UKC

What is the point of a roof tent? They seem to be growing in popularity and yet I can’t see any discernible benefit over a normal tent. if you are camping in the desert and wanted to keep away from snakes/insects etc I understand, but in the UK…

You have to pitch them, you have to unpitch them to move anywhere, they are awkward to fit, expensive, small, difficult to get into, you can’t cook in them, and they are crap in high winds. Anything else? Presumably you get one because you have seen people using them in cool places and think the Uk will suddenly be transformed into California?

Flooded campsites, just think how smug you could be, forward thinking with adverse global warming weather events.

All valid points but you're forgetting how good they look on the 'gram for all your followers.

And perched atop an immobile car you'd have plenty of time to develop that warm glow of smugness

A German friend had one. We used it years ago for a few days climbing in Snowdonia, and he usually used it in Europe when travelling with his wife. Seemed quick to put up  with comfortable sleeping platform extending from car roof. No absolute need for groundsheet and plenty of height to stand up in, put out folding breakfast table etc (if that's your thing). Probably smallish footprint CF height when including parked vehicle. Might be easier than some conventional tents to dry after return home ( just pull out in dry conditions.

Drove me mad. Took time to pack everything up in morning and drive to climbing, invariably missing parking spaces at PyP etc. Drive back to campsite in evening, set everything up again. Repeat next day. 

I wonder if some of the smugness would evaporate when the extreme winds resulting from climate change try to blow the car over.

I have no experience of them so might be talking out of my backside but they just look awkward to use. As said you can't(or probably shouldn't) cook in the them. If you are going out for the day you have to empty them and pack them away only to have to pitch them again when you get back.

Dave

I've seen one survive a storm in Lewis a few years ago.

We'd taken down the pop top on the van and when I got up the next morning was surprised to see the roof top tent and Land Rover still in one piece.

Sounds like they might be good if you're touring and don't intend to stop anywhere more than overnight, but a PITA for any extended stays.

Quite quick to put up, comfy mattress, away from damp ground, good ones are pretty sturdy, keeps car free for other kit/dogs and like a van, you can kip just about anywhere you can park which isn't always the case with a tent.

I wouldn't have one but I can see how they'd make a lot of sense for some people.

Unlike a van, you don't even need to get down to the layby to shit - you can just do it over the side and then drive off. 

I think they compare better with a van. 

You can park up in a layby for the night and take the piss, like a van. You can spend insane money on it, like a van. You have to do conversation faff before driving anywhere, like a van. You can't drive under height restrictions, like a van. Nobody is impressed, like a van. 

I guess you're not paying van insurance premiums, MOTing a van, or driving everywhere at 50 so in some ways I can see advantages. But for two thousand of your great British pounds I have plenty better ideas.

I nearly bought into the idea a few years ago. Turn your normal car into a campervan in a few minutes, and off you go (remember Top gear anyone?). It seemed like a good idea if you were only going away for one or two nights, or if you were touring around and setting up somewhere different most nights. But even then, I knew that regularly taking it on and off the car roof would have been too much of a chore, (I wouldn't dare leave it on the roof between uses) and I'd have just reverted to chucking a small tent in the boot instead. I expect they'll be a fad and Ebay will be full of them before long. 

Edit. Checks Ebay, yup, plenty of used ones for sale....Only used once!

I don't see the advantage. What is stopping me shitting out the door of my van and just driving off?

I love mine, agree it is a bit of a faff putting it up and down so I just leave it permanently up now, if I pull into a services and I fancy a cat nap bingo, up I go  

Good for  terraphobes

Useful in places where there are wild animals which might eat you during the night. Also useful for those without vans who want to be able to doss roadside in spots where a tent cannot be put up. However I don't see many being used in either situation in this country.

When I went to Namibia the great majority of other people had them on their hire vehicles. I'm glad I won the argument against them since it would have greatly increased camping faff. We just had to be more cautious about snakes and scorpions (we weren't in lion country and were assured that the leopard risk was very low).

