Sent the Jk off for its new heart this week.
I took my old rodeo camper out for a trip out into the Murchison for a few days and realised how much better the JK is as a tourer, so thinking about a rooftop tent, has anyone compared a or has opinions on a hard shell RTT v a tent style RTT.
TIA
Gus
Gus, I looked at RTT years ago & ended up with a camper. The main reasons were. The RTT is a pain to get into & out of, this includes getting your sleeping gear up & into it as well as getting your self in & out in the middle of the night. If you are planning base camping & day trips, unless the RTT has legs & you can drive your jeep out from under it when its set up, its a pain to pack it up when ever you want to go for a drive. It makes your jeep top heavy & so reduces its stability.
i now have an old popup camper with roof bars on it for my tinny. the outboard mounts on the A frame along with the fuel tank & other stuff. its great, set it up, unhitch the jeep & can go wheeling & when you get back its all set up.
Gus, I looked at RTT years ago & ended up with a camper. The main reasons were. The RTT is a pain to get into & out of, this includes getting your sleeping gear up & into it as well as getting your self in & out in the middle of the night. If you are planning base camping & day trips, unless the RTT has legs & you can drive your jeep out from under it when its set up, its a pain to pack it up when ever you want to go for a drive. It makes your jeep top heavy & so reduces its stability.
i now have an old popup camper with roof bars on it for my tinny. the outboard mounts on the A frame along with the fuel tank & other stuff. its great, set it up, unhitch the jeep & can go wheeling & when you get back its all set up.
+1
I did the same, looked at RTTs, decided that the last thing the missus and I wanted to do in the middle of the night is climb down a ladder.
Then there's the pain of having to pack it up if you want to go for a drive.
I bought myself a cheap camper trailer and never looked back. I absolutely love mine.
I have a Double Swag, Roof Top Tent & Camper trailer so i'll give you some thoughts from my experiences.
Camper trailer is awesome, but can't take it everywhere on the tracks i head too, great for base camping with the wife and kids staying in one spot.
Swag (kings double) has decent room for 2, good option for weekends away and dont have to worry about packing up to go for a drive. Packup (rolling it) is a PITA!
Roof top tent is our favourite (even the wife prefers it). It takes under 5 min to setup on my own. Packup takes under 10min to do it properly on my own.
I'm a short ass (RTT hasn't gone on the jeep yet as i havent worked out which way i am going with the roof racks yet) & i need a small step (2 step) ladder to get it setup (this was on my GU patrol on 33"s and 3" lift), i assume when the jeep is all done it will be similar height.
The big downside of the RTT is the packup to go for a drive, so if your going to be somewhere more than one night take this into consideration. If your moving camp on a daily basis then i'd lean to the RTT.
Setup times swag vs the RTT, i can have the RTT setup before mates have their double swag, and packup quicker as well.
Hope this helps, and happy to answer more questions
I got it for the setup and collapse speed and you can actually move the jeep without packing it up (unlike ladder folding RTT's) and you can camp wherever the jeep is level. not sure what would happen if there was a drop or hump where your ladder unfolded with a conventional design (tear the tent or have lose canvas i guess?)
under 30 secs to put up and 2 mins to put down. sturdy, 120km/h win rated and fully waterproof
plus, as it's so quick to put away you can leave it to dry out until the last minute then close it up just before heading off
60kg as well rather than the usual 90-100kg plus there is room for a spare up on top
I looked into a RTT a while ago but there were a few little reasons that added up for me - the 110kg of roof rack/cage system plus RTT ate too much into the already limited GVM for my liking, I like taking the Freedom panels out, I use my JKU to commute once or twice in a fortnight and I am 6.3" & 138kg - I have broken enough chairs and beds to be a little paranoid about sleeping on a platform 2m above the ground.
Instead, I got a good canvas tourer tent that also takes 5 minutes to setup but I am seriously considering a camper trailer that I can have mostly packed and ready to go with the minimum fuss.
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