop is how we travel. Pull in late, in the dark, roll into bed, go to sleep. Wake up to rain, roll out of bed and drive away. Our trailer is not airtight or water tight but in a rainstorm nothing gets wet.
We had the open deck trailer, I built the SquareBox, used an extra mattress, 6 sheets of OSB 12, 10' 2x4s, a gallon of stain, plate glass from a house we burned down. some gate hardware for hinges. All in with a translucent roof, $800.00. Plus the cooler, camp stove etc we already had. And it tows like it is not there. It will follow my Jeep anywhere. All for less money than an RTT costs.
Plus, end of the season. It all comes apart to store beside the shed. In less space than an RTT takes.
Freeing the trailer to be my pickup.
Some might think my comments are negative but the OP stated....
"Sometimes after spending a lot of money on something we’re reluctant to confess to making a mistake. We’ve heard some RTT owners, in private, tell us it’s like being a boat owner; the two best days are the day they buy it and the day they sell it."
ps, I bought my boat because I thought it was a cool project, a 1970s Simpson Sears package. I've used it once, the project will be complete in a few weeks and it will be for sale.
Just offering my prespective.
Waking in a campground, watching everyone else scramble in the rain while I was brewing coffee in my shorts, my wife in next to nothing on the bed.... I was sold on solid walls forever.
To me RTTs make less sense and are less practical than an old fashioned tent trailer. Some of which are pretty luxurious. But the biggest drawback to an RTT on the SUV.... is needing to pack it up to go for groceroies or ... Even the ones on an Expo trailer with a ladder, why not just buy a stand up in tent trailer?
Right now, at 64 years old, I prefer cooking outside, I love a full mattress to sleep on and I like a solid roof with hardwalls. So the home built SquareDrop is how we travel. Pull in late, in the dark, roll into bed, go to sleep. Wake up to rain, roll out of bed and drive away. Our trailer is not airtight or water tight but in a rainstorm nothing gets wet.
We had the open deck trailer, I built the SquareBox, used an extra mattress, 6 sheets of OSB 12, 10' 2x4s, a gallon of stain, plate glass from a house we burned down. some gate hardware for hinges. All in with a translucent roof, $800.00. Plus the cooler, camp stove etc we already had. And it tows like it is not there. It will follow my Jeep anywhere. All for less money than an RTT costs.
Plus, end of the season. It all comes apart to store beside the shed. In less space than an RTT takes.
Freeing the trailer to be my pickup.
Some might think my comments are negative but the OP stated....
"Sometimes after spending a lot of money on something we’re reluctant to confess to making a mistake. We’ve heard some RTT owners, in private, tell us it’s like being a boat owner; the two best days are the day they buy it and the day they sell it."
ps, I bought my boat because I thought it was a cool project, a 1970s Simpson Sears package. I've used it once, the project will be complete in a few weeks and it will be for sale.
Just offering my prespective.
Last edited:
JButtress
Rank VI
Traveler II
I wish I found this thread about a month or two ago. I just bought a rebuilt M1013A trailer with a CVT roof top trailer. The trailer is awesome, and the tent is also as well. But...being in North Carolina (i'm from California), I find myself constantly worried or doubting about back roads and tracks and getting to a dead end that I won't be able to turn around in.
I have towed in the past, but not enough to feel completely comfortable with and have realized on the couple trips I've taken the trailer on...I find myself more worried about getting stuck at the end of road...then truly enjoying the experience. I have a Chevy Silverado...so i'm hoping to sell the trailer/rtt and get a rack & RTT to go on the bed for better maneuverability and comfort in exploring.
I have towed in the past, but not enough to feel completely comfortable with and have realized on the couple trips I've taken the trailer on...I find myself more worried about getting stuck at the end of road...then truly enjoying the experience. I have a Chevy Silverado...so i'm hoping to sell the trailer/rtt and get a rack & RTT to go on the bed for better maneuverability and comfort in exploring.
If you have room to turn the truck around. Knife the trailer and drop it. Turn the truck around and recouple.
Boostpowered
Rank VI
Member III
Answer both yes and no. We got a cheap 3 season 2 person pop up tent 7ftx4.5ft sometimes its on the ground sometimes it goes on my contractors rack. All depends if ground is rocky or wet, windy, what kind of wildlife is in the area, ammount of room on the ground, beach or mountains and if we feel like climbing up into it or not. I dont get to run around looking cool with a box on top but it works for us. I was not willing to pay all that money for a true rtt either my tent was like 35 bucks on amazon.
Enthusiast III
I'm a happy RTT owner.
We're a family of 5, where I'm being the only one who's raising camp while the wife occupies herself taking care of the kids or cooking dinner. It takes me about 5 to 10 minutes to have our 2 RTT's deployed and sleep ready (mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows, teddybears,...) and get me a cold beer ready. Doing this for 5 persons with a regular ground tent would take me a lot more time, especially with the kids running around. Folding everything in the next day does take me some additional time, but about 30 minutes mostly covers it. It is true that once the camp is deployed, you can't easily take your car to go somewhere but normally when we build camp, it is to stay and enjoy the surroundings.
What I also like about the RTT's is the views. Being elevated provides you with magnificent views that stretch a tidy bit further then being on the ground. We enjoyed this the most when were travelling with our RTT true Africa where it also provided us with an additional safety being elevated from the ground.
Here at the Southern Coast of France, being elevated allowed us to look over the bushes looking down at the bay.