Go on, you know you want to..

https://www.aspirecomps.co.uk/shop/products/kinetic-yellow-2020-suzuki-jimn...

Interesting topic. I'm intending on selling my van and getting an estate and thought a roof tent may be a good idea.

Perhaps I'm better off investing in a decent tent setup for camp sites?

As far as the pain in the arse for getting the roof tent down before setting off each day, the van is equally faffy with the pop top roof, and swivel seal.

Just had an idea; when you get to your campsite you could take the roof tent off the roof and put it on the ground next to your car. That way you can just drive off leaving your roof tent in your camping spot. When you get back your roof tent would be all set up ready to crawl into and go to bed......

Put all your stuff in a roof box and sleep in the car?

It depends on the design,  a decent hardshell roof tent is quick and easy to open up or close down and if it is well designed you can leave your sleeping essentials in it ready for the next nght.

Far easier than peeing about with pegs and poles in order to pitch a tent on the ground and you don't need to  worry about finding soft ground to pitch on.

I'm not so sure about the ones that look like an ordinary tent balanced on top of a car

Racking my brains for benefits:

• The tent won’t get muddy/wet when pitching in typical British conditions, so you can eliminate a ground sheet and keep the mud contamination down
• Deer won’t come bothering you for food should you camp in the New Forest
• You need a slightly smaller footprint than for a car and tent
• You can pitch the tent on solid ground that wouldn’t take tent pegs.

Not many advantages for the £,£££ prices.  I’d also not want to sleep atop a car’s suspension, I like my ground to be solid.  Also, the day I own a car practical enough to take the requisite roof racks is the day I hand my licence in…

Fuel consumption. They’re great for that (I imagine)

A others have said in dry climates or countries with rather more dangerous wildlife than the UK I can see the attraction. 

But they look horribly unstable for wind (it's bad enough in a van where you are low to the ground) and in wet weather will be miserable, kind of like the really old ridge tents with just a single door, so no way to separate wet and dry clothing/footwear. 

And as others have said you have the faff of striking camp daily that you would in a van, whilst also doing all your cooking outside in the rain. I love the idea of camping off grid in our van, but in reality the extra space and luxury of both a permanent kitchen and bed (plus toilet) means a tent on a proper campsite almost invariably wins for comfort. 

Although maybe if you can afford one of these you only eat in pubs and restaurants, so your priorities are different to mine. I can see the appeal for one night camps, but not if you're planning a week actually doing things whilst away rather than just driving.

My car has a maximum roof load of 75 kg. I’m certain that two occupants and the tent itself, plus associated roof rack, would weigh loads more than that. I wonder if that would invalidate your insurance? Ignore that, the 75kg is dynamic weight limit, my static weight limit must be much higher!

Only if you could manage to drive whilst in the tent.

i can think of little that inspires me less than buying, transporting and setting up a humongous tent with a permanent kitchen, toilet in bed just to pay in order to stay in one place for a whole week.

On the other hand I find the prospect of travelling light and agile to explore a wider area quite exciting. Especially if I save on site fees and can therefore afford to buy a cafe breakfast in the morning.

I guess we must all be different

Not remotely humongous, it's hands and knees or sit in the floor, but with a dedicated dry (hopefully midge free) sleeping area and outer kitchen/wet zone. We choose the tent to be quick to pitch and small enough to be stable in wind, but also big enough to have a 2-ring stove so we can safely cook inside or boil a kettle when the other person is still in bed.

You could argue we have the worst of both worlds with a tent too small to stand in what also too big to backpack. I disagree and would say it's large enough for a months basecamp in Europe, but small enough to stay upright in a Welsh storm. 

Last night we took the van for a single night. Yes it's lovely to stop anywhere, but lack of toilets are an issue and I find a tent much more comfortable, especially if the weather is anything but perfect.

are you safer in a lightening storm or worse off?

That's all great and I can see no issues if it works for you.

But why are people so quick to shout out the largely trivial problems that they perceive with a choice that is appealing to others.

