To RoofTent or not to RoofTent?

the main disadvantage I see with a roof tent is that if you are using one site for a few days you may 'lose' your pitch as it'll not be occupied during the day. If you are taking another tent for the ground then why bother with 2 tents? stick with 1 ground tent.

however if you are repetedly doing 1 night stops and there are only 2 of you then a roof tent is quicker and easier.

I am usually camping with 3 kids so I stick with a big dome tent and I don't like anything on the roof due to the lanes I drive regularly would rip anything off the roof.

That's my waffle.

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)

Jon

I have an Eaziawn roof tent on my 110 and have used it for short and long trips in Southern Africa. If you are travelling to a destination and just want to arrive, set up, sleep and leave in the morning to carry on to your next stop-over they cannot be beat. You can even leave bedding in and fold it up with the tent. Set-up times can be in the order of 5 mins or less.

BUT... if you are going to be stopping in one place for 2 nights or more, and want to use the vehicle for sight-seeing then the roof tent becomes a PITA. I would definitely recommend a ground tent in this case. What we have done now is got a cheap ground tent for use on longer stop-overs - also stops somebody else pinching your site when you are out with the vehicle. The best compromise is to have a roof top tent mounted on top of a camping trailer, then you can set it up, unhitch the Landy and drive off knowing all is ready back at camp when you return.

Hope this helps

Steve Maloney

"Jon" wrote >

((snip)).

My cousin, an Australian gold prospector, doesn't like his Roof Tent, keeps falling down the ladder at night when he needs to visit a bush. Of course it may be the overindulgence of tinnies the evening before causing both problems. :-)

Come along to the British Indoor 4x4 Show at Donington Park, Castle Donington on Sunday 13th Feb.... Just about every type of rooftent available in the UK will be on display all in the same axhibition hall so if you decide that a rooftent is the way forward then you will be able to compare all the makes and choose which one you prefer. A couple of the exhibitors also do awning type tents for LR's or you might want to look at some of the offroad trailer tents that just spring into life in minutes and you can drive away from them to pop into town leaving it to reserve your space on the campsite.....

David LLAMa 4x4

like a caravan :-)

Lee D

Hi Jon,

I suggest you invest in a decent conventional tent. I've used a fair few tents in all sorts of places and have never owned anything thats taken more than 10 mins to put up. Most well designed 3 man dome/geodesics can be put up in a couple of minutes. I can't see any advantage to roof tents unless you're somewhere where there is no suitable ground space and there is a risk from wild animals (not france!!). Being 6 feet further up in the air means they're much more prone to wind and consequently need to be stronger than a conventional tent in the same circumstances. You'll end up with a far noisier night up on the roof in the wind, rather than down on the ground in the shelter of the landy. You'll also find that the time it takes to take down a tent pales into insignificance when compared to the amount of time faffing in a morning...

You should be able to get a really decent exped or trekking tent for less than the coost of a roof tent, and put it up quicker too! Recommend you go for a three man - you really shoudn't need a bigger tent than that for just two people - it'll be much warmer and more stable than a great big clumsy six man!!!

If money's no objct or you've budgeted to roof tent amounts, the Mountain Hardware Trangos are really good tents, probably way over specified for what you've planned?! Lower down the price list I'd reccomend a little known company, Ferrino, with a good range of simple mountain tents like the Svalbard 3, or stuff like the Vango 300. Its worth getting to know your tent well so you can put it up in a blizzard or the pissing rain as quickly as possible!!

All the best Andy

Summer is approaching?

Bloody heck man, it's mid-summer and 40+ degrees down here. How can summer be approaching up there?

wishfull thinking?

Regards. Mark.(AKA, Mr.Nice.)