Rooftop tent (Part 2)

Types and size, useful features, storage and mounting.

Our home on the roof is a three-person Thule Tepui Autana. Mounted on a platform-style roof rack, it sits very close to the car’s roof.

We have been travelling with our rooftop tent for almost ten years. When we chose it, we wanted a model that would not take up the whole roof, yet would be big enough and versatile.

A cargo box with a rounded front is mounted at the front of the rack, which significantly reduces air resistance. Behind the tent sits a simple awning that sets up quickly, covering the kitchen at the rear of the car. The bulge visible in the middle of the tent cover is where the ladder sits. It is permanently bolted to the tent floor, so it is already in place when the tent is unfolded. With clamshell tents, you usually have to find room for the ladder inside the car.

A so-called soft-shell tent, protected by a soft cover while driving, was and still is the best choice for us. It takes up about three quarters of the roof rack's length and its full width. When packed, it does not stick out beyond the rack or the car. The alternative at the time was a hard-shell tent with a plastic housing, often called a clamshell. Its advantage was faster set-up.

Thule Basin is an example of a hard-shell tent, the “clamshell” type described above. The photo comes from the Thule website:  https://www.thule.com/sv-se/, where you can check all of this tent’s specifications.

Over the years, as users expected more, what went inside the shell changed, and so did the design. In many models the simple clamshell has become little more than a housing for a tent built the same way as ours, or an even more elaborate one.

Somewhere in the forest. Monika is making a meal, Mrok is watching what I’m doing, and I’m trying to take this photo so it shows the atmosphere we sometimes live in :) .

A simple clamshell is a tent that fits entirely between the lower and upper halves of its shell. The downside is that the floor area, and therefore the number of people it sleeps, matches the length and width of the shell lying on the roof, and that has its limits. A four-person tent of this type on a typical estate car can look like a load sticking out on every side, and while it is there you cannot use the rack for anything else.

Inside our three-person tent with the roof open. We like to take the top flysheet off in countries where it is very warm, or when we know it will not rain. Mrok is keeping an eye on what is happening below.

In our view, this simple design has its limits on trips to places with frequent rain and strong wind. You enter from the side, so even with a small canopy over the entrance, driving rain can get inside. Later designs changed in this respect too, and today you will find a wide range of solutions.

This is the Thule Basin set up. Once the latches are released, the upper part of the shell lifts to form the roof, and the lower part becomes the tent floor. Another popular design opens on one side only; tents like this are even quicker to set up. For a while, small clamshell tents were very much in fashion, and the other option was a tent in a soft cover. Over time, clamshell manufacturers began fitting hard shells with tents that have a fold-out floor doubling the sleeping area and an entrance protected from rain. So if you choose a hard shell covering the whole roof of your car, you will certainly find a design that combines a typical clamshell with a soft-shell tent. The photo comes from https://www.thule.com/sv-se/. We encourage you to watch the many videos online showing different versions of rooftop tents.

With a soft-shell tent you can choose a model for more people and still keep space on the roof next to it. As with a clamshell, the floor is the main measure of the space inside. Ours has a "hinge" halfway along the floor, so on the roof it takes up an area equal to half the floor. The other half can fold out to the side, the rear or the front of the car, as you prefer; the limit is where the entrance and the ladder mount are. The whole tent folds in between the two halves of the floor. Packed and ready to drive, most models stand about 25 to 30 cm above the rack.

An interesting detail: except in warm countries, we always travel with four sleeping bags. They fill the inside of the tent nicely, and we spend time there in all sorts of ways.

Protection from driving rain and wind

If you like Scandinavia, and it is well worth it 😊, look for a design where you enter the tent from below. In front of the usual entrance there is an extra section that keeps rain from blowing inside, even in gusty wind.

Wojtek’s legs show the way into the tent. This design protects the inside well from driving rain. Mrok, of course, is waiting for his turn on the ladder. The black covers on the rungs make it safer and easier for him to climb into the tent. More on this in a separate article [link].

You can also zip an annex to this section: an enclosed space with a waterproof floor. That gives you extra sleeping space or... a comfortable place for a table and chairs when it is pouring.

This sealed annex shows how small our tent is next to it. It creates a spacious, enclosed room, protected from rain, yet with two large windows and an entrance door that can be opened. It has a sealed floor that zips to the walls. In autumn it can be a great solution when travelling at a slower pace. In winter, a warm-air inlet placed low in the annex will quickly heat the whole tent as well; the heater itself always stays outside.

Choosing the size

Our rule has not changed for years: sleep well before another day full of adventures.

Before we started travelling with our dog, Mrok, we decided on a three-person tent. In practice this means a sleeping area 140 cm wide and more than 240 cm long. Mrok has claimed the extra length, over half a metre, for himself 😊.

A tired Mrok resting after a trip into the mountains.

To check whether a two-person tent will be comfortable for two, find the exact floor dimensions of the sleeping area of the tent you plan to buy, mark them out on your bed at home, lie down comfortably and see whether anything sticks out beyond the marked area.

You can also do it the other way round: stretch out on your bed, find the minimum space you need to rest comfortably, measure it, and you know what to look for 😊.

