Picking a Tent
I looked for rooftop tents for a long time, longer than most. I went to a CVT tent party. When I was out in Zion a few months ago, I talked to people about their rooftop tent. I talked to countless people on Facebook and Reddit. If you had a rooftop tent, I probably talked to you about it. Let me be clear, I am not sponsored by anyone, I just wanted a good tent. Hopefully, my research can help you find the perfect rooftop tent, but they are a large investment.
Make sure to come back to this as this is a living document. I am always updating it.
Overall things to think about:
Setup time How much time do you want to spend setting up your tent for the night?
Take downtime (important) How long would you like to spend taking your tent down? There is a popular video on youtube that is titled something like "Why you shouldn't buy a root top tent." One of his main arguments is that once you set up your rooftop tent; you can't drive anyplace or explore.
Storage (in the tent and or the top) Do you want to leave bedding and pillows inside the tent? If you watch the youtube video linked (around 7 mins into the video) - the person says (setting up a tent (ground or roof) doesn't take that long, but getting all your bedding and everything else set up is what takes time. So we looked for a tent we could just pop up and sleep in (with the bedding already inside the tent).
Size (I'm 6'3 - 280 lbs - a small tent isn't going to work for me) So, consider the size of occupants and number of occupants in your tent.
Comfort (another overlooked feature) I like comfort, it is important.
Use How often are you going to use it?
Setup time: Overall, I think setup time is about the time you spend setting up your tent. 1 minute to 5 minutes is the time it takes me to set up my rooftop tent. Even a bad rooftop tent isn't generally going to take more than 5 minutes to set up. 99% of the rooftop tents are the same. I typically get into a spot late (If I am being honest I get there later than I plan every single time) and I do not want to fiddle with a tent. I want to set up the tent, get some food going, and relax.
Takedown time: This was an important point, and we did a ton of research here as well. I guess it depends on what type of camping you are going to be doing.
a.) Do you camp and move daily?
b.) Do you camp and stay for a few days?
I have watched couples on youtube and social media that have 2 trucks, one for the camping (base camp) and one for exploring. Another group of couples, find a location and spend a few days in that same location. However, we typically change locations every night. We want to explore, we like change. Nevada is a big state since we can camp in so many different places, why stay in one place?
We might spend 12 to 18 hours in one location, but that is about it. We cowboy up and move on down the road. The question then becomes, how long does it take to "break down" the tent? Finding a tent that could break down SUPER fast was very important. We looked at softshell tents, that folded over and did all types of cool things, but they took 30 minutes to pack up if not longer. You have to get the bedding out, clean up the inside, fold everything up, fight with the straps, and the soft case, which was not for us.
Storage: There are soo many storage "things" in tents, some you mount stuff on the side, some on the top, some inside, blah..blah..blah. Ok, so let's think about what is important and saves time. For us, that was having a tent and a "pre-made" bed. So having bedding and a small amount of storage inside the tent was SUPER IMPORTANT. Just enough room so I can have some pillows and blankets and pop it up sleep, close it up, and move on.
Some of the tents: James Baroud you can put storage on top of tents, and some of the CVT tents have a rail system. I really liked both of these features, however, that being said, the James Baroud storage is on top of the hardshell, and in retrospect, might be impossible to access. The center roof of my tent on the truck would be almost impossible to access while traveling.
Size: This is a crazy one. I looked at tents online, measured stuff, re-measured stuff, looked, and did everything I could to find the best tent. The tent that I selected isn't the largest rooftop tent, but for some reason, it is the tent that fits me the best. So, they make these A frame-looking tents, and they are bigger in size, but not necessarily more functional. I would always hit my head or feel very confined in those tents. However, with the straight pop-up tents, I can sit up with no problem. No awkward bending, hunching over, just sit upright.
Comfort: My wife once told me, you spend 1/3 of life sleeping, you need to be comfortable, and she is right. I have a nice memory foam mattress at home and I sleep so much better, why not have a memory foam mattress in a rooftop tent? Well, the closest thing I could find was a CVT St. Helens, (memory foam mattress comes standard in this tent). After buying my CVT St. Helen and sleeping in it I can attest that it is nice to sleep on it. Not as nice as my memory foam mattress at home, but still a million times nicer than any tent mattress I have ever slept on! Definitely better than a motel mattress.
Use: I feel like tents are like gym memberships for some people, you use gym membership a few times during the new year and then never again; while other people use their gym membership all the time. This is one of the harder ideas to nail down, as you really don't know how much you're going to use your tent until you do. However, this is an important idea to think about, if you're going to use it a few times, you might want to get a cheap tent or something that is easier to mount. If you're going to use your tent a few times a month, maybe find a company and dealer you can work with overtime on the maintenance of the tent (checking the tent to make sure it is secure, fixing/replace zippers, fixing broken parts).
Some of the things I wish my tent had are:
a.) Internal lighting
b.) Mounts or space for solar panel(s)
c.) An external shoe holder - some tents have this - mine doesn't.
Resources:
Chinese Knock-Offs Look on Facebook Market Place or Craigslist
** Comment below, what is important for you when selecting a rooftop tent? If you have a tent you want me to review, please let me know we use our tent often and would love to review other tents.