UKC

The RoofBunk hard shell roof tent is able to be set up and packed away in a matter of seconds with its stainless steel gas strut system. You can also keep your bedding inside when it's down too- perfect if you're on the move frequently when camping!

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I see these things all the time and I can never understand the point, it seems to combine the disadvantages of camping with the disadvantages of having a Van. I get it if you're touring across the Serengeti but in the uk??? Unless, like the gentleman in the picture, your on some 4x4 Bear Grylls fantasy wet dream get a tent. And while your at it get a sensible car.

Each to their own, but what you said 100%.

I don't get why anyone thinks that a Sahara equipped Defender or Unimog with a Hyena-proof tent is necessary for touring around NW Scotland, (which now has a name I believe). I tend to think of them as 'mancessories' like pizza ovens, fold out barbecues and fire pits which are all fine in your garden where no-one can see you.

And I'd hate to wake up in one of those at 3 am, desperate for a shite and knowing that the midgies were out in force.

Two points I noted .

1. Mosquito proof nets are no good in Scotland , need to be smaller mesh that's midge proof.

2. Every car roof rack I have had  , when bothered to read the manual , stated 50 kg max.  The roofbunk blurb has it at 65 kg .

My car & roof rack has a 75kg limit.

I don't think I'll ever get one of these but I can see advantages over a normal tent in at least one situation. There are quite a few car parks, large laybys etc in the Highlands where pitching a tent is deemed unacceptable but overnighting in a van is allowed. Owning a roof tent would allow you to overnight in such car parks, without the disadvantages/expense of owning a van during your normal life (just put a roof tent on your regular car).

On the other hand, being only rated up to a windspeed of 40mph is pretty limiting.

Drive slower then... 🙄

I expect that removing a 65Kg weight from the roof of your car and putting it back for your next trip would be non-trivial.

Not if you are a REAL man that drives a Landy!

I carry a 70kg boat on the roof of my Galaxy and can load it alone (just).

Yawn. Typical libtard comment. These roof tents are perfect kit for a bug out wagon. I used one of these during my NC500 livestream and it was great. Having spent many long nights on stag I was used to holing myself up in a 3ft high coffin. I can understand why civvies (anyone who hasn't served in the forces, cadets or boys brigade) will find this a challenge but that's what separates those that do and those that don't.

Reading the linked roofbunk blurb, it's supposed to be the size of a double bed. So, if you're supposed to be able to get two of you in there, plus the weight of the tent thingy itself, then you're looking at a load of at least 140kg-ish?

Not going to try that experimentally, my car goes "ow, gerroff!" if I just bung a kayak on the roof!

Chill out, not having been in the boys brigade might be why I don't have a Land Rover with a roof tent but like many of the posters here we've slept in some pretty grim circumstances though whether it was "bugging out" is debateable, mostly just biting off more than we should have. We've done our fair share of "stealth camping" in bus shelters or worse still at Gatwick Airport as well.

I meet loads of the off-road roof tent fraternity, every year I go to a part of Italy where there are 40 or 50 of the things in the campsite and they enjoy themselves, I do something else and enjoy myself as well. As do the people that carry their accomodation on their backs, sleep on inflated crisp packets and eat re-hydrated muck fifty metres away from an Italian restaurant. Each to their own!

The maximum load rating for your roof rack is more about the handling of the car with the extra weight up there and the potential consequences of it in a collision than it is to do with the actual strength of the roof.

I don't suppose you'd get the car manufacturer to put it into writing, but I'm pretty sure you can safely put substantially more weight on the roof of your stationary car than you could safely drive around with up there. 

Whether the difference amounts to the weight of two large humans who might occasionally even feel the urge to bounce up and down in unison on the mattress in their glorified roofbox I wouldn't like to say.

"..and the low aerodynamic design of the shell also means there's less noise while driving."

Less noise than what? 

Less noise than an unspecified more noisy thing presumably, because there's no way it's going to be less noisy than not having an XXL roofbox on your car.

Cutting to the chase, how much?

£1749.00 ladder etc extra.

Or get an estate car.

4 x the price of a decent, and much more practical (for 90% of uk situations) tent.

