Cheap alternative to roof tents

I was looking into purchasing a light bar for my 110 H/T when I had an idea of purchasing a cheap roof rack of flea bay, and sticking the lights to that instead and fitting a piece of marine ply to it. I then thought about buying a roof tent but they seem to go for mega bucks, so I thought that I may be able to buy one of those cheapo single skin tents and use that on the roof rack, so when I go camping i dont get covered in mud, an dew plus get better views. Has anybody ever tried this and would it look ridiculous. Cheers

johnacky said:

Has anybody ever tried this and would it look ridiculous. Cheers

Click to expand...

No and Yes.

or yes and no

you have nothing to peg the tent to so it'll blow away or just fall off the roof

not if he screws it down to the plywood

personally i think he needs to go down the pub and get fooking well blottered. then when he wakes up he'll have forgotten all about his stupid idea.

i personally think it wud be a good idea, the only problem wud be as yella has pointed out of where do you tie the guy ropes to, but with a bit of thought it wud work ok, just dunt get a stupid colour tent see if you could even get the same colour as your 110

wow i have made it to 1000+ posts

stig said:

wow i have made it to 1000+ posts

Click to expand...

Wey heeeey!

Appy birthday Stig!

taken me a while but got there in the end, just need to post more now to get up to the 10k

Seems quite plausible to me.

The tent could easily be fastened down, and for travelling he just collapses it, slings a net over it that is on bungees, and away he goes.

The airbed wouldn't need to be deflated, and he could leave the woman inside ready for the next day's work.

CharlesY

Bloody ell yer mean we;ve had to listen to yer rants 1000 + times

redhand said:

Bloody ell yer mean we;ve had to listen to yer rants 1000 + times

Click to expand...

yep

get sheet plywood (or that rubberised van lining board) for roof, lay it on ground, pitch tent on plywood, (optionally draw round tent with marker) pull guy lines tight, mark spot, hammer in a nail staple or bolt in a u-bolt at position of guy lines, continue for all guy lines, remove tent, fit ply decking onto roofrack and there you go - tent base and bespoke fixing points for yer 20 quid tent.

20 quids worth of ply, 20 quids worth of tent - £40 roof tent and the jobs a goodun.

or it looks ****.

Actually you could make a really good job of it if you get the phenol rubbery plywood and router in some stainless lay flat lashing points at guy line positions. One of them G4 tents or some similarily adventury tent would look the part and be a damn good tent - plus if you want to camp somewhere other than on your landys roof there that option.

am at a lose as to why yerd wanna put a tent on yer roof.

yer get ****ed at night and can't make it onto the roof, so yer sleep in the back

if you did manage to get up there half cut, yer wake up in the morning and fergit where yer are and fall orf.. as you can't now get on the roof with broken leg yer sleep in the back.

view? what view? most of yer horizon will be blocked by yer tent.

and if yer need to get up at night fer a slash, all that climbing up and down while half asleep and suffering the effect of alkeyhall, dint bear thinking about. unless yer just gonna **** from yer roof into the area where yule be eating breakfast

and if yer ave got an allergy to mud and dew dunt go camping

Sean said:

and if yer ave got an allergy to mud and dew dunt go camping or own a landy

Click to expand...

shirley?

Sean said:

and if yer ave got an allergy to mud and dew you need to drink much more before you go back to yer tent cos then you wont notice it but if yer drink too much you'll end up in the wrong campsite (only happened once to me in the lake district) or you'll get so tired walking home (to yer tent) you'll fall asleep in a field and get woken up by a farmer in his tractor - or dunt go camping

Click to expand...

thats wot i meant to say

Sean said:

thats wot i meant to say as well as even a daft tent on a roof is much bettereer than a caravan that blocks up the fooking roads. Slob has a fook orf massive tent that takes two folk about an hour to put up and is bigger than some caravans. so he can enjoy all the comfarts of home while roughtin it camping.

Click to expand...

oh ! yer know abart my tent then?

am i right to say in summary of this thread that:

1: when camping drink enough to ensure that you could sleep on a frozen lake naked if required to do so therefore negating all issues of tent size/placement/comforts/view from/look of/mud/dew - but dont drink too much such that you arent able to find said frozen lake (or where ever you intended to sleep)

2: never buy a caravan