Another advantage if you have 2 RTT's is that you can dry your laundry in between the 2 ladders if there are no trees in the area!
We're a family of 5, where I'm being the only one who's raising camp while the wife occupies herself taking care of the kids or cooking dinner. It takes me about 5 to 10 minutes to have our 2 RTT's deployed and sleep ready (mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows, teddybears,...) and get me a cold beer ready. Doing this for 5 persons with a regular ground tent would take me a lot more time, especially with the kids running around. Folding everything in the next day does take me some additional time, but about 30 minutes mostly covers it. It is true that once the camp is deployed, you can't easily take your car to go somewhere but normally when we build camp, it is to stay and enjoy the surroundings.
What I also like about the RTT's is the views. Being elevated provides you with magnificent views that stretch a tidy bit further then being on the ground. We enjoyed this the most when were travelling with our RTT true Africa where it also provided us with an additional safety being elevated from the ground.
Here at the Southern Coast of France, being elevated allowed us to look over the bushes looking down at the bay.
Another advantage if you have 2 RTT's is that you can dry your laundry in between the 2 ladders if there are no trees in the area!
World Traveler III
JButtress
Rank VI
Traveler II
I dont think I've ever seen 2 RTT's on one rack hahaI'm a happy RTT owner.
We're a family of 5, where I'm being the only one who's raising camp while the wife occupies herself taking care of the kids or cooking dinner. It takes me about 5 to 10 minutes to have our 2 RTT's deployed and sleep ready (mattresses, sleeping bags, pillows, teddybears,...) and get me a cold beer ready. Doing this for 5 persons with a regular ground tent would take me a lot more time, especially with the kids running around. Folding everything in the next day does take me some additional time, but about 30 minutes mostly covers it. It is true that once the camp is deployed, you can't easily take your car to go somewhere but normally when we build camp, it is to stay and enjoy the surroundings.
What I also like about the RTT's is the views. Being elevated provides you with magnificent views that stretch a tidy bit further then being on the ground. We enjoyed this the most when were travelling with our RTT true Africa where it also provided us with an additional safety being elevated from the ground.
View attachment 106105
Here at the Southern Coast of France, being elevated allowed us to look over the bushes looking down at the bay.
View attachment 106106
Another advantage if you have 2 RTT's is that you can dry your laundry in between the 2 ladders if there are no trees in the area!
Enthusiast III
Having an Eezi Awn Series 3 140 and an Eezi Awn Xclusive 160 up there, I'm a bit top heavy but I can still manage to hang to 40° without tipping over.
It's not ideal as ultimate offroader but it suits us well as our ultimate overlander ;-)
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If you can test one out, even briefly, you'll get a better idea. I believe the consensus from my local Overland group is they have a place and a purpose on their rigs. Personally, I want one for the fact that I can store all the bedding up there, no need for sleeping pads, clothes can store up there, easy setup/tear down, less footprint while dispersed camping, built-in awning on some models when it opens up. All around it seems to fix a lot of the ground tent issues I have experienced in my nearly 30 years experience. The cons I see so far aside from cost would be that most take up the whole roof so you can't use that for gear, more weight up top, more than likely you'll need to purchase a rack capable of handling the added dynamic and static weight, leveling the rig when parked (questionable issue), being so far off the ground (one kiddo sleepwalks, I have 2 dogs and one is blind, overcoming the lack of clarity when waking up to go pee in the middle of the night. I can address all the cons. Generally you get what you pay for in a tent, so spending the money isn't too bad, especially since the RTT opens up many other opportunities, and you'll more than likely sleep better. Since it takes up all or most of the roof space, some models can have things mounts on the outside, but more space is freed up inside ( at least it is for me) so it might work itself out. More weight up top can be an issue on the trail, but if you're already running fully loaded on trails, then it's not that much different. The better rack needed isn't all that bad aside from more money to be spent. It'll hold up to the abuse and if you remove the RTT, you can store more up top than over stock. Leveling the rig is almost like finding a level spot for your tent, except you have more control by adding traction mats or rocks under the tires. Being far off the ground is a major con from my perspective, especially since the blind dog likes to escape (he figured out how to open the zipper on the ground tent at OXW and escaped the first night), but that can be remedied. The kiddo didn't seem to sleepwalk at all while camping so that's a plus but still a concern. If I have to get up in the middle of the night, I'll already have to be fully awake to get up and get out of the tent, so not a big issue. Really the only con I see aside from cost of both the RTT and rack (which is justifiable) is the space loss ifyou store gear on the roof like I do. I have a solution that I built in the way of a hitch basket, which can be better utilized than I've done so far. Gear can find a new home, be replaced with something better suited to the new needs of the rig, or you can figure out how to do without. I have a ton of experience with backpacking and bikepacking to know what you absolutely need and don't need given the lack of storage space and the amount of weight you can carry. There are always options out there to make it work, and if you're ok with having multiple types of gear, you can have a versatile setup for almost any situation.
Boostpowered
Rank VI
Member III
Im curious how tight of trails yall go on with the rtt, as we all know pinstriping is a real thing, do any of you worry or have had a tent get ripped open by a rouge tree branch?
Enthusiast III
I don't, but my tent has an aluminum shell. It's an Alu-Cab.
Enthusiast III
The eezi awns soft shells are pretty robust. The covers are made of some sort of PVC. They are quite heavy but they can take a beating. I got some serious scratches on them but I never got thru. I got some friends that wrap them into additional plastic bags. I'll try to upload a video later of some beating that it went thru and survived.
