Roof top Tents

[Brutus]

I have a rhino roof top tent on my rhino rack and love it.

 

[Jeremillan]

I used some T-slot channel nuts from McMaster-Carr along with washers and locking nuts to mount mine. Worked like a charm. Rhino racks are awesome, but yeah, that crossbar width trips people up with TentBox. Once it’s on, though, you’ll love it—the TentBox Lite 2 is one of the most amazing rooftop tents for weekend trips and solo adventures. Super fast to pop up and pack down.

 

[Disco Dave]

My Bundutop is mounted on 3 rhino roof bars. It is electrically connected to the vehicle via the pre wired Deutsch plug. It also comes pre wired for rooftop solar, has 2 internal electric fans and an internal light.
Sets up faster than any other RTT. Also has 360 deg ventilation.
270 deg “30 Second” awning is attached to the Bundutop.

 

[Brandtnm]

My Bundutop is mounted on 3 rhino roof bars. It is electrically connected to the vehicle via the pre wired Deutsch plug. It also comes pre wired for rooftop solar, has 2 internal electric fans and an internal light.
Sets up faster than any other RTT. Also has 360 deg ventilation.
270 deg “30 Second” awning is attached to the Bundutop.View attachment 7898382

What’s that weigh?

 

[Disco Dave]

Tent is about 80kg, awning 30kg.
Vehicle does not feel overly top heavy in tough terrain.

 

[Logsplitter]

My Bundutop is mounted on 3 rhino roof bars. It is electrically connected to the vehicle via the pre wired Deutsch plug. It also comes pre wired for rooftop solar, has 2 internal electric fans and an internal light.
Sets up faster than any other RTT. Also has 360 deg ventilation.
270 deg “30 Second” awning is attached to the Bundutop.View attachment 7898382

Nice. I had one on my Defender. But yes it’s heavy.

 

[Tom109]

My Bundutop is mounted on 3 rhino roof bars. It is electrically connected to the vehicle via the pre wired Deutsch plug. It also comes pre wired for rooftop solar, has 2 internal electric fans and an internal light.
Sets up faster than any other RTT. Also has 360 deg ventilation.
270 deg “30 Second” awning is attached to the Bundutop.View attachment 7898382

How is your tent in heavy rain, and drying it out afterward?

 

[Disco Dave]

How is your tent in heavy rain, and drying it out afterward?

We recently spent 2 weeks touring in it. At one stage it rained constantly for 4 days and nights. We did not get wet, and neither did our bedding. It packs up wet with no problems. At the end of the trip, I opened it up and lifted the mattress onto its side, just in case there was a bit of dampness in there.

 

[BCDave]

Dirtbox is local to me and I am seriously considering this tent. It only adds about 6” of height as the tent basically rests on the rub rails of the roof with no gap.

Well IF you end up pulling the trigger PLEASE post or ping me with an update on how you like the tent. I decided to go with Leitner Load Bars & will eventually add a RTT. Considering the TOPOAK Stellar that is sub-$2k so I'll save a $1k & have the load bars for other uses when I don't have the RTT loaded.

 

[Logsplitter]

View: https://youtu.be/mIhIzU-jqA8?t=332

Do your research on Nene Overland beforehand

 

[4x4Brick #1561]

Last year (2024) for a planned camping trip I made a RTT. Worked ok but was slow to put up and take down and was COLD. Splurged and got a 23Zero AX2 RTT for this year’s trip. Good tent, fast setup, slow-ish put away, but warm. Things I’ve learned about a commercial RTT on the Grenadier:

• Very tall – the OEM ladder works but one of the selling points on the AX2 was the all-aluminum shell with additional roof rack. My plan was to mount my recovery boards to the top of the tent roof rails. But if mounted on top of the tent it would be too tall to reach? I keep a 2 step stool in the Grenny anyway but even with that I wasn’t able to reach the recovery track mount anchor knobs. I could reach 2 of the knobs from the rear Grenny ladder side if I wanted to get on the roof in a potential angled / sloped position. But even getting on the front hood (I’ve got the step plates) it would be a long reach over the tent to get to the other 2 knobs and there isn’t a good step on the windshield wiper hood plate to step and reach way towards the top of the tent.
• Bungee Woes – AX2 comes with a couple of internal and one external ‘helper’ bungees to assist in collapsing the tent so you can shut it. Both inside bungee’s immediately on first opening broke free from one side of the tent and the dealer didn’t know how to repair and said they weren’t really useful. The exterior bungee also busted on first opening. Again dealer didn’t know how to fix or where the bungee diagram was. US OEM finally got me some photo’s (really should be a diagram) so I could repair. Does an ok job keeping the tent fabric away from the interior tent lid hinge so the lid can be closed but you still have to have someone on the roof or hood to tuck in the sides. When solo I had a stick that I used to push in excess tent fabric. Stick had a hook on one end that was also useful to move / retrieve exterior bungee and lid pull down handle.
• Novel Connectors and hidden fuses - Came with Anderson plug on the tent. DVA Mechanics makes a great cable to connect the Deutsch (Grenny roof top plugs) to the RTT Anderson plug. Fuse for EXT 3 which controls / power 3 out of the 4 roof top ports is under the rear seat under a plastic battery covered panel. You need a torx T50 to access and it’s a pain.
• Hard to mount - I love the Ineos standard Rhino roof rack but it is horrible to mount this RTT. AX2 is ready to grab a round or smaller square cross bar. Having the Rhino Pioneer Style wide roof bars running front to back but not lining up with the AX2 mounts was a pain. Tent came in too late and dealer couldn’t mount it in time. Also ran out of time to order Rhino’s tent mount bars and had to use Unistrut as a make shift RTT cross bar. Worked o.k. but still have to drill some holes in the wide roof rack bars to bolt one side of the RTT.

Tent slept well, didn’t whistle while driving and very comfortable. Over all happy with it and looking forward to the next trip.

 

[Rayzar]

Been debating the Roof top tent but I think I've talked myself out of it. But It depended on the Mfg as to how they mounted. Some required just Cross Bars and some required at least a half rack system.

I talked my self out of it after realizing once you set it up you're stuck. You can't drive the vehicle anywhere until you take it all down again. And if there's an emergency and you have the tent up then you have to take it down before you can leave for your emergency. So now I'm thinking of not doing it.

~D

I have the alucab clam shell and it's so easy and takes less than 5 minutes. The longest part is packing up the retractable ladder and storing it in the bag.

 

[Pat]

Just mounted my Airpass (Maggiolina Autohome) Roof Top Tent. Overall height of the car 230cm. I have asked Autohome to reduce the tent height and it is now 23cm instead of 30cm. Tent is mounted on Taubenreuther Roof Rack Back Bone and four Rhino Rack Roof bars - roof rack heigth less than 6cm. Do not ask me why 230cm overall but assuming my car is not higher than 201cm. My garage door is 230 high ;-) BTW in August I have slept on the same tent on a Grenadier in Finland.

 

[OkGo]

Do your research on Nene Overland beforehand

And then take your business elsewhere .....

 

[OkGo]

I have the alucab clam shell and it's so easy and takes less than 5 minutes. The longest part is packing up the retractable ladder and storing it in the bag.

For anyone in the UK, there are a few different vendors selling the AluCab tents, shop around and there are some discounts to be had.

Been through a fair few rtt's and I think the AluCab is right at the top. Along with James Baroud and Howling Moon, that's my top 3.