I just wish that I had the time and money to free over such choices

As a weekday vanlifer😜, staying on a campsite I get to see all sorts of mobile habitation.

The rare occasion when a roof tent has turned up I taken a little interest. A recent solo camper turned up with a howling moon r/t on their audi estate.

They checked in just in front of me at reception and by the time I got to park my van the tent was up and they had the kettle on. So seems they are pretty quick to set up.

Certainly quicker than some the pop top vans with awnings and all sorts of other paraphernalia. 

 Also having lived in the back of a 110land rover for some time I really understand why they seem the preferred option. Although the discovery1 was more of a challenge. 

I get bizarrely worked up by roof tents, so rather than get myself all excited ranting why they are pointless I'll link to the last time they came up on here

https://www.ukclimbing.com/forums/gear/roofbunk_-_the_perfect_way_to_camp_o...

"Roof tents are expensive" says campervan owner.

If you can afford a half-decent campervan and buy a roof tent instead, that leaves the price of a heck of a lot of pub meals in the pot.

Who are you calling a campervan owner?

Our van is still very much a work van, not a campervan conversion. At the time we bought it the price of a van was on par with an estate car, not the silly prices that they sell for these days. 

Also generally I don't go camping to sit in pubs, some of my happiest memories are sitting on the floor in failing light and feeling the dew rising as bats fly overhead.

Short Version:

I used one on a trip to Mongolia and back and it was brilliant. I wouldn't bother using one for a small trip.

Long Version:

It takes 30 seconds. You unzip and unfold it. It's not much harder than opening a door. There's no pitching involved. Apart from the zip. Curse that zip.

We only fitted it once, and it stayed on for the whole trip. They are meant for longer trips.

very

Mine was about the size of a double bed. Perfect for two people.

I really don't recall getting up and down a short ladder ever being a drain on my sanity (many other things were on this trip). Is this somehting you struggle with, or are you just assuming it would annoy you?

We cooked under it, when deployed it creates an small canopy on the back of the car that's great for cooking under. On a Range Rover you have the tailgate to sit on which is fantastic. It's also noce to keep these two activates separate.

Probably the most incorrect thing you've said so far. We tested it at Shell Island before our trip, and it just so happened to coincide with a storm (not planned, just bad/no planning). I would say 90% of the tents had collapsed and were damaged. Ours was fine. They are very solid and heavy compared to a ground tent. Never noticed the car rocking or anything like that.

Having a proper mattress on a long trip is amazing.

Not sure why but ours never suffered with condensation. May be the heavier fabric could absorb more perhaps and it's off the ground.

They are likely a little warmer being off the ground, and away from dew etc.

It's also great being able to rock up somewhere, stop the car, not have to worry about ground conditions and just open your tent and get in it. No hunting around with torches for a flat bit of ground.

The only thing I didn't like was unzipping the cover. Road grit would collect on the zip and it would get hard to unzip unless you cleaned it. This soon got very annoying. If I get one again, I think I would modify and go with a draw string.

The 75kg will surely be the static weight limit. The car manufacturer will be accounting for the dynamic loads which is why it's so conservative.

This is why you can put a lot more weight up there if not moving.

Can't imagine they would say a maximum internal or external weight limit, but only when not moving. That would be a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I wouldn't call trying to cook in the Scottish rain whilst being eaten alive by midges a trivial problem, nor attempting to keep your bedding dry when you climb up a ladder with dripping wet waterproof and muddy shoes. 

As I said I can see the appeal in some climates, but for UK camping I don't personally think they offer sufficient indoor living space. The whole point of arriving by car imo is being able to enjoy a few extra luxuries, for me that doesn't mean table and stairs, but does mean a wet/dry transition zone where you can boil a kettle and leave wet clothing away from your bedding.

Years ago (1994-ish?) on a University trip to North Wales, we had a minibus with a nice steel mesh roof rack.

2 of us pitched a Quasar on that and slept in it - got a nice pic of it with Tryfan in the background.

