What's up with RTT Design...

Disclaimer before I get into my question. I spent several years guiding high altitude mountaineering expeditions in Alaska so my expectations for what a tent should be might be skewed.

So my question is why does there not appear to be "season grades" for RTT's? ie 3 Season / 4 Season. I understand the flip-out set up style may not lend itself to more the more common and proven dome style tent or the bomb-proof single wall design.

I just picture an exposed camp sight high on some old mining road in Colorado, wind hammering a driving monsoon rainstorm and I'm on top of my rig in what basically looks like an old school wall tent. The rain fly doesn't look bomber, the set up doesn't look taught, and the RTT's I have seen don't look like they want to see a wet late or early season snowstorm.

I am I way off here? I just really envision a style more like this https://images.app.goo.gl/WfUzfVDG9Mbc58dc9 shape where the set up style could likely remain "flip-out" while sticking to what I consider more solid tent geometry.

I am sure people have experience with them performing in rough conditions. I just wonder if the design is in need of some modernization, so these tents can stand up to less than ideal conditions with style and with ease. Not to mention being way more lightweight.

I am I onto something?

 

OMG, you're so going to offend the Overlanding crew that thinks camping is something like a festival.

 

That's just it. The mall doesn't have bad weather.

 

You got a truck. It's not like you need a VE-25.

 

If I spend $1,500 + on a RTT and need to climb out in the middle of the night (because the weather kicks up) for an uncomfortable and cramped night in the truck, I'd be a very unhappy camper.

 

Having spent a lot of nights in the backcountry in a lot of cool places, I just can't bring myself to sleep on top of my truck. I guess it's too much of the backpacker in me.

 

You're in good company.

 

I can see the value of getting off the ground in some circumstances, but this fad has taken on a new meaning, it's more glam camping then hiking into the back country, and see places you'll never see from your truck parking spot.
But then, no coffee machine, no fridge freezer, no little tables that fold out of everywhere, no Instagram moments, what the fu..... sorry.

 

Oh, I get it, it's just not for me. We used to do the same thing in Alaska but with a float plane. If only instagram had been around then...

 

Totally agree.
I still do a bit of both; multi-day solo canoe trips, light and fast multi-day suffer-fest climbing trips, and the more comfortable off-road truck camping. They all have their place in my routine.

 

I sure wish digital cameras were more the rage when I was up there. I really missed out on having more memories committed to film.

 

Yeah, I was very slow to go to digital. Thought it was just a fad. Carried my Nikon everywhere and didn't know if I got a good shot until I got around to getting the film developed.

 

smells like old people in here

 

That's just Manliness

 

I couldn't bring myself to pay 2k for a RTT so I bought a Napier Backroadz bed tent for $168. Dome tent with big net windows and rain fly. You sleep on the bed floor and have the bed walls and cab as shielding. The tent is strapped down to the truck, dome shaped so it should hold up in wind and the fly is taped for rain protection. Have only seen light rain so far with no leaks. Although the idea of a "tree house" appeals to the kid in me.

 

Sounds like experience to me. Able to do things .

 

Bunch of oldies want rocks in there backs. They do make 3 and 4 season rtt. The bottoms go from a plastic to a diamond plate style. 4 seasons are a thicker canvas also. You can buy a tent insulator and a bomb proof weather hood if you're really out in the elements, though packing up would be tricky. I'd say I have around 70-80 days in ground tents over the last few years but having a rtt is fuckin cush, not that the oldies in this thread would understand

 

We oldies are a tougher breed than the play inside generations. We climbed trees, swam rivers, road bikes in the rain, hunted in the swamp, ate dirt and shit bricks. We never needed safe spaces and knew what gender we were.

 

Glad I didn't have to eat shit bricks and dirt growing up

 

It can be arranged