Roof top tents have been making headlines as one of the best ways to camp, but what is a roof top tent? A roof top tent is a portable shelter mounted to the roof of your vehicle or rack system. They are quick to deploy, favored by overlanders, and bridge the gap between a traditional tent and a recreational vehicle.
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The first roof top tents originated in Europe in the mid-20th century. Independent travel was growing hand in hand with car tourism, and these new tents solved multiple frustrations. The everyday adventurer no longer needed to worry if the roadside hotel was fully booked when arriving in an unfamiliar town. Roof top tents also saved travelers money by forgoing the expense of formal lodging.
The first designs were a pop-up style with a hard shell and a fold-out canvas tent, now known as the ‘soft shell’ style. These roof tents were commonly referred to as “Air Camping” due to their elevated position on top of a vehicle. The appeal of air camping was clear from the start, though it has seen a resurgence in recent years as new designs have transformed the market potential. These include fold-out hard shell tents like the Skycamp, hybrid tents utilizing a book fold design, wedge-style tents, and even miniature tents that can mount to a compact car.
Today, most roof top tents practically pitch themselves, so even the most inexperienced camper can set up in under five minutes. Modern RTT designs feature gas struts to lift the tent shell once the latches have been released. Depending on the model, you may also need to unfold an expansion panel and deploy the ladder.
Roof top tents present many advantages over other options, most crucially how accessible they are. If you’re still wondering what is the point of a roof top tent? Here are 10 reasons why they’re worthwhile.
With so many options to choose from, there’s a roof top tent for every vehicle. You do not need a special car or even an off-road vehicle to join the club. There are roof top tents like the X-Cover 2.0 Mini suited to compact cars and truck bed racks, as well as king-size tents like the Skycamp 3.0 suited to larger vehicles like SUVs. The best thing you can do is research the options, then seek out a style that fits your needs, your car, and your budget.
There are multiple considerations to account for, such as:
Each tent manufacturer will have comprehensive specifications so you can make an informed decision. If you’ve never explored roof racks or static and dynamic weight, the customer service team of any RTT brand should be able to walk you through it all. If you want a complete showroom experience to see the tents up close and better understand the finer points of each model for comparison, many RTT makers have dealer locations where you can do just that.
Depending on the experience you’re seeking, you can take a minimalist or maximalist approach to camping in an RTT. You want to be sure to cover your basic needs, so there are a few key items to pack for your next adventure.
Check the weather forecast and consider what clothes will be appropriate, as well as any topical toiletries like bug spray or sunscreen. Lights (flashlights, lanterns, headlamps) are not only a creature comfort but also a safety consideration to navigate camp once the sun goes down. Not every campsite will have running water, latrines, or communal waste stations, so be prepared. Pack 1 L of water per person per day. Bags to pack out your garbage and recyclables. Toilet paper and any toiletries and hygiene items appropriate for where you’re camping. If you’re unfamiliar with best practices for camping without a bathroom, give this a read. Looking for tent accessories to take things to the next level? Definitely consider an Annex that can provide shelter from wind or elements when you’re not sleeping. Storage Racks or Shoe Racks are a popular choice to keep essentials within arm's reach (and out of your bed).
Of course, you’ll need to pack something to eat and a way to eat it while camping. Kitchen systems can take whatever shape is most relevant to you. Maybe you just want a way to brew your morning cup of coffee and heat water for dehydrated backpacker meals. Though if you fish or hunt - or just like to eat well - you may want a more robust kitchen system like the Disco Series that allows you to prepare meals from scratch. If your meal plan includes perishable provisions, a cooler and ice should be added to your packing list. As well as dishes and utensils.
While roof top tents universally include a basic mattress, you’ll need a bit more than that to get a restful night’s sleep under the stars. You might have sleeping bags, pillows, or blankets at home that will work just as well as any you may find at an outdoor equipment store. We can promise that no RTT camp counselors are coming to do bed inspections and judge you for bringing an old comforter over a -20 mummy bag. However, some sleep system items are worth the splurge for the comfort and convenience they offer. Down blankets and sleeping bags can compress to a fraction of their size, allowing them to be stored inside your RTT. This means less time making and unmaking your bed, as well as fewer items to pack inside your vehicle. The RTT Sleeper is specially designed for use in roof top tents with more fill in the top half of the bag to keep you warmer where it matters most. If you’re thinking you might want to upgrade your mattress, or any other bedding for your tent, check out the Sleep Systems collection.
Purchasing a rooftop tent is a big step. Generally, they’re quite expensive and it’s difficult to quantify how worthy of an investment one will be until you’ve experienced one yourself. So, I’ll be the guinea pig and walk you through the aspects of owning a rooftop tent that you only get to encounter by owning your own. We have only owned ours for a short period of time, but here is what I’ve learned so far.
These tents literally unfold in minutes. From the time you put your vehicle in park, you could be in your sleeping bag within five minutes. The hardest part for us is getting the weatherproof canvas off. It’s just a zipper, but its precarious orientation on the roof makes it a bit of a challenge. Once you unzip though, the tent pops out in seconds and it’s up to you whether or not you want to unzip the windows or prop up the awnings. Getting the tent fully opened and extended still only takes a few minutes though. Many pop-up versions only require a few latches to be undone before the tent rises to life. Not to mention, our tent (not every rooftop tent) can store all of our sleeping materials. Pillows, sleeping bags, and pajamas stay in the tent, so there’s no fumbling through bags for clothes to sleep in, or rolling up a sleeping bag every morning.