Thanks, I'm going to pass!

I can just about see the point of putting one on a normal car as a cut price way of sort of getting the advantages of a van.

Genius and I applaud you.

If I could afford a Landrover and one of these tents, I'd probably be more likely to book a hotal.

Sounds like there's scope for a research project there?

With an estate car, get a roof luggage box if you must and just kip in the car.

Not a great chat up line?

Pre kids, that would not have made any sense. But on longer Scandinavian roadtrips, being able to just park and with minimun fuss, ho to sleep is rather handy. Sure, you can set up the tent, but with (young) kids it’ll take longer… so not really minimum fuss.  And vans don’t work, as four certified seats are needed.

Obviously a proper camper is the answer, but a tad spendy and won’t work as a daily driver. The other option is a rooftent. If the ground is flatish, quite minimum fuss. The best part is, If you sell the car, you still have the tent.

As for the roofrack weight ratings. Obviously What the tent weighs needs to be something the rack can cope. As that limit is for actually driving the car (wind will multiply the effective force/weight). So not really a concern for parked vehicle. My friend inquired this actually, and the official Subaru answer was that (they did not give an exact non moving weight limit, but did state provided the actual rack can handle it.

Ha ha.  There might be a follow-up study required to evaluate the risk of seasickness on a tall vehicle with soft suspension.

There was a bloke in something similar at a campsite we were at in Mull earlier this year. We were having enough fun trying to keep our relatively low profile tent on the ground so it must have been horrendous being sat on the roof of a 4x4. He was only there for one night, apparently he gave up and went to find a B+B after the first night.

Apart from being much more exposed to the wind/weather than a normal tent, the lack of a porch would be another downside in wet and windy weather. Even if you manage to position the door on the lee side, hard to see how you manage to get in when it's raining horizontally without getting soaked and/or dripping everywhere from your wet kit. Also, negotiating the ladder to get out in the middle of the night could get annoying..

As others have said, despite becoming popular in the last few years, things like this seem like the worst of both worlds, bit like a trailer tent - expensive and bad for fuel consumption etc, but without the convenience of a campervan/ caravan.

I had the tentbox version of this a while back, owned for about two years and had many of great adventures and trips away, was great when it was just me and the wife but got harder when we had little one.. also worked great for weekend climbing trips or last minute over night stops although better to top and tale with climbing partner as can get a bit snug in there..  it has its pros and cons, very easy to set up and pack away, literally a minute to set up and a minute put down, also like mentioned above if in Scotland and abroad you can pretty much pull up anywhere and pop it up and sleep. I never really had any issues with wind, i did stay up around the cairngorms station a few nights in high winds and it was fine.

the downsides are, you got to be able to climb at least Vdiff to get up for a piss in the night as climbing down the ladder bear footed half asleep is not easy.. you also need somewhere to cook or socialize as only really any good for sleeping in. ( I also fitted an awning to mine which worked ok for that). 

We now have a van which if honest is allot better but did cost us allot more money. 

But as said, it is not for all. But for those that it suits their need, better than any option. Naturally a proper campervan is a lot better... but they start at 50000 Eur, and are not really daily drivers --> so you need to factor in the storage, and naturally still have a daily driver car.

These rooftents are in the sub 5000 Eur class, and a lot easier (but not certainly) easy to store than a campervan.

What needs to be understood, as that the requirements differ and you're now reflecting on your own situation. Rooftop tent might not be a suitable option for you, but they can for other. All this dissin' is like stating that the only tent you need is model XXX... which happens to be  an ultralight single person tent... great, if that is your use-case... not so much for car camping with four persons and a dog .

I've only really come across these in Namibia and South Africa - they are reassuringly snake and scorpion resistant, not to mention apex predators (although, tbh, our Quasar seemed to do the job adequately).  

We had a trailer tent when I was a kid. I thought it was pretty good. It's not really the same target audience as this roof tent, more suited to the family camping experience where you would pitch a big tent for the week and then use the car to head off to see the sights. You get a lot more fixed facilities than you would if you had a stand alone family tent (we had built in cooker, sink and beds with thick foam mattresses) and you don't fill the car with tent so you have plenty of space for stuff and a comfortable journey.

