Rooftop Tent

For some time I’ve been thinking about a rooftop tent for the camper trailer.  I’ve no plan to permanently live in the tent which means it needs to be functional but relatively inexpensive.  I also want a ‘hard shell’ version.  The reason for this is I don’t want to fold down a wet canvas tent after it has been raining.  Moreover I want a tent that can be opened and closed by one person.  A ‘top of the line’ rooftop tent can cost $5000+ which is far too expensive for me.

This morning Jan was browsing online and mentioned she had see a hard shell rooftop tent at a special discounted price from the 4WD Supacentre retail chain.  The tent is obviously made in China but that didn’t preclude me considering it as an option.  One advantage was the price, which was considerably cheaper than similar products from Australian or South African manufacturers.

Some quick online research suggested the first version of the tent had design defects. However these appear to have been rectified with the Mark II version.

One potential issue is overall height of the camper trailer and tent.  The clearance through the garage is 2000mm.  The trailer is 1700mm and the tent specifications state it is 295mm high when closed.  This would only give 5mm of clearance between the top of the tent and the garage lintel.  I suspect the tent height specification does not include the mounting rails which appear to be 25mm high.  Effectively the combined trailer and tent will be 20mm to high.  However the trailer suspension should compress slightly with the weight of the tent.  I can let some air out of the trailer tyres to further reduce the overall height.  If that doesn’t work then I can probably make a set of smaller jockey wheels to replace the standard rims and tyres when moving the trailer through the garage.

Photos from the 4WD Supacentre website

I’m going to visit the local store and examine the tent