Possible roof top tent group buy

Johnny, your welcome, and thanks for sharing your pictures!

 

^^^

What brand of bed rail is that? How much does it run? Thanks.

 

Got my tent picked up this morning!!





Thanks to Lucas (cotrailruns) for putting this together! I can't wait until it gets warmer out!!

 

i want one

 

Who wants to do one for this summer? I have a camping trip this May that I'd love to have a tent for. Anyone down to get a group buy going?

 

You need to place an order pretty soon to get it by may!

Also finally got my tent from Luke today

 

Shucks, I missed out. I talked to the guys in China that I assume you ordered these from and they sounded like very good tents, but shipping was a killer for just 1. Good call on organizing the group buy.

I'm in if another group buy gets going shortly. I'd like to have it in the US by May so I could pick up on my way for the Moab trip, otherwise I'll probably just buy a branded one.

 

hope theres another GB in the future!

 

Yes if you want it for May you better start now! And get your deposit in on your order in the next few weeks!

PM if you want info on doing one... its a bitch and there is a lot that can go wrong with this. But if your persistent and stay on top of everything it works well.

 

Not sure who you talked to, but the company we used will only do a minimum order of 10, they will not do an individual tent.

The company is Wincar.

Lucas

 

is theres another group buy let me know. i should have funds next time

 

Ah. I had talked to Longroad. They said minimum 10, but I had them talked into a sample so I could check them out.

 

Brought my tent home today and couldn't be happier (took a little extra time to get to Baltimore). Nice work Lucas!

 

Glad to hear Tim!

 

I’m just going to post how to do your own tent GB here:

The company I used is Wincar, they make several different style of tents. And they make tents for several of the common name brand tents. You can get the popular models in different colors, canvas, and specific sizes.

Step 1, pick style, size you think every one will want, decide on the number of tents you want to do. Usually a min. of 10. You will really start to save on 20 but the more you do the more chance something can go wrong, and more work. They say the tents have a warranty, but really how realistic is it going to be to get your tent repaired from some one in China? Not very, its cheaper to get a new tent than to ship one there and back. Get the Weight, and total size of all the tents, this is measured in CBMs, (How much room will they take in the shipping container)

Be prepared a lot of people will want to do a different model tent, but that only complicates things. You need a min. of ten tents , so that would mean if some one else wants something different, you need 10 more of that model. And then it creates more logistical problems as you will rely on your freight forwarder to properly sort the tents, they are good at this but its going to suck when Joe in Florida gets Bobs tent who lives in Seattle and they both paid 200 dollars for shipping, who is going to pay the 400 dollars to swap them?

Step 2. Find your Freight Forwarder/Shipper. The tent co will offer you FOB shipping on the tents. FOB is "Free On Board" Shipping. This shipping includes the tents going into a container being brought to a port in China and put on the ship and sent over. Once here in the U.S. you are responsible of all charges. Including the cost of the tents coming off the ship and any additional charges. There is severe port congestions. If the ship is delayed getting into port, you get charged more because your cargo is on the ship longer. (Happened to us). This is the mistake I made. I took the FOB shipping, not realizing we would be responsible for costs of the stuff coming off the ship.

The best way to do the shipping. Find a freight forwarding company to handle EVERYTHING, do not take the FOB shipping. Let the freight forwarder book the shipment from China, and try to get the tent company to handle just bringing the tents to the shipping terminal at the port. Your freight forwarding company should then handle everything to include customs to their warehouse.

This will not save you money really, but will make it less complicated and reduce the risk of "Hidden Cost" Shipping FOB you have these separate companies handling your tents,

Using FOB shipping, all these people handle the tents:

1. Who ever the tent people use in China

2. A shipping company at the port that gets the container from the port, and then unpacks and sorts the tents(Your tents will only be a very small portion of what is in the container, they ship with other goods) They then hold them at a terminal for your freight forwarder.
3. The freight forwarder arranges customs clearance, bonded warehouse fees, pays every one in the shipping process, bills you for these cost, and then brings the tents to their warehouse where YOU can actually pick them up or have them shipped from.

The problem here is now a tent gets damage, who is blamed? All three will just point the finger at each other. The next thing is #2 in the list charges whatever they want, pay them or you don't get your stuff. SO Have the freight forwarder arrange EVERYTHING. Then you have one point of contact and no middle men. You get a good price up front, no hidden cost, and one person to blame when/if it goes south.

