Roof Top Tent showrooms

We will move up to a teardrop offroad camper next. One I can mount this rooftop tent to so the boys will sleep in the tent while me and the wife will sleep inside the camper. I'm sure I'll get my use out of this tent.

I'm just not sure if I like the bed rack height...

 

During the walkthrough..

 

Congrats on the tent! I pulled the trigger on a Tepui Autana 3 exactly a week ago during the REI member's sale and so far so good after two uses and a week of daily driving with the tent mounted. If I'm not mistaken the CVT you bought is essentially the 4-man version of my tent as many of the midrange RTT brands like Teupi, CVT and ARB seem to sell the same basic tents from a Chinese manufacturer, each with their own tweaks to the design and materials. Not necessarily a bad thing as they're still taking care of importation, distribution, customer service, provide spare parts etc, just is what it is. But if you look at a picture of the Mt. Rainer alongside a picture of the Autana 4 it's hard to miss the similarities.

Anyway, I was excited to try my tent so seeing as I live in Bellingham and work in Anacortes I decided to skip the commute one night and camp out at Deception Pass. Initial impressions were... not great actually. There was a TON of wind noise, I'm a heavy sleeper so I still slept pretty much fine just was expecting better. That is, till I got to work and looked at the wind report from the Whidbey Island Air Station and saw we were dealing with 20 mph winds all night with gusts reaching nearly 30. At the end of the day a tent is still a tent and it handled it about as well as I could've expected. Also camped out at Mt Baker Friday night to ski Saturday and got snowed on. Again, it's still a tent so you can't expect RV levels of comfort but as long as you have warm bedding it was perfectly cozy for winter camping.

On the rack height, if you're not married to that one I will say that so far I'm finding that having it on a half height rack is pretty ideal. No first hand experience with it any other way, but I've had friends with them on SUVs and all have said they took a definite fuel economy hit and wind noise increase. On the half rack I've seen no noticeable fuel economy or wind noise change. Also definitely makes setup/teardown a bit easier.

 

Now I know every other 3rd gen in Ballard rocks a CVT, but what are the logistics of care for them in the PacNW?

My tents are always packed away with ice, frost and morning dew—at a minimum. Then when I get home I hose off, if needed, and hang them up to dry.

How do you do this with RTTs? Especially those weeks it rains everyday. How do you dry them out in our area when it’s not July-Sept?

 

Lol I’ve had 5-6 different tents, I can say this confidently .

 

Yeah but I went ahead and paid extra for the summit model. Some upgrades include a thicker tent material so I'm hoping it handles the wind better.

 

I open mine up outside, basically whenever the weather breaks to let it dry out. This is the most inconvenient part of owning an RTT in my opinion. Lucky enough no one cares at my work. I also take mine off during the winter and throw in large sized desiccant bags.

 

My main reason for going with CVT is the floor upgrade, the thicker tent material, and the annex that came with it. Before I bought it I actually drove over to FSR and looked at their setups. As I got in I could feel all the bars that ran across the bottom of the tent. Just didn't feel as solid.

 

The thicker material would probably improve things but I'd still bring some earplugs just in case if it's going to be very windy and you're a light sleeper, at the end of the day it is still a tent and canvas can flap around. To be fair my first couple nights were in worst-possible conditions from a wind perspective. The first one was my own fault if I'd just camped further back in the trees I would've been fine, but what can I say I'm a sucker for a campsite with a view. And the second was in an unsheltered parking lot at the foot of a mountain ridge during a storm.

I'm lucky enough to have a garage that's just barely big enough to open it up, but that's unfortunately probably going to have to change soon. I'll at least be probably living in Anacortes so space won't be an issue, I'll just have to open it up when there're sunbreaks, unless I can find another place with a garage or carport. I have no idea how people who live in like downtown Seattle and park on the street or a tight parking garage manage, like do they just set it up on the sidewalk or need to make a special trip to someplace they can set it up when it's nice out?

 

Right. I drove into a garage near ACT the other week where my antennae was hitting stuff.

As I sit in a bar eyeing a car wash across the street—maybe pop it up there and use an absorber and shop-vac (in reverse) to blow it out?

 

Thought I was alone in this wonderful commute...

 

I know a guy who lives in Lynden and works in Anacortes , yuck