Our trailer tent was also very easy to pitch unlike some of the monsters you see people leaving gooutdoors with.

They were very standard in Namibia on hire vehicles, but we avoided them as they would have been pretty inconvenient when camped in the same place for a few days. Maybe nice if paranoid about snakes and scorpions, and reassuring if you were going to an area with big predators. Neither really a consideration on the NC500 though (having seen them on campsites I looked up the hire cost on what looked like an armoured personnel carrier and it was eye watering!).

I think one of these would be exciting with  a kid or two and a dog! 

And you really dont need to spend 50000 for a van with 4 certified seats 

Thank you! An equal number of likes and dislikes suggested that was pitched about right...

Funnily enough I think a van with 4 certified seats and a rigid roof might be one of the more sensible applications for this.  Because chances are that's a van that would be fine for 4 people to sit in and travel in, but feel a bit cramped for all 4 to sleep in.  So perhaps it would be ideal for Mr & Mrs layby shitter to add an extra bedroom for the kids, like building an extension instead of moving house.

Elegantly and eloquently put.

Kids would actually be thrilled... dog less so (she would sleep in the car, prolly with one of the kids that can fit in...).

Well... Vans, as in 2 seaters... yeah are cheaper. But still like the new T7 Multivan starts at 64000 Eur here... And you can't get all four persons (plus doggo) to sleep there... Proper camperones are a lot more, cheapest starting at ~50 to 60 kEur. But going past 100 kEur is not unheard off... So again a car you can camp in, and also drive with four people is starting at 50000, and most often well north of that figure. Ofcourse, you have the option of gettin' a 20 year old camper for peanuts... but again unless you are really fluent in fixing it... doing a trip with one (with kids ain't fun)... kids will be less than happy, when it decides to dis-integrate at the trail-head.

Not to mention the insurance costs... and cost of storage...

So yeah, 5000 Eur is peanuts.... but as said, perhaps not to all.

But it might not be suited for all... but I'm seriously thinking about one (not this particular model though). And certainly there are people out there that have one, and no proper use for it... same as with snorkels on proper 4wheelers... Oddly enough, slightly raised 4x4 is often more than capable of fjording streams that you encounter in UK (or Europe for that matter)... still, they have it.

Ok, I feel slightly responsible for the pile on on this thread so I concide this contraption is ideal for:

1) Finland

2) couples or single people who can't be arsed to pitch a tent in Scottish laybys.

3) people with a fear of being eaten in the night by snakes or hyenas.

Couldn't have put it better.

Indeed, there are sensible use cases (heck, they would actually work with your normal stationwagon... provided you can get one kid (et doggo) to sleep in the car. All gear in the booth, add a air-thingo (or just a bit of proper padding) for the kid to sleep in the back seat, get dog on shotgun set, install the window meshes, pop open the tent and then crawl there with the other kid and wife.

Certainly not everywhere... but imho a lot less of a hassle to set up the 5 person tent somewhere close enough to the car (them car camping tents are heavy)... and in the morning pack up the wet as hell tent (raining during the night)... or spend the 4h praying it'll get a tad dryer (not likely with 100% humidity at 13C and no wind)... And then drive to the camping ground and again set up the drippin' wet tent... in the process also gettin' all the down sleeping bags damp as well...

Ps a rock n roll bed in you van will give you 4 seats, as much sleeping space and change for £5k plus the option of crapping in all the scottish Scottish layby's you could ever dream of! 

Pps I don't own a van but am very envious of those that do.  

I don't understand why everyone is so upset? 

I mean, I don't want a pair of Birkenstocks but I'm not cross with people who spent their cash on them. 

Good point. Although I reckon a couple of sheets of ply, a bit of roofing felt , a couple of gas struts and an old tent would be a lot cheaper.

Those are some weird birkenstocks.....

Won’t pass Finnish dmv. So Nope, not an option…

Genius advertising work UKC.

Publish this ad, kerching. 

Know that the Bear Grylls/Harry Enfield nature of the product will guarantee a large thread.

Use this additional traffic to increase advertising attraction, kerching

Report back to the advertisers the large thread and interest in the product to snag further advertising revenue, kerching.

