Accommodation - Roof Top Tent verses Tent

[Givquel]

This is my very first post ever and I am the more attractive half of Areyonga (Trevor)!!

It has been a long life dream to drive the Simpson Desert. We own a Goldstream Offroad but are not using it for this trip. We are having heavy discussions on roof top verses ground tent! I'd be very grateful to know what tenting arrangements fellows travellers on this trip are using or any for or againsts .

I'm also concerned about the sway of the lifted Toyota with a roof top tent as car sickness is a problem for me. We are also reaching the limit of our load and this may impact on our decision. 

I would appreciate your thoughts or experience!
Chris

[scarps]

Rooftop tents are good for being up off the ground from critters and creepy crawleys:-)

[Banjo16]

Roof top , no wild animals in your bed (hopefully ) but if you need to move the tent has to come down.
Depends on the length of stay in each spot perhaps.

[Rumpig]

you can get low profile rooftop tents, i quite like these but the price isn't exactly cheap http://www.jamesbaroud.com.au/

[oldmate]

The ones in rumpig s link are the go. We looked into them years ago.

[Rumpig]

in recommending the rooftop tent i did, i failed to mention we have toured The Cape and across The Simpson with a simple touring tent. you want something that is quick and simple to set up at the end of the day (ours was 6 pegs and a couple of poles to erect, a 5 minute job), the downside to most touring tents is usually their packed up size, aswell as sometimes their cost (though we bought at the cheaper end of that scale). this is what we've used when touring with our family Oztrail Tourer 9 Plus - Tent Guide - BCF , we've never used the front 2 poles that hold the front awning / door section up though (only ever took the minimal amount of poles away on trips to help keep weight down). they make a smaller version of the same tent also, it's just held up with the centre pole, so 4 pegs and one pole, job done (for overnight stops in good weather i wouldn't bother with the extra guy ropes and pegs they supply).
if you don't have a super tight budget, then there's other options out there to consider also, they just cost more to purchase. for a one off trip like this you could buy a secondhand touring tent to keep the costs down.

[xcvator]

How good is your co-ordination in the middle of the night and how strong is your bladder ? 

[Blue Bravo]

Another vote for the touring tent. They are quicker to set up and pull down than the roof top tent. You can access them easily, stand up in them to get dressed or have a sponge bath etc. We have the basic model but when we brought from BCF they threw in the side post kit for free eliminating the centre pole which really increases the space available.  You don't have to get roof racks as well unless you need them for storage.

[chester ver2.0]

How good is your co-ordination in the middle of the night and how strong is your bladder ? 

Not good i fell out of one once and lucky it was at stockton beach and the sand broke the fall

If and when i do the simpson a good canvas off my head style swag will be coming simply roll it out just before bed

[Andrew_C]

We did swags across the Simpson. Take off roof, undo strap, kick out. Drink beer and admire the surroundings .

[weeds]

I'm also concerned about the sway of the lifted Toyota with a roof top tent as car sickness is a problem for me. We are also reaching the limit of our load and this may impact on our decision. 

I would appreciate your thoughts or experience!
Chris

sea sickness........you will spend the at least three days bumping/rolling your way across

when I crossed we took two touring tents (four pegs and centre pole never set them up) and three swags....keep in mind it was only my dad, myself and my oldest boy. the tent option was for then the wife and two boys were coming along and was the wet weather backup.

I now have swags, tents, rooftop and camper trailer which pretty much covers everything 

[Alan Loy]

We will be taking a touring tent similar to Rumpig's as we have it.  We considered swags but SWMBO rejected that as some privacy is required.

If I was buying again I would buy something like a Black Wolf Turbo http://www.blackwolf.com.au/product/Turbo-Plus-240/76/product-support/2

Rooftops are just to difficult for us.

[Givquel]

Many thanks to you all for your very helpful thoughts. While we were originally thinking roof top tent, we are now swaying towards a small, quick to set up, ground tent. That way, there is no climbing the ladder half asleep at 2am and no extra sway of a cornering vehicle.  We have plenty of time yet to decide so will keep researching.

I'm very grateful that you took the time to reply.

Chris

[Brumbypt]

one thing that annoys me the most about a tent, and thats what I have cos I have a bad hip. is the setting up the bed.. mattress and sleeping bag etc.

and then finding room for all that in ya rig.



