Roof top tent or badass ground tent

[Hltoppr]

I've used both, (Maggiolina, Eazi Awn, Hannibal RTTs), and have gotten to prefer a ground tent for several reasons.

First, a RTT, until recently, has meant a heavy roof load (+100 lbs.) and a corresponding large roof rack, with the requisite economy penalties in fuel consumption.

Second, once deployed, should you wish to move the vehicle, the RTT would need to be closed. Not too bad if you're camping at the end of a day and leaving the next morning, but more of a pain when camping in one place and taking day trips.

Lastly, I went back to a ground tent when my daughter was young...a mobile toddler 7 feet off the ground was stressful!

I'm currently using a Serengeti Hennie Bow tent, and love it. Heavy, at 60 lbs., but easy to set up and very rugged. A big plus is the ability to stand up inside it; even an Oz Tent RV-5 lacked the headroom of the Hennie Bow.

Springbar and its clone, sold at places like Cabelas, are very good as well.

That being said, I'm looking forward to seeing the new Yakima RTT...at 70 lbs. and able to attach to light weight Yakima bars, it may be an option.

But...the best of all worlds:

-H-

 

[Hltoppr]

Ground tents are nice for Baja beaches....

 

[Hltoppr]

But...a caveat:

I was really glad to be in a RTT when camping on this particular Costa Rican beach:

As far as I know...those bastards can't climb!

-H-

 

[Hltoppr]

And RTTs make nice tropical rain shelters.

-H-

 

[yellowdog]

The ShiftPod is definitely a cool thing. I wonder how long it takes to setup... For a great tent company Hilleberg is a way to go. I just got two for an upcoming trip, Nallo 3GT and Akto (1) person tent. I will use my Nallo for longer car camping trips and Akto for backcountry/hiking.

 

[tommyg55]

Everyone concerned about having to pack up the tent and moving trucks when its time to wheel or need to do something i have 2 words for that.... Adventure trailer. I've seen some of the guys here in NC that I wheel with have those setups and they are not only awesome to look at and fun to build but convenient so you can unhook and lock it up when you need to drive and also cool so that you can have the tent on a trailer at any height you build it to and can make it so the trailer drafts behind the truck (saving gas).





Josh at Apex Overland made this [MENTION=115941]Apex Overland[/MENTION] and thats his truck

 

[4Runner4TW]

I'm going to either do a roof tent or tear drop trailer. Still a year away from that purchase though. I worry about the 4Runner towing, but then again I did tow a 4000# trailer from Phx to Seattle and back again so a 1000# trailer would be fine.

 

[4Runner4TW]

Here the roof top tent I like. With the rack design you don't loose the ability to throw the canoe on top.
White Lightning Hard Shell | Tepui Tents | High Quality Roof Top Tents

 

[el_kab0ng]

Everyone concerned about having to pack up the tent and moving trucks when its time to wheel or need to do something i have 2 words for that.... Adventure trailer. I've seen some of the guys here in NC that I wheel with have those setups and they are not only awesome to look at and fun to build but convenient so you can unhook and lock it up when you need to drive and also cool so that you can have the tent on a trailer at any height you build it to and can make it so the trailer drafts behind the truck (saving gas)

Josh at Apex Overland made this [MENTION=115941]Apex Overland[/MENTION] and thats his truck

Key here is great if you plan to spend more than a day or two in a single location. If you're being nomadic and hitting multiple places in a week, the trailer option has it's limitations.

See Ronny Dahl's review of such a trailer option.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38XBCKSubyg

 

[RunnerAK]

I've used both, (Maggiolina, Eazi Awn, Hannibal RTTs), and have gotten to prefer a ground tent for several reasons.

First, a RTT, until recently, has meant a heavy roof load (+100 lbs.) and a corresponding large roof rack, with the requisite economy penalties in fuel consumption.

FWIW, no aftermarket roof rack is required to put a RTT on 4th gen 4Runners (and 5th gens too I assume). You can ditch the factory crossbars and attach a RTT directly to the stock roof rails. This will get the RTT as close to the roof as possible and minimizes the drag penalty. We only lose ~1mpg with our tent mounted this way.

 

[Dark Lord]

FWIW, no aftermarket roof rack is required to put a RTT on 4th gen 4Runners (and 5th gens too I assume). You can ditch the factory crossbars and attach a RTT directly to the stock roof rails. This will get the RTT as close to the roof as possible and minimizes the drag penalty. We only lose ~1mpg with our tent mounted this way.

How did you do this?

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

 

[RunnerAK]

How did you do this?

Sent from my XT1254 using Tapatalk

Use the tent's rails as crossbars and bolt them directly to the factory roof rails. If you want the tent to open to the side, you'll need to shorten the tent rails and mount them perpendicular to the roof rails.

 

[ErnieMcCracken]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I think I've almost ruled out shiftpod because they've been MIA for the past couple months and have some customer service issues according to their facebook page. If I go ground tent I'll look into the Oz tent. If I go RTT I really like Tepui.