Good skills, before you deride my post as cynicism remember it is another post on the thread and worth a penny in your coffers.

Just fit rucksack straps onto it and do away with the car. Nae bother. (As long as you don't walk faster than 40mph).

Your post certainly is cynical. Do you not think we have to answer awkward questions about threads like these to advertisers? It doesn't exactly encourage them to continue working with us.

We also don't hide the fact that this is advertising, or the fact that the advertising literally pays for the free site that you're posting on.

They are great until you consider toileting and cooking, if you can avoid these them I'm sure they'll work fine. If only someone would invent a canvas ground level sleeping structure. 

It would also look like a steaming pile tho...

This is a niche product that looks well made by a small UK company. The price reflects that.

It's not for everyone and it's certainly not meant to be a direct replacement for backpacking tents.

I guess in a lighting storm you could retreat to downstairs, as that was one of my concerns when I first saw one.

Bloomin 'eck you could get a fairly decentish condition large estate car for that, sleep in the back and have a "free car" thrown in for that cost

In that case why do you have threads attached to adverts like this? I do remember one advert which could have been a masterfully hilarious parody of a fashion magazine ad being pulled with its thread after being mercilessly ridiculed.  

Artisanal, if you don't mind!

Fair points (and Nick's too). I genuinely hope they find a market.

Eh..... obviously not!

It's a matter of whether it's a possible replacement for a car-camping tent or a bigger van.

Is that the same as creating a market?

Judgeing by the site we stayed at in France this year, there already appears to be a market.

It's a different niche to the niche that most of the UKC/UKH readership occupies, so of course it's likely to have a rougher ride on the forum than more 'relevant' products.  No doubt it would be better received on some 4x4 forum, where the resident <ahem> 'off-road adventurers' would probably think a lightweight backpacking tent is silly.

It's for you guys to convince them that advertising on here is worth their while though, not for the forum-bletherers to go easy on the grounds that advertising pays for us to use website for free soz.  (Especially now that so many of the regular posters are voluntarily paying a subscription anyway.)

Regarding the "well made by a small UK company" bit - that's one of a couple of things on their website that I thought weren't brilliantly thought out.  (Perhaps they would benefit from getting someone to proof-read it.  It's hard to see where improvements could be made sometimes when it's your own work.)

The list of 'features' leads with an image of a Union Jack and the words "Designed in Britain".  The message that jumps off the page at me when I see that is probably not what they were going for: "We're not telling you where we've outsourced the manufacturing to." 

Of course there's nothing wrong with getting the manufacturing done in the Far East or wherever necessarily, but that seems almost as if it's intended to be a little bit misleading and hint that the product is actually made in the UK.  (If it were, I assume they would say so.)

Bit of both probably.  There obviously is an existing market, vehicle roof tents have been around for a long long time.

If they've invented a new kind of roof tent that is significantly more convenient than existing designs, then they're probably going to sell most of them to the kind of people who would already have contemplated buying a roof tent.  But they'd be daft not to also look for other markets where their product might appeal to people that their competitors' products won't. 

I've never seen a conventional roof tent on an ordinary car (as opposed to a 4x4 or a van), but it's by no means impossible to imagine how someone might put this on one. (Even though I wouldn't, personally.) 

They're getting a bit of a rough ride on the forum, but FWIW I don't think they are by any means wasting their time and money advertising on UKC/H.

If you leave the car's sunroof open overnight then this will temporarily take care of toileting arrangements for extreme procrastinators.

What you want is one of these:

Not sure that would be the best approach for a procrastinator….

A cynic is what an idealist calls a realist.

Happy to accept advertising to support the site, pay your wages etc and usually it is correctly targeted products. In this case however either you read the room incorrectly or you saw an opportunity. Given that you are active climbers who know the community well, I am leaning towards the latter.

There you go, traffic plus one, another penny. No need to thank me.

Quite a few in Cornwall too. Different,  and a bit quirky,  but by no means the strangest thing seen on the campsites. 

Do you not think it is possible that the advertisers approached UKC and said "hi, we'd like to pay for some advertising"?