Ohh and I have done the simpson trip from Mt dare to Birdsville in 26 hours.

left Mt dare at 9 am got to birdsville at 11am the next day.


Peter,
iPad with IOS 7.0.3 using Tapatalk HD

[Alan Loy]

one thing that annoys me the most about a tent, and thats what I have cos I have a bad hip. is the setting up the bed.. mattress and sleeping bag etc.

Peter,
iPad with IOS 7.0.3 using Tapatalk HD

I am going to try rolling all the bedding like a swag.  This should make the set up time a little less (I hope  )

[jetcrew]

I can sympathise with your decision making process

We have gone backwards and forwards about 2000000000 times LOL..

So I bought an oztent ..that lasted till the planning stage and was sold on

Then we decided stuff it I will tow a trailer ..that lasted till we could not hire at the right time/price.

So we went back to the previous trips we had done and looked at what worked and what did not.

We travelled with 4 of us in the tent Rumpig has posted the video of.  Some advantages of this tent are that it packs flat into a square so it fit,s into a roof rack bag very easily and is surprisingly light weight. The disadvantage can also be this point if you want to pack it anywhere but the roof.

After 10 years ours has finally started to show some signs of wear but for the price $299 we have had a great run from this tent and I would highly recommend it.

All that said we are now needing a replacement and after considering our prev trips we wanted the simplistic design but a little more flexible in the packing options as I do boat trips as well as car based.

So we have decided on a Blackwolf 300 lite -- but NOT the plus tent. one thing i wanted to get away from was extra bits to set up, we simply want to POP it up and be done ..after looking at the PLUS tents we realised that they were no quicker than the touring tent but 3 times the price, the only other downside of the touring tent was entry/exit in rain as the door slopes backwards.

So that's where the Blackwolf 300 lite came out in front. it goes up very quick , no extra poles has a very simple front awning that requires no poles /peg /ropes and is a 3x3 mtr square sleeping area. Blackwolf have 2 options with the fly , we opted for the very small front awning as opposed to the 3 pole design as that is just more to set up, we mulled over this point but came to the conclusion if we are going away for 3-7 nights we always put a tarp up or some other shelter so was the full awning needed on a touring tent which would require 3 poles and ropes to be set up every night in order to use the fly- we thought No and once again looked back on our touring tent and realised we managed with that for years so the small awning is a vast improvement on that. So in summary we just wanted an improved version of what we had without much else. This is the one we have settled on and at under $700 is reasonable in price.

http://www.blackwolf.com.au/product/Turbo-Lite-FS-300/116/category/37/fHx8Y3x8SHwxOA==

we will; also have the swags pre set up with all sleeping gear inside as others suggested as this gives built in thermal adjustments, we bought $99 oztrail cooper swags they have a sheet /sleeping bag pillow and of course the canvass so temp adjustments are there and all rolled up into canvass bags.

Hope that helps with our decisions but spending big on a quality tent only to take just as long as the one thats 1/3 of the price was the trap we nearly fell into, so work out just what your after and then look at that, I am not a fan of rooftop tent for the points listed above.   

Jet

[macca]

Another vote for Blackwolf Turbo Lites, been using one for a couple of years now they are a great tent but take up a bit of room in the car . I use stretchers with Thermarest mats on them for beds, can set up and Pack up tent and beds in fifteen minutes




macca

[jetcrew]

Well I went to collect tent today and luckily they one set up...

I dud not pay attention in pics that it has NO BACK WINDOW

I also noted how low the door entry is and that the side windows are quite high up the walls.

So it is my conclusion that in hot humid weather it will get no cross flow over the people as the side windows are to high leaving no air flow over the persons inside.

I did not buy it based on this.

So back to drawing board and a wife telling me should have kept the oz tent 

Jet

[Bird]

Love my Blackwolf tent..
Haven't had any issues with airflow, up around Tom Groggin at Easter last year it was .. TOASTY enough to live in the river all day... At night it was fine.

But last time I used it at Binderee, it froze solid.

[DannyG]

We bought a 30 second tent today just fits us in it! But should be great for touring without the camper.

[DannyG]

We bought a 30 second tent today just fits us in it! But should be great for touring without the camper.

