Roof Top Tents

[sacramentoelectric]

Not a roof top tent… but I had my first drive last week and was able to fit my Gazelle T4 into the gear tunnel.

You do need to prop one side up so it’s at an angle, but hey it fits!

Does it fit in the bed at an angle with the cover closed?

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[sizotty]

Does it fit in the bed at an angle with the cover closed?

I only tried the gear tunnel. It may fit at an angle and propped up in the bed. Hopefully someone else can try (or I get my truck and can report back!)

 

[Cactus_Hugr]

Anyone have any personal experience, opinions, hysterical stories, etc. regarding roof top tents and available options/brands?

Since we are going the R1S route, I think it might be a great fit once we know the crossbars will work. I was looking at the iKamper brand. www.ikamper.com. Other than the lack of novelty in their naming convention (Apple, cough cough), they do look pretty sweet.

I'm going to have to figure out a solution in lowering down & raising up the dog in the middle of the night. Maybe use Buffalo Bill's solution with the basket in Silence of the Lambs? "Now it places the lotion in the basket"......

I'm on my second and it's an Ikamper Xcover (1.0) which I love. It's lightweight for an RTT, built well, easy and quick to use, and the skylights are honestly sweet not to mention when rainfly is removed. I store dirty camp chairs and other stuff on top, including our inflatable kayak.

However, with the R1T that'll hopefully be coming sometime soon, I'll have to order the mini instead because this will stick out too far in the back. But the rack on top will be for our mountain bikes so I'll be selling my 1 up bike rack as well.

Good news is the brackets will easily work on the 3.5" crossbars - so anyone with an R1S looking for a full size or anyone with R1T looking for mini won't be disappointed with ikamper models.

 

[E.S.]

Though I am not a fan of these two, I have to say this is an eye opener regarding Rivian and the Yakima tent. I still dislike how they go about their 'rants', they actually discovered something noteworthy here and the price difference is significant.

 

[jfornelli]

Though I am not a fan of these two, I have to say this is an eye opener regarding Rivian and the Yakima tent. I still dislike how they go about their 'rants', they actually discovered something noteworthy here and the price difference is significant.

Yeah, I'm no fan of their style, but I appreciate them determining the tent would fit just fine. Now I just need to figure out what the trailer was near the end of the video that had a kayak in it and the tent on top.

 

[E.S.]

What I want to know is how much of a warranty does this direct from Yakima, non-rivian venue'd tent has? I know if you buy the tent from Rivian after purchasing the vehicle, that tent comes with a 2 yr warranty and if bought at the same time as the vehicle, the bump to bumper (5 yrs/60k miles) warranty covers the tent. All pending on when one buys this tent it may or may not be worth shelling out the extra $$ for it.

 

[Singletracker]

I have had the folding, 3-man type RTT. One can spend a lot on a folding type tent, or not. If you do your DD, you may find that the construction and materials used is pretty similar among these tents. You can pay more for different features (skylights, etc.,) but do you really need/want them? I pretty much get into my tent sleep, not look at stars, but each to his/her own. I preferred my tent with the rain fly on, as it really reduced the early morning light. You can pay more for heavier duty tent material, but, based on my experience, not really necessary, IMHO. All these tents are made overseas, probably most in the same factory. You can buy a Yakima or whatever, but it may be no better than a less expensive tent. I purchased one from TuffStuff, used it regularly for about 6 years. Never had a single issue with the materials or construction. It was several hundred dollars less than an almost identical CVT or Tepui. It used the same quality material, same zippers, same no-see-um screen, etc, etc., etc.. Just sayin’. I found the most critical feature was the quality of the foam used in the mattress, and that‘s a tough one to determine without trying.

 

[Singletracker]

If one is considering mounting an RTT on an R1S, be careful. The Rivian crossbars are NOT the ticket.They sit too high above the roof and are not spaced properly for some tents. In fact, it appears to me that any tent with a footprint much larger than the typical 3-man, folding tent is not going fit well, if at all. If you look at the pix of an R1S with the Yakima tent, note how far forward on the roof it is - looks kinda goofy. This seems like it would have a very negative aerodynamic effect, not to mention wind noise from having the tent right over the driver. Any larger tent, mounted there, would be hanging over the windshield. I now have a James Barroud hardshell tent (mounted on a roof rack atop my FJ). The tent is about 78” total length, with 57” long mounting rails. It is simply to long to mount on the Rivian crossbar setup, using the front two mounting ports, and too short to mount, using the 1st and 3rd ports . My guess is most hardshell tents or larger folding tents will have the same issue. The answer to this problem is ditch the crossbars and get a full roof rack, like those available for almost any other true adventure vehicle. But, with the Rivian mounting port system, I’m not sure how a full roof rack can be properly mounted. I reached out to Rivian on this issue and pretty much got a blank stare. Rivian needs to address this issue!!

 

[Singletracker]

Yup. The iKamper Mini 3.0 is doable using the two front Rivian mounting ports, as it is only a few inches longer, front to back on the roof, than the Yakima type tent. I still don’t like the positioning on the R1S roof, however - way too far forward. Using the two rear ports would likely not provide a wide enough base to properly support the tent. Bottom line - a real roof rack (not bars) opens up the door to many RTT options and also other storage options (traction boards, shovel, axe, etc.). The rack I have on my FJ is very low profile and incorporates a nice wind deflector, making for zero wind noise on the highway and minimal loss of mileage.

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