Roof Top Tent Considerations.

[Polaris Overland]

I had an opportunity to help a mate install and to get a look at the Maggiolina Carbon Fibre hard shell roof top tent.

I had looked at these thinking they would make a good replacement for my Hannibal 1.6m Roof Tent.

The attraction was the lighter weight and the speed and ease of setting up and taking down.

In this sense it did not disappoint.
The build quality was great and two people was enough to lift it onto the Defender roof.

But there in things started to get more dufficult.
There is a ubolt clamping system that appears to be designed for installing it on roof bars rather than a roof rack. And if you have a low profile roof rack then it is almost impossible to access the clamp bolts unless you bolt it to the rack first then fit the rack.

Being a hard shell tent it has a large footprint on the rack but it still fit on the front runner roof rack with a little space either side. This gave an added problem.
The winding handle for rIsing and lowering the the tent was only a few inches long so keeps fouling the edge of the roof rack. Something to consider when you are planning to on fitting one to your roof rack.

Finally the latches for clamping the tent closed are large and fitted at the very base of the tent case. This means they can be an issue if your roof rack has little space between the slats or a solid base as you cannot lower them enough to release.

None of these problems cannot be overcome but all should be considered when you are looking at the Roof Tent market. Consider your roof rack set up and how you will get around these issues.

In our case we engineered a longer barrel on the winding handle and cut away a slot for the rear clamp on the tent. The ubolts were secured by lifting the rack from the roll cage and securing the tent then bolting it all back down.

With the tent set up it was not as big as I had expected. It raises a maximum 90 inches so head height was ok but not roomy enough to spend a lot of time inside in for instance poor weather.
Access was a side ladder which is fine but has no protection from the poor weather but the ladder can be fitted at either side of the tent to the Lee side if there is one.

Finally the price. In the UK the cost of the Maggiolina Carbon Fibre Medium is £4865.00
This is not a small amount of money and for that money I would have expected better or additional clamping options to come with it.

So for me the Pros and Cons once installed and in use are:-

Pros:- weight, build quality, looks, ease of set up, aerodynamics

Cons:- poor weather access, space inside, cost.

Hopefully the above will help some of you guys out there when considering roof tents.
No roof tents are paricularily cheap and bearing in mind a bad choice of roof tent can ruin your whole outdoor experience it makes sense to do a lot of research before you hand over your hard earned cash.

I have a Hannibal 1.6m fold out roof tent that has worked well for us. However packing it away is not as easy as the Maggiolina and it is certainly not aerodynamic. Also the weight especially when fitted high up on a Land Rover can and does affect vehicle stability.

The Canvas cover is affected by the sun and UV damage is apparent. But set up in poor weather it has a covered porch and we have the additional room if we want to fit it meaning we can climb into the tent dry.

So when it comes to making your roof tent choices, do your research, consider installation on your specific roof rack, consider the predominant weather it will be used in and if you will spend long periods inside it, consider vehicle stability with the weight up high, consider if it stays on the rack permanently or if you want to remove it when not in use.

And finally the most important point. Once you "Outfit" your tent to your vehicle get out and "Explore" and use it.

 

[alirawk]

Thank you for this excellent review. I was actually thinking of getting that exact tent some months ago, but then decided I would prefer to build out the inside of my rig with a sleeping platform and put a carrier box on top. A major consideration was that my wife would not want to climb down a ladder in the middle of the night to relieve herself. Besides that, I wanted to keep the weight lower on the rig, and it's a lot easier to take the box off the roof that a roof top tent.