Just to add to to this, we recently sold our roof top tent because even though they are great for there intended purpose we found that it was a pain for us if we needed to use the car and we felt we wanted a faster solution.

We looked at a huge range of touring tents and nearly bought a cheapy Coleman easy up because it's floor space would have allowed a bit of extra room but decided against it because it was still a little cumbersome to put up and pack away.
Then we was keen on a tigerz11 style touring tent because of the floor space but again we decided against it for the same reason as the Coleman and oztrail easy ups.
So we looked at your traditional style of centre pole tent and almost went with the plus version because of the floor space but after having a play around with the extra bit and the side poles to eliminate the centre pole we felt that even that was a bit of messing around!
I know we are fussy but at the end of the day for us if we are touring and tenting it's about easy setups and pack ups.
So it was down to a traditional touring tent or the 30 second tent.
After messing around with a 30 second tent at Rays outdoors and trying our self inflating mattresses for size we felt it was the ideal arrangement for us.

Yes it's cramped when our big mattress and our daughters little mattress is in there but there's still enough room for clothes and it's only for sleeping in.
It works with our 4wd awning and has its own extra awning so there's more than enough cover for cooking etc.

Anyway that's why we bought a 30 second tent!

[Givquel]

Thanks for all the information. After a lot of reading and looking at, we have decided to go with the 30 second RV3. We will probably also get the fly and one side awning. I know it's a bit expensive but we also hope that Myswaggers will do Cape York in 2015 so we will be able to use it on that trip as well.

Self inflating mattresses are our next research project and we are looking at the Austent Rivergum 12 thick mattress x 195 long - two singles as that will give us space between them to enter the tent.  Has anyone used these???

I told Areyonga that once he purchased the sand boards (not that I'm going to allow him to bog us in sand!) I would take it as a definite sign we were going on this trip.  They arrived this morning. We're going! Yippee

Chris

[Moto Mech]

Been down this track too, bought a roof top tent, sold a roof top tent and now have another but mounted on a trailer. Pain In the butt on a roof rack IMHO.
Our first ever trip we used a extended centre pole tent, sold it when we purchased a camper trailer but when we sold our camper we bought back our original tent(sister in law bought tent off us when we got our trailer and then bought our trailer off us so we bought our tent back.......got that) back. It dosnt take up much room, just as quick to set up as pack up(30 sec tent quick to set up tent then very slow to set rest up and slower again to pack away). We head off in June for about 15 weeks and will be using this tent again.(unless I can talk mrs into swagging it, not much chance there though)

[Alan Loy]

Anyone seen the Coleman Instant up tents http://www.raysoutdoors.com.au/online-store/products/Coleman-Instant-Up-Touring-Tent-6-Person.aspx?pid=291386&menuFrom=1021918#Cross

or http://www.raysoutdoors.com.au/online-store/products/Coleman-Instant-Traveller-Dome-Tent-6-Person.aspx?pid=346864&menuFrom=1021917#Cross

I wonder if they are as quick as they say to put up.  Look light weight  (is this good or bad?) as well

[DannyG]

Anyone seen the Coleman Instant up tents http://www.raysoutdoors.com.au/online-store/products/Coleman-Instant-Up-Touring-Tent-6-Person.aspx?pid=291386&menuFrom=1021918#Cross

or http://www.raysoutdoors.com.au/online-store/products/Coleman-Instant-Traveller-Dome-Tent-6-Person.aspx?pid=346864&menuFrom=1021917#Cross

I wonder if they are as quick as they say to put up.  Look light weight  (is this good or bad?) as well

Alan we looked long and hard at the Coleman instant up. We have the coleman double shower tent which is also based on the same instant up design and we like it even though it is a bit awkward to pack away.

However we decided against the tent because for our situation we only really need a tent to sleep and get changed so the faster and easier it is the better. Hence we went with the 30 second style tent.

One thing to watch with the coleman tent is Rays outdoors have theirs made specifically for them. The fly on top has that half moon wall on the sides and I have been assured it is like a parachute in the wind. However every other retailer sells the same tent but with a fly that goes right down the sides, this is a far more stable design in the wind. Ebay has loads of them at the right price.

I dont know of the other tent you showed.