To RoofTent or not to RoofTent?

Happy New Year to All!

As summer is approaching its time to start to get the 90 prepared from
Trip to France (no kids going, just me and the mrs).

We have a conventional "6 man" dome tent which has plenty of room but
we are planning to travel around the Chatel / Aosta / Annecy regions
(ski resorts by winter) for a couple of weeks, staying only for a 2 or
3 days at each place.

Our existing tent takes about 40 minutes to put up (Roof Tents I
believe are about 10 minutes). Clearly a roof tent is much smaller
than my conventional dome tent but is much more convenient - Cash
aside is the trade off worth it?

I had thought about buying a rooftent (2nd hand all being well) and
one of those cheapo party tent things for £20 or £30 from Argos should
we need to sit outside for whatever reason during the day (breakfast,
evening etc).

So the quesiton. Would experience suggest that it is better to use a
conventional tent and suffer the long errection, dismantling times and
storage issues when travelling and gain the space or have a roof tent
which has not problems (?) appart from not much space.

Any advice / thoughts welcome.

Jon

>
> So the quesiton. Would experience suggest that it is better to use a
> conventional tent and suffer the long errection, dismantling times and
> storage issues when travelling and gain the space or have a roof tent
> which has not problems (?) appart from not much space.
>
> Any advice / thoughts welcome.
>
> Jon

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
84 110 V8
Durban

"Jon" wrote >
((snip)).
>
> Our existing tent takes about 40 minutes to put up (Roof Tents I
> believe are about 10 minutes). Clearly a roof tent is much smaller
> than my conventional dome tent but is much more convenient - Cash
> aside is the trade off worth it?
>
> I had thought about buying a rooftent (2nd hand all being well) and
> one of those cheapo party tent things for £20 or £30 from Argos should
> we need to sit outside for whatever reason during the day (breakfast,
> evening etc).
>
> So the quesiton. Would experience suggest that it is better to use a
> conventional tent and suffer the long errection, dismantling times and
> storage issues when travelling and gain the space or have a roof tent
> which has not problems (?) appart from not much space.
>
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.

--
Regards
Bob
In Runnymede, 17 miles West of London

"Jon" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Happy New Year to All!
>
> As summer is approaching its time to start to get the 90 prepared from
> Trip to France (no kids going, just me and the mrs).
>
> We have a conventional "6 man" dome tent which has plenty of room but
> we are planning to travel around the Chatel / Aosta / Annecy regions
> (ski resorts by winter) for a couple of weeks, staying only for a 2 or
> 3 days at each place.
>
> Our existing tent takes about 40 minutes to put up (Roof Tents I
> believe are about 10 minutes). Clearly a roof tent is much smaller
> than my conventional dome tent but is much more convenient - Cash
> aside is the trade off worth it?
>
> I had thought about buying a rooftent (2nd hand all being well) and
> one of those cheapo party tent things for £20 or £30 from Argos should
> we need to sit outside for whatever reason during the day (breakfast,
> evening etc).
>
> So the quesiton. Would experience suggest that it is better to use a
> conventional tent and suffer the long errection, dismantling times and
> storage issues when travelling and gain the space or have a roof tent
> which has not problems (?) appart from not much space.
>
> Any advice / thoughts welcome.
>
> Jon

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
www.llama4x4.co.uk

"Steve Maloney" <kit&[email protected]> wrote in message
news:9tWdnbwSYY8-5UDcRVn-> I have an

> 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.

like a caravan

Lee D

"Jon" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Happy New Year to All!
>
> As summer is approaching its time to start to get the 90 prepared from
> Trip to France (no kids going, just me and the mrs).
>
> We have a conventional "6 man" dome tent which has plenty of room but
> we are planning to travel around the Chatel / Aosta / Annecy regions
> (ski resorts by winter) for a couple of weeks, staying only for a 2 or
> 3 days at each place.
>
> Our existing tent takes about 40 minutes to put up (Roof Tents I
> believe are about 10 minutes). Clearly a roof tent is much smaller
> than my conventional dome tent but is much more convenient - Cash
> aside is the trade off worth it?
>
> I had thought about buying a rooftent (2nd hand all being well) and
> one of those cheapo party tent things for £20 or £30 from Argos should
> we need to sit outside for whatever reason during the day (breakfast,
> evening etc).
>
> So the quesiton. Would experience suggest that it is better to use a
> conventional tent and suffer the long errection, dismantling times and
> storage issues when travelling and gain the space or have a roof tent
> which has not problems (?) appart from not much space.
>
> Any advice / thoughts welcome.

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 ****ing 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?

--
Ron Beckett
Emu Plains, Australia
1995 P38A Range Rover HSE 4.6 Litre V8


"Jon" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Happy New Year to All!
>
> As summer is approaching its time to start to get the 90 prepared from
> Trip to France (no kids going, just me and the mrs).
>
> We have a conventional "6 man" dome tent which has plenty of room but
> we are planning to travel around the Chatel / Aosta / Annecy regions
> (ski resorts by winter) for a couple of weeks, staying only for a 2 or
> 3 days at each place.
>
> Our existing tent takes about 40 minutes to put up (Roof Tents I
> believe are about 10 minutes). Clearly a roof tent is much smaller
> than my conventional dome tent but is much more convenient - Cash
> aside is the trade off worth it?
>
> I had thought about buying a rooftent (2nd hand all being well) and
> one of those cheapo party tent things for £20 or £30 from Argos should
> we need to sit outside for whatever reason during the day (breakfast,
> evening etc).
>
> So the quesiton. Would experience suggest that it is better to use a
> conventional tent and suffer the long errection, dismantling times and
> storage issues when travelling and gain the space or have a roof tent
> which has not problems (?) appart from not much space.
>
> Any advice / thoughts welcome.
>
> Jon

Our tent takes about 5 minutes to put up and take down you just peg out the
bottom then pull up the middle and it all clips into place.Then do reverse
to put away. Excellent piece of kit comes in many sizes and well under 100
pounds...
Adrian Ford
"The Becketts" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> Summer is approaching?
>
> Bloody heck man, it's mid-summer and 40+ degrees down here. How can
summer be
> approaching up there?
>
> --
> Ron Beckett
> Emu Plains, Australia
> 1995 P38A Range Rover HSE 4.6 Litre V8
>
>
> "Jon" <[email protected]> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
> > Happy New Year to All!
> >
> > As summer is approaching its time to start to get the 90 prepared from
> > Trip to France (no kids going, just me and the mrs).
> >
> > We have a conventional "6 man" dome tent which has plenty of room but
> > we are planning to travel around the Chatel / Aosta / Annecy regions
> > (ski resorts by winter) for a couple of weeks, staying only for a 2 or
> > 3 days at each place.
> >
> > Our existing tent takes about 40 minutes to put up (Roof Tents I
> > believe are about 10 minutes). Clearly a roof tent is much smaller
> > than my conventional dome tent but is much more convenient - Cash
> > aside is the trade off worth it?
> >
> > I had thought about buying a rooftent (2nd hand all being well) and
> > one of those cheapo party tent things for £20 or £30 from Argos should
> > we need to sit outside for whatever reason during the day (breakfast,
> > evening etc).
> >
> > So the quesiton. Would experience suggest that it is better to use a
> > conventional tent and suffer the long errection, dismantling times and
> > storage issues when travelling and gain the space or have a roof tent
> > which has not problems (?) appart from not much space.
> >
> > Any advice / thoughts welcome.
> >
> > Jon
>
>