Quite. Cannot understand why people are so eager to jump from the perfectly reasonable position of "the tradeoffs don't work for my personal needs" to "...and therefore anyone who does have one must be a misinformed idiot who hasn't considered alternatives". But I guess that's a pretty common approach to all sorts of topics.

Crappy quality pictures as they are scans from a magazine but this was my setup.

A mate of mine has one with a kind of side awning thing that attaches to it and goes to the ground. That looks like a good option to get around the 'can't cook in one' argument. I think they look pretty fun and surely that is the point of trips away. I'd have loved one back in the day, especially on nights like Hogmanay 1994 where 3 of us squeezed into the back of a Peugeot 309 hatch after the bells.

I would say that it is more like a hike tent with a whole car downstairs to leave your dripping wet waterproofs in before climbing a ladder to enter the tent.

A hanging stove would provide an easy way of "boiling a kettle".

The problems seem very trivial to someone who would otherwise use a small hike tent to keep life simple.

I find the idea of roof tents quite odd too but your comments above apply to any form of camping in the UK. From bivvying out through camper vans to glamping yurts, our climate and insect life frequently spoil it.

We have had two roof tents of different styles mounted to our old defender and now have converted it into a small pop top camper. I probably would not go back to a roof tent, but they had there place and we certainly had a good few adventures with them. 

The roof tents were great for traveling around every day on road trips etc. you got a large comfy bed with fairly little faff. Didn't end up taking loads of space inside. They are surprisingly warm too as most are traditional canvas material. Your above the mud and wet so with a little creative thinking re. shoes you can keep them a lot cleaner and dryer. You didn't get any wetter getting in and out than a ground tent, arguably they are slightly better as most have 'awnings' over the windows / doors so you can have them open when its raining where as the slope sides of most ground tents doesn't really lend itself to this. 

It's just a different thing for a different purpose. Just like my lightweight tent is great for wild camping, but it would be a hard work for an extended trip!   

I do agree the whole roof tent thing seems to be a marketing fashion now, I don't think they are as great as they are made out to be and certainly better in nicer weather (read: warm dry countries). I wouldn't go back to one having now got the pop top on the defender as that's a brilliant dry living space and the ability to use aires without upsetting locals. 

Personally if money was no object I would get a nice camper instead! But we have what we have! 

I've always thought these looked pretty good. Much cheaper van a van, but still means you can pitch up in a layby if you want for the night. In combination with a Citroen Berlingo or similar with a boot jump you've got a cheap (comparatively) van setup. I guess kids would also enjoy sleeping on top of a car?

Different strokes for different folks and different use cases. I tried spending a month in my small one person lightweight tent, luckily my mates had a spare tent and I bailed into that

A bit late to this debate but here goes. 

I lived in a roof tent for the best part of a year when I drove to Cape Town and back so feel somewhat qualified to comment. I have a Howling Moon tent.

Pros

They take 5 mins to pop up

You can set up camp anywhere without the need for grass etc

They have a comfy built in mattress.

You can leave your sleeping bags/bed clothes in the tent when its packed away.

You are not on the ground

Very roomy

Robust construction

They are very easy to climb into

You get a nice breeze​​​

Away from creepy crawlies

Nice views

Some brands have a built in awning that you can chill and cook under.

Cons

They are expensive (but more brands are coming on the market and prices are coming down)

Fuel efficiency takes a hit

They are heavy (40+kg) and take two people to fit

Noisey in high winds

Taking a pee in the middle of the night is a faff.

If you want to use the vehicle for a day trip somewhere you have to pack everything down.

My $0.02

Forgot to add pics.

My set up.

We're about to do an extended trip up through the Kalahari into Botswana and back down through Namibia.  I was quite excited about having a 4x4 with a roof tent but the practicalities of climbing up and down ladders in the night for six weeks weighed heavily with Mrs G and we've arranged to take a simple tent instead...

We've previously overlanded from Nairobi to Cape Town and slept in a tent every night without ever encountering anything too alarming.  And the experience of feeling the vibration of lion contact roars through the ground is unforgettable!