It cost us 1550ish for all of this including the customs/duty tax (about 500.00 on ten tents) (A base line on what you should be paying for ten tents.) 1550 sounds like a lot, but split between 10 people, not to bad, Split between 20 even better, the cost will be slightly higher, but not much, why? Because at 10 tents you are basically just paying the min. costs for the service. Example they say they charge 5 dollars a lbs or a min. of 50 bucks for the service. I found on our stuff our order was small and we usually paid the minimum fee. (These guys mostly deal with large commercial shipments.) . Make sure your freight forwarder files your custom clearance 24 hours BEFORE the ship leaves China.




Still want to do this?

Step 3.Figure out what you think it will cost, add 15%, Figure out how long you think it will take and add 45 days at least. (I wish I could have refunded money to my buyers instead of saying oh by the way need more, they were awesome and understanding though!) Figure out about what it will cost to ship the tents with in the US. This typically cost 150-200 dollars, and if you can ship multiple tents to one location it saves money. Most people don't have a loading dock at home, so use terminal pick up. (Buyers can pick up the tents from the shippers warehouse locally) Use freightcenter.com I found they have the best prices, the freight class is probably going to be 125 FYI.

Step 4. Gather your group buyers, 100s will say they want in, and they probably do, but very few will actually be serious AND have the money. The several that want in but won't actually buy will ask 10-15 questions each (At least), then back out.

When you do your GB post try to put in as much specifics as possible to answer questions people will have. Be up front with the risks, warranty or lack their of, that people need to be patient, the cost may/will change. Post pics (Get them from the tent maker).

Set a time limit, get a deposit to secure their spot, and find out who is for real. Figure out how every one will pay. Paypal fees get expensive quick, ask your buyers to include them in their payment, or include them in your costs.

Step 5. The tent maker will want a 30% deposit to start production. They will want to be paid by a Bank Wire, these cost 45-100 dollars for an International Wire Transfer of Several thousand dollars from your bank. Do not F this up. Get a number wrong on the transfer and your money goes to some one else's account in China and you never see it again... Not exaggerating here...

Step 6. Tents are done, ask for some pictures. (Remember to stay on top of your freight forwarder and ensure your customs paperwork (ISF) is filed before the ship leaves port.

Step 7. Wire Final payment, again don't F it up.

Lessons Learned:

The first mistake I made was posting I was trying to do this before I was sure if I was going to do it along with having very little information. I think I went through 30 potential buyers during this process but again, a lot of tire kickers. So get all your ducks in a row first, it will make life easier for you and every one interested.

Find a Freight Forwarder to handle the entire process. Hint, Try these people:
Jane Sui | International Import Rate Analyst
DGX - Dependable Global Express

19201 Susana Road | Rancho Dominguez | CA | 90221
Office: (310) 669-8888 x 1299 |

Be patient, encourage your buyers to be patient, Add 15% to what you think it will cost! Be clear on everything, I sent every one a copy of every invoice I received to show exactly where every penny was going.

If some one says, oh I need a tent for my trip this summer please tell them there is a chance they wont have it in time… Our ship was delayed about 10 days getting into port, and then it was thanksgiving, and then due to congestion we waited another week just for the container to get picked up due to the port congestion, and then more time for the container to be deconsolidated. This is just the norm I guess for goods coming in on ships from China.

A Big buyer beware: If customs flags your shipment there could be additional costs for Customs to search your stuff, IE for them to unpackaged and repackage your tents and even the risk of them cutting into a mattress or something although I would assume they would have to have a pretty good reason for this.

This was just me kind of rambling on, but this is how it’s done.

Good Luck, its a metric sh*t ton of work. It was worth it for us in the end! Thankfully I had a great group of buyers who were very patient during the process!

Add in a couple of whiners in a group buy process and it would be more than worth it to just order from CVT or Tepui and be done with it, not to mention if a tent should not make it or get broken, figuring out how to recoup that cost would be very difficult. I can tell you CVT and Tepui are selling at a great cost after going through the process myself. Fortunately we had a great group and no major issues. We have one tent with minor damage to the base I am trying to get some sort of compensation for.

Good Luck to any one who tries to take this on, its obviously very doable, but you will need some luck with this!

 

wish i had found this sooner......


next RTT GB......please lmk

 

Sounds like CVT will be doing a group buy soon, I doubt you will get the prices we paid, but you will get a great deal for sure.

 

Did it mount to the AP bed rack easily or did you need to buy extra hardware?

 

Actually the hardware fits it perfectly on the AP rack. The bolts are just long enough that less than a 1/4" of thread hangs past the nut.

 

Luke, just saw your RTT on the truck, looking good. Have you had a chance to use it yet?