Ground Tents and Roof Top Tents

Rooftop tents are, by far and away, the coolest option. It's basically a treehouse/fort for the kid in the adult. It's extremely easy to set up and takedown. The bedding and pads are all encased in the tent once folded and you are away from the majority of the food chain. Cost is a huge issue, however. The majority of the tents are $1,000.00 to $3,000.00. Obvious reasons aside, that was not my budget. I researched many different manufacturers, finding that the majority of them are Chinese built and just rebranded with only subtle differences. After searching Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace I came across a reseller of unbranded Roof Top Tents. To be fair to the reseller I am not disclosing their price, but the cost was significantly less expensive than the Smittybilt version. Again, there are differences and they very well may add up to make up the cost differential but this is what initially fits my budget.

For fair warning; the 2-3 person tents are ONLY good for 2 people comfortably. The sizes seem to either be Full size or King size mattress widths. The family of 3 plus a dog meant that someone would be left sleeping elsewhere with the dog. After 4-5 trips with the Universal RTT, I was able to make the informed decision to move forward with a better, larger tent that would fit everyone.

Several manufactures have different takes on the RTT's that support the 3 -5 person capacity. The pricing is just as vast as well. Again, running the gauntlet of around $1000 all the way to nearly $3500 or more. Testing different tents are difficult. Not many retailers have local showrooms for you to test or inspect the product. You are essentially left trusting reviews by fellow campers. The one that kept coming into view due to the impressive reviews and pricing was the Smittybilt Overlander XL 2883. It qualified with the necessary capacity of sleeping 4 people and rated for the weight requirements.

It also fits the LR3's roof perfectly. Measurements are pretty much a King sized mattress with a few extra inches at the bottom. We didn't purchase the Annex kit but see that as a viable option to many.I ordered my Tent from an online retailer after finding it for a decent discount. The tent was packaged like you would expect, cardboard and styrofoam. Installation was very straight forward and easy. It mounted to the LR3's OEM Expedition Rack with some extra long mounting plates I used on the first tent. The tent included some extra's that I found very useable. LED lighting was included with either a battery pack, 12V car outlet or a USB plug to a universal phone charger. The lighting is removable but secured to the tent via a velcro strip over the head of the bed. The mattress was definitely better quality over the first tent, but I'm still a big guy so I added 2 Twin XL air mattresses for extra comfort.

Setup is easy but I do have one issue with the tent. The first tent we had, utilized a heavy-duty zipper around the travel cover. Smittybilt decided on a Velcro strap around the entire travel cover. It works well and seems to be better at water ingress but getting it lined up is just a pain in my ass! Overall, the tent is very nice but very long. With the upgrade to the Trailhawk, no one makes a rack that supports a tent this length. With that in mind, we are making some changes to our setup, stay tuned!

Finding comfort in the wild is extremely important as it can affect your ability to get quality sleep. That quality sleep helps you have the ability to make sound decisions the following day; say on a trail with questionable routes.

Shelter comes in many different forms. You will see many areas where there is a debate between a Roof Top Tent, Ground Tent, Truck Tent, and even Camping Trailers. For us, the debate was simple in some ways. The trailer was too expensive and the truck tent didn't fit. The RTT and Ground Tent were the only two reasonable options. I was instantly attracted to the RTT after years of struggling alone setting up bigger tents.

We started with a Coleman Weathermaster 10 tent. It was large and had enough room to roam but the setup took nearly 30 minutes Other issues came when I stayed at a buddies camping site on a small peninsula. The ground was too hard for stakes, so securing the tent was nearly impossible. I looked into other tents that took much less time for setup but the size and quality went down. Plus sizes to the tents were that the general size once broken down, was relatively small compared to other options.