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With the tent atop the car, there’s no searching for a smooth, flat area to place a tent on the ground. You’ll still need to find an area to park your car that is relatively level, though. We have slept while parked on a decent angle, and it was a minor inconvenience, but nothing like sleeping on tree roots or rocks. The tent does not add much to the footprint of the vehicle itself either, so you can essentially camp wherever you can fit your car, especially if you have a pop-up tent.
For me, my biggest concern with tent camping is safety. Whether it be from a human or a bear, I have always felt a bit vulnerable trapped in a raincoat supported by fishing poles. During rainstorms I always imagine a torrent of water coming and flooding the tent or washing us away. And if I’m in the woods there’s always the fear of critters getting into the tent somehow. I’ve even had a snake slither under the tent once. All of these fears almost completely disappear with a rooftop tent. Being on top of your car ensures that nothing can overtake your tent. Critters aren’t crawling up the side of your car to get to you and if any floodwaters get to the level of your tent floor then you weren’t meant to survive the night anyway.
I am no expert in winter camping, but I have slept (or at least tried to sleep) through a number of frigid nights. On the floor of Death Valley, sleeping in bags rated for 20°F, on a foot thick air mattress, in a tent, wearing multiple layers, I shivered through the night as it dropped to ~35°F. In our rooftop tent, we slept like babies. Granted, we were in our two-person sleeping bag, but it is not rated for the cold at all. We’re still weighing the benefits of sleeping individually in cold-rated bags versus the combination bag. Regardless, 37°F was beautifully comfortable atop the Subaru. I was still in a hoodie and pajama pants, but I slept with my torso out of the bag for most of the night.
The mechanics of a tent that folds up like an accordion mean that the canvas tent is not a complete, solid unit. At the hinge of the tent there is a small opening that is covered by a canvas loin cloth held in place by Velcro. It’s weatherproof from your ordinary rainstorms, but torrential downpours and blowing wind might be a bit of an issue if you’re not careful. This also means there are small crevices for insects to enter through. Although no ground critters are likely to scale the sides of your vehicle to these entry points, mosquitos are notoriously crafty and can get into just about any place they want. It may take some extra sealing up if you plan on staying in a place that has a particularly nasty mosquito infestation. This is not necessarily the case for every tent though, especially pop-up versions, which seem to be completely sealed.
Obviously, adding a small sail that weighs ~100lbs to the roof of your car is going to affect the aerodynamics, but how much? We are still analyzing data from our Subaru Forester, but the results are of the order of a 7-9% fuel efficiency loss. This can be made less severe with a wind deflector (the front of the tent is simply a flat face, with a surface area of approximately 4sq. ft.). Personal driving habits also come in to play, as a primary contributor to wind resistance is proportional to velocity squared, so increased speed exponentially increases drag. This is probably why with our Subaru we see such a large loss, since we are most often driving ~85mph on western highways. This is not always the case with rooftop tents, as some are rather low profile and are more aerodynamic, but those are typically pop-up tents rather than unfolding tents, which are generally more expensive.
It may seem like you need a massive vehicle with reinforced everything to use one of these, but the reality is that they’re not as cumbersome as they look. It may look ridiculous perched atop a Mini Cooper, but the stress they place on your vehicle is surprisingly minimal. Our tent weighs ~100lbs. Many standard roof racks are rated for 150lbs of dynamic weight* so make sure you check your car’s rating and the weight of the tent, since many tents weigh in right around 150lbs. Any upgraded rack bars (i.e. Yakima, Thule, etc.) should be able to support a few hundred pounds of static weight. Trucks with bed racks may run into issues if they are too tall. Torque is linearly dependent on force and distance, so the less weight you have up high and the lower its center of gravity, the fewer issues you will have on trails when things get rocky.
*Be careful when comparing weight ratings. Static weight is how much weight something can support standing still, while dynamic weight is the force applied to your roof rack while driving (turning, stopping, etc.).
I cannot speak for all brands of rooftop tents, but mounting ours is not the easiest process. First, while the tent only weighs 100lbs, it is big and cumbersome so you will almost certainly need a second person to help you lift the tent to and from the roof of your vehicle. Some people design personal cranes to hoist the tent off of their vehicles in their garages, but we don’t all have that luxury, so plan on having it on your car quite often if you don’t have help. With two people the actual lifting and maneuvering of the tent isn’t bad, though. My wife and I are able to lift it off the car, and carry it through the house to the back yard storage with some effort, but not a terrible amount of it.
Physically attaching the tent to the roof rack is a bit of a hassle, since the area between the tent and car is rather narrow, and cranking down bolts through small slots and holding nuts behind cross bars requires a bit of contortion, endurance, and a lot of patience. A ratcheting wrench or a set of sockets is practically necessary. Our tent came with a ratcheting 13mm wrench, thankfully. Mechanics will no doubt have an easier time than the rest of us. From when the tent is slid on the roof rack, it takes me between twenty and thirty minutes to attach the four brackets onto the tent channels and fasten them to the cross members.
A lot of tents are different, so this is not universal, but our tent has enough room in it to store all sleeping materials while on a trip. The tent already includes a 4” thick mattress, but we can also keep two pillows, our double sleeping bag, and our pajamas in the tent. That frees up a lot of room in the vehicle, and a lot of frustration. We do not need to roll up a sleeping back every morning, and we don't have to worry about our pillows getting dirty with the rest of our gear in the car. There’s no need to dig for pajamas either. If we roll into camp real late it’s nice to just be able to fold out the tent and get ready for bed without thinking too much about it.
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