Why do you think UKC should say "no thanks"? Whilst the thing is not up my street, I am not in a position to say that no-one on UKC would be interested. 

I think it was a deliberately provocative and, for the reasons I stated above. Cynical capitalism.

Exaggerating, if I were to launch a range of Boris Johnson/Brexit themed gear and advertised here, you can imagine the outrage and increased revenue.

It is tabloidism. Tabloidism works, UKC has to make money and occasionally uses it to do so. That's not to say that it shouldn't be challenged.

UKC has to resort to capitalism, like any other business. As Captain Paranoia said, it's not for me, but some people might be interested. I wouldn't buy a £600 pair of dealer boots or a £400 hipster donkey jacket either, but there are a few people that would.

Why challenged? Are you saying UKC shouldn't take money from companies that want to have a go at selling stuff like this? I reckon they absolutely should. The company will get invaluable, brutal feedback on the product and their chances of seeing to climbers. Also if posts on this thread generated an extra penny (I don't believe for a second it does) for UKC at no cost to them or me, that's great, right?

Anyway, this tent thing, does it come in gaudy bright yellow?? I'll need it to really stand out in everyone's photos of Wasdale while I'm taking a crap just behind it.

How is it deliberately provocative?  Climbers & hill walkers use cars, vans and campervans all the time and they're generally more open to the idea of camping in their free time than most.  It isn't a ridiculous crowd to advertise a vehicle roof tent to, and there's nothing remotely offensive about it even if some people do think the product is silly.

How would that work then?  Outrage generates clicks and sells 'newspapers', sure, but it isn't going to generate sales of a product that nobody wants to buy. 

UKC/H do turn down ads for products they don't think are appropriate.  Whatever you or I think of it though, I just don't get how an expensive tent is one of those products.

I really doubt that anyone wanted to post a paid advert to generate controversy - I’m sure there are plenty of people (maybe those who don’t post) who might be interested in this given the general interest in the outdoors/camping/sleeping in laybys and car parks.

Your posts seem deliberately provocative. What cut are you getting from this controversy...?

Point of order

Don't make the mistake of thinking our business model is the same as the Google Adwords/embedded third-party adverts model used by many websites. With those there is a payment associated with clicks and views, with UKC/UKH there isn't. Significant extra traffic is actually initially a cost to us and viewing and clicking on adverts and links on UKC/UKH doesn't result in any payment*. Of course, increased traffic is good for us but small day-to-day fluctuations have no bearing on our income or costs.

Alan

* For clarity a small exception - we use a subtle system called Skimlinks which does result in a small payment if someone posts a link to shops like Decathlon or Chain Reaction and another user clicks on that link and goes through to make a purchase. Around £100/month.

We parked up near to a couple who had just such a thing on the roof of their Landrover - they were psychiatrists (Swiss) on a tour of GB. We talked about things, but didn't mention the thing on the roof. It looked to us as a load of unnecessary faff - up and down the ladder (Oh - I've forgotten such-and-such - have to go back down or need-a-pee Oh dear etc) |They didn't cook in it, so would have needed a tarp or something mat ground-level) Each to his/her own I say

We have one, we have had it three or four years now and use it most weekends.  Slightly different design and a different make.  It was also about 1/3 of the price as it was second hand.  For us its good for what we do, it opens up in seconds and with no exaggeration between the two of us we can put it away in 2-3 mins at most, by myself is not much longer. We can keep our bedding and bits in it too which is nice. 

I refuse to pay the offensive prices they want for these things new (some of them are more than £3K! My car did not even cost that much...).  For us it essentially turns our car into a campervan (something we can't afford at the moment, hopefully one day).  We treat it no differently to how you would treat a pop top roof on a van.

This allows us to camp in a few weird spots (laybys etc) and it packs away so quick it makes though very early morning walk ins just that more bearable.  For us because its so easy we do it more, if we were packing away a soaking wet ground tent at 5am I would probably sack it off and stay in bed (or at home as I am pretty weak?).

The down side is the obvious, once its up you cant use the car for anything.  But generally campsites are where the adventures are so it dosent matter that much, worst come to the worst we just put it down - it takes no time at all. 