If you can actually live in a rooftop tent for a while, not just sleep in it cramped, it gives you a completely different view of the surroundings, from above. When we set up the tent, we often try to position it so we have the best possible view on every side. In the photo, Monika is looking out over the Gulf of Bothnia.

Extra features and accessories

Manufacturers compete in suggesting equipment we supposedly cannot rest without. These are the ones we consider worth having, our "must haves":

1. Weatherproof boot bags hanging below the entrance

You sit inside the tent with your legs outside. You can take your boots off or put them on however dirty they are, and nothing gets carried into the bedroom.

Shoe bags hang on both sides of the ladder. They are one of the most important pieces of equipment. Even when we come back from the mountains in muddy boots and a downpour is raging around us, the boots stay under cover but outside the tent; inside, it stays warm and clean.

2. Interior lighting powered from a power bank

We have used head torches for more than 20 years, but soft light in the bedroom before sleep creates a warm atmosphere you will not forget.

One of our best-remembered places: the bush not far from the coast in central Portugal. Besides being practical, the lighting inside the tent also has a homely, aesthetic side for us; we like it when the small LED points glow inside.

The same lighting from the inside. We bought it separately; it is a cable several metres long with small LEDs along it. We power it from a small power bank, and the set comes with adjustable brightness as standard. After a long day, a tired Monika and Mrok are waiting for me to finally finish so we can all go to sleep, and I still don’t like the framing... ;)

3. A removable flysheet combined with roof windows or a mosquito net

Corsica, Portugal, Greece and Albania have warm nights under starry skies. Taking the flysheet off the roof and leaving only mesh in all the windows lowers the temperature and lets you feel the light breeze, and if the roof has extra windows, you fall asleep under the stars 😊.

This is our favourite set-up: flysheet off and all windows open, with only the mosquito mesh left in them. Lying inside, it feels as if the tent were almost transparent. That is only an illusion, but watching a starry sky, like the one we had in Corsica, is very real.

With the flysheet off and the roof windows open, there is one more option: we can spread the sleeping bags on the roof and air them. Before bedtime they take on the fresh scent of the Norwegian fjord where we pitched camp.

Storage

Whatever the design, every tent needs cleaning and drying before it goes into storage. Ideally it should be kept somewhere with stable temperature and humidity. Ours spends the off-season in a heated room that stays dry all year: we hang it on a purpose-made steel rack in a warm, dry basement.

This is how we store the tent: hung on the wall and secured, in a warm, dry room. Before it goes into storage, we always make sure it is thoroughly cleaned, aired and dry. We do this even though Thule states that the fabric of our tent is resistant to many kinds of damage and to mould.

The profiles bolted to the tent floor are used for mounting it on the car roof, and for storage we use one of them. We secure the tent with two bolts, and it hangs safely until the next trip.

We dropped the original method of fixing the tent to the roof bars. Instead, two profiles with threaded ends are bolted to the outside of the tent floor. When we hang the tent up after the season, we use one of these profiles as a hook. Once the tent is on the car roof, four bolts are enough to fix it securely.

This is the bracket permanently fixed to the wall that the tent hangs on. Once it is hung, we secure it with bolts, just as on the car roof.

A moment more and the tent will be hanging on the wall, waiting for the next trip.

Mounting it on the roof

The internet is full of videos showing how easy it is to lift a tent onto the roof and fix it to the rack bars. That is true, especially for a two-person tent on a Swedish estate car or a crossover.

The low-profile platform (roof rack; details of its design here [link]) allowed us to mount the tent flat, so it creates minimal air resistance while driving. See how we reduced drag here even further [link].

Here is one of the bolts securing the tent to the roof platform on our car.

Our tent weighs just under 60 kg, and we have to lift it onto the rack on the roof of a Land Cruiser, a little over 2 metres up. At first this was difficult, mostly because we lacked experience. With every trip, mounting and removing it got faster, and now it takes a few minutes.

Summary

Before choosing a rooftop tent, estimate the size you need, and then... rent one. It costs far less, and if something does not suit you, you will have your own experience, the most valuable thing when you finally choose your own home on the roof.

We explore the world together in many ways. We watch Mrok as he takes in everything around us, and he, just like us, is happy that we are doing it together.

Consider the tent's size when packed for travel. Most cars will cope even with a large four-person tent, but fuel consumption can rise significantly. Check your car's manual for the permitted roof load while driving (the dynamic roof load) and check the load rating of your roof rack or platform. The weight of the tent plus the rack must not exceed the lower of the two. This matters for safety.

Somewhere in Denmark. Someone once asked us whether we get tired of setting up the tent and packing it away before every drive. For us it is like building a home each time in a new, wonderful place with great views out of the window. Not only do we not get bored of it, we keep looking forward to the next time :) .

In our article on the real fuel consumption of our car, you will see how adding luggage to the roof rack actually reduced it...

Öland, a Mediterranean-like island in the Baltic. Mrok is resting on the beach, and a few metres away our home on the roof is waiting for him :)

Made it this far? Quite possibly you are wondering why we chose a rooftop tent rather than a camper van or a caravan. That is a good lead; it can help you choose the way you will live on your own travels. Our choice is described in the first part of this article.