Alibaba RTT?

Has anyone ever bought one from Alibaba? They're significantly cheaper than US sellers.


https://www.alibaba.com/trade/search?fsb=y&IndexArea=product_en&CatId=&SearchText=hard+roof+top+tent

BTW sorry if this is in the wrong section.

 

How many do you plan to buy?

 

Following

 

Yes. Not that much cheaper if you only buy one at a time. Also, you’re getting less durable materials than what CVT and some others are using. Shipping and duty fees are the deal break on just one.

Edit: should have looked at the link. I thought we were talking about soft RTTS. Things may be different for hardshells

 

https://www.alibaba.com/product-det...?spm=a2700.7724838.2017115.124.41fc382blihiTA

Minimum purchase is 1. Hmm curious to see how that would be and shipping/dutys fees.

Body is made out of 280g polyester cotton canvas...while CVT say their tent is made out of "280g poly/cotton rip-stop canvas". Wonder how they compare.

 

As shown on their ad, if you dont have a snorkel and camo jumpers like these, you aren’t cool enough to have one.



But really, you're screwed if you have to return it for any reason. Shipping it back would cost almost more than buying it again.

Its funny how closely the one you linked looks like a Smittybilt tent- probably the same design and materials, and maybe the same shop. I like mine, but bought it from a dealer here in the US, so I can and have gotten help with it here when needed.

 

It's likely a made on a stolen design. I run into products made through alibaba in my field (industrial production equipment) every so often and are always knock offs or outdated designs. I found one with a UL listing taken from a microwave. Stick with the established companies. Both they and you will appreciate it.

 

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At that price, it's hard for me to not buy one to just try, especially since I am due for a new tent anyways.

 

If you do...do a review on it and let us know the shipping + customs fee.

 

I'm going to shoot them a message and see what they come back with. Based on what they say I'll shoot them a lowball offer and try to get it.

 

I've bought a few things from Alibaba through Aliexpress. No truck accessories, but I did buy lighting fixtures, plumbing fixtures, cabinet knobs and a couple of furniture pieces (headboard and side tables). It was a mixed bag experience.

The best item was the cabinet knobs. They were very high quality and matched the site description perfectly. However the provided screws were too short for some of my cabinets. Because they were a metric design, I had to go to a specialty fastener store to get the right fit. The catch was the minimum sale was 100 units.

I bought several varieties of LED light fixtures. Almost universally they did not match the site description and photograph. Most were usable in some fashion. One example of a potential hitch in this kind of long distance transaction: there was a ceiling panel light that was LED edge lit. The lighting color was off badly (I received the "blue" spectrum instead of the "warm white"). I raised this through the dispute process and the vendor was willing to refund my money, but did not want to ship another full unit. They did agree to send the correct LEDs if I wanted to correct it in the unit myself. I accepted that offer and learned when I pulled the unit apart there were a number of short cuts they probably didn't think would ever be viewed by the end customer.

I bought a number of sink fixtures and supply line valves. The fit and finish was very good. The metric beast bit me with these as well. The supply line valves were ordered for a 1/2" line, however the fit was about an 1/8" too large. I was not able to resolve with the vendor, but got a refund through Aliexpress. I bought local supply valves, unfortunately the supply lines didn't mate properly. I had a friend who was able to adapt the supply lines.

The furniture was a decent deal. The visible side of the headboard was acceptable, but the backside showed the rough assembly. The tables were decent, however you could see the joins were rough and the fit of one of the lower drawers was visibly off.

I think there are some things that can work with this model of commerce. You have to be willing to have a very long lead time before you need the item. The greater the design/assembly complexity will introduce exponential opportunities for shortcuts and performance failures. Don't believe the photo you see on the site (probably poached from the original item that is being copied in China). If you need to integrate your item with anything american made, be prepared for the metric shuffle. The price is certainly attractive, but beware there are probably good reasons - although it can still be an overall good value if your expectations are in line. Communications with the vendors is a mixed bag. They are certainly eager to respond and seem genuinely interested to help. But the language/culture/time offset issues can be difficult to overcome.

For the particular item the OP presents, I would be worried about the assembly. Great price.

Good luck.

 

I like this one https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Triangular-Hard-Shell-Roof-Top-Tent_60520922133.html

Some of these manufacturers make these for the brand name companies they simply change things here and there reading the specs on this one looks comparable. The cons really as other have said if you have issues you can't just take it back without spending a lot of money

 

you have to factor in quantity, shipping, and possible broker fees when dealing with ali baba.

 

Well I messaged multiple sources so I should have some actual shipping fees for everyone shortly. I must say in the past I have had luck getting things from alibaba that require 5+ units by just saying I want a test unit for my company.

 

you know @ChandlerDOOM is probably doing the same thing w/ his RTT groupbuy

 

Gotta love the dented hood!

 

Pretty much


So here’s the deal for those interested in buying one to five, it isn’t worth it. You can take this as a biased opinion because I run a group buy but it honestly isn’t because I don’t have much to gain from tent group buys.

So you only get good pricing if you purchase a lot, they have no interest in selling you small number orders. So you will likely pay the higher end, the numbers they put up on alibaba usually mean nothing as they are only to grab your attention. If you buy low number of units chances are you will receive a blemished or phased out unit. What you see in the picture is likely not what you will receive, 90% of the time they use pictures of another product. If they send you a picture of what your tent is, chances are you will receive something different anyways.

So what you think your going to spend and how much you will really spend are two different numbers, its safe to double what you think you are going to spend. For what I spent on my first tent where I thought I was getting a really good deal I could have purchased a james baroud tent. If I did it all over again I would have done just that or waited for someone stupid like myself to run a group buy and jumped on. So expect to pay the high end of the pricing spectrum, your shipping across the ocean, your import/customs through your broker, and your warehouse fees. Import and customs will nickel and dime you, if your shipment gets pulled for an X-ray (random), you get to pay for the pleasure. Your importer will walk you through all the steps of import/customs but you are trusting that person to not fuck up, if your ISF has anything wrong with it you are liable for a 5k fine.

Finally when everything is done and you are able to pick up from the warehouse you will likely have to pay a small fee, but trust me the small fee is only a drop in the bucket to what you just previously paid just to get the shit over here hoping that after all that trouble it will be exactly how described without issues because you are on your own. If you are curious what a manufacture warranty is, its a discount for buying more stuff because they wont be sending replacement parts on their dime to you, and stuff certainly doesn't go back to them

Trust me when I say I learned a lesson the hard way, now you know.

 

he's doing the hard work for you so if you're in the market for this definitely look into his group buy. I'm trying to decide if i want the pop-up or the clam shell

 

Just a fyi because of the clamshell you posted earlier that you are interested in, that is actually a james baroud tent but one of the tactics they use to get people to purchase a tent from them by using another companies product picture. James baroud and autohome are not made in asia to my knowing as they both claim hand made in europe (Portugal/Italy)