Weather wise we have never had an issue with wind, its stood up to some good gales - its essentially a tent with no poles and I have never seen one broken by the wind.  Ours has a small awning / porch above the doorway so you can get in without the rain coming in.  The worst thing is its only single skin so you have to manage the condensation.

Sure you have to cook outside and if its raining it can be a faff.  But I can only think of two occasions where it was a massive problem.  A lot of people pair them with awning and shelters and god knows what but I don't quite see the point, by the time you have done that you might as well have just put a normal tent up. 

Also if its a full moon you can pull the ladder up and keep the wild Welsh at bay.

I think that's it really, for us two it just works. If I was staying somewhere longer for a week or so we would probably take a larger ground tent (more likely a BnB!).  But we generally keep moving and the lack of faff just makes everything so much more fun. 

Hmm - under consideration for me - looking at having to drive to the heel of Italy fairly regularly - 2 to 2.5 days.  With dogs.  The prospect of trying to find dog friendly hotels when we lose the will to live is not a great prospect.  Ditto campsites.  Restaurant and  lay-bys seem better prospects.  I also expect that SWMBO will fly and say "See you in a few days"

Porsche make a roof tent for the 911, Macan, Cayenne, Panamera and Taycan, you don't have drive Land Rover garbage to enjoy sleeping in nature. 5 grand to you!

I've been curious about how well roof tents would work in Scotland ever since I spent three weeks camping in a rental one in Namibia. It made sense in Africa. Especially when traveling with my brother, who lives in Windhoek, and when he's not teaching high school math, he's training to be a safari guide. He loves African wild camping. Thinks it's great when lions wander through the camp. Me, not so much. I was grateful for the roof tent. That said, we only properly wild camped in the bush for two nights and spent most of the trip in campsites that had fences around them. That didn't stop snakes, monitor lizards, and honey badgers, but it kept the big stuff out. No honey badgers or monitor lizards crawling into the roof tent, though!

The pros:

*The bedding was more or less set up as soon as you erected the tent.

*You didn't have to feck around with finding the perfect flat spot on the ground and hope you could get stakes in.

*Not an issue in Namibia, but here, it would make roadside camping and staying in mountain carparks far more accessible to non-van owners. We currently camp in the back of my Skoda Yeti when we want to do such things, but that has its own faff.

*Yeah, some people earlier in the thread said you can get a cheap van, but a lot of people who only keep one car don't want a van to commute to work, and roof tents are cheaper to run than a second vehicle.

*As stated above, less likely to find wildlife in your tent.

*My brother has a story about a couple mates who were wild camping in Zimbabwe (in a normal tent) and woke up one morning to find a lioness napping in the vestibule of their tent. Nope.

*It was kind of a cool toy.

The cons:

*The tent we had in Namibia was faffy to set up and take down. It was a ballache when we were camping in one place for several days and wanted to use the car, which was most of the time. Not a lot of hiking where we were, due to the wildlife, so we mostly did game drives. I am aware that fancier ones are less faffy.

*Climbing down the ladder in the middle of the night for a pee. Sucks. I got used to it, though.

*Our African roof tent would have been wet as a wet thing in the rain, but that's not a massive problem in Namibia. I trust you can get better ones that withstand rain.

*High winds. They all tend to be square, flat-sided things sitting high above the ground. I can't imagine that even the best roof tents in the world are as convincing or stable in high winds as a well-made geodesic ground tent.

*Midges. My Alpkit Kangri has a vestibule, which works as an airlock (or midge lock?). You dive into the vestibule, zip it, then dive into the tent. This keeps all but the most intrepid midges out of the tent. I would worry that a roof tent, without a vestibule, would become a midgey hole very quickly. You can add awnings and so forth, but by the time you've done all that, you might as well have set up a bloody ground tent. The car also has this problem, which is why we don't do much Yeti camping at the height of summer.

*Driving with one will kill the fuel economy of your car. Unless you're in a Hilux on Namibian washboard roads and 4x4 tracks. Then who cares.

I enjoyed the roof tent we had in Africa, and I can see why people like them, but I still have a lot of questions about their practicality in Scotland.