RTT's

Trying to decide on an RTT. One minute I think I have to have one and the next I think they are the stupidest thing out there.

If you have one or had one what did you like the best and what was the worst about it?

If you have ground camped and used an RTT what are pros and cons to each.

My main concern is tear down it you want to go somewhere after setting up.

Appreciate any info. Rely on yall's experience vs making a $2000 - $4000 mistake.

 

Well, these RTT discussions can rival a good oil debate thread. They have their place I guess. But I personally think they are a massive waste of cash, especially if all you ever do is ride around town with one on your truck. My advice is seriously asses your camping tent needs and proceed from there.

Carry on!

 

We recently got one at the beginning of the year and used it on a week long road trip from Kansas to SD and into Yellowstone. By the end of the trip we could have it broken down with all of our stuff out and packed away within 5-10 minutes. Similarly, when in a rush in the rain we got it up in a minute or two. We have the Ironman Classic Softshell RTT. We got it on sale for $999 and it was worth the price we paid for it. One thing we did not anticipate was the amount of condensation that builds up when it gets cool and night and the windows are not fully opened up.

 

get a tipi from kifaru or seek outside. they're light weight, easy to set-up and take down, you can stand up inside, various sizes and configurations for many people and gear, and have the option of a lightweight wood stove.

 

I got rid of mine because I had too many times where I wanted to drive somewhere while it was setup. A trailer works better for my camping.

I liked some aspects of it, but between what I mentioned and having it either on my truck when not using it, and taking it off in the winter and storing it, just wasnt worth it for me.

 

After years of ground camping, we got a RTT shortly after getting our Tacoma. The RTT has A LOT of advantages, but also a few disadvantages to a ground tent.

The main advantages include being way more durable, sturdy (especially in bad weather, and off the ground. They're also a lot more comfortable. With a ground tend you would need to purchase a lot more accessories to make it as comfortable. Our ROAM Vagabond also came with boot bags to put our shoes into so that they were simultaneously outside the tent and not on the ground. We also have an overhang so we are sheltered from the elements a bit better around the entrance to the tent. Also, since you're off the ground, the terrain doesn't matter as much. It can be pretty rocky and, as long as your rig is somewhat level, it won't matter to you in a RTT.

But it does have a few disadvantages as well. The main one is if you mount it to your vehicle (as opposed to a trailer), you need to collapse it any time you want to go anywhere. This is great if you're overlanding, but not so great if you want to spend the night in the same spot for multiple nights but aren't close to things you want to do/see such as trail heads, parks, etc. This is especially problematic in campgrounds that are first-come, first-served since you can't leave your tent there to show the spot is occupied. Sure, you could leave some of your accessories, but I'm never certain that those won't grow legs and walk away. The other one I've run into is ease of mounting and dismounting. I have a solution for this, but I can't implement it until I get a house of my own as I cannot mount a winch or hoist system in our apartment garage. This means I need a second person to help mount and dismount the tent as it is bulky and weighs approximately 145lbs.

Another issue is that it doesn't hurt to carry a ground tent anyway. One issue we ran into in Colorado this past year was a camp site in Gunnison. The sites were first-come-first-served. All 5 were full upon arrival. They had a few sites available in the walk-in section, but we didn't have a ground tent so we had to look elsewhere and ended up being forced to get a hotel as we were not willing to risk disbursed camping in areas where we weren't sure it was allowed.



Then there's things that are similar with them both. Both will be subject to condensation issues in the right conditions. With both, you'll need to consider how long they're collapsed when wet. And both take time to set up and tear down, although with the RTT, you can generally leave some of your stuff in the tent and still collapse it.

 

I like mine for base camping and I run it on a trailer not the truck. If I were moving camp every day I would not run an RTT. Maybe a wedge style like GFC or higher end aluminum clam shell RTT"s for quicker set up and break down. I personally won't run any RTT on the truck. Hope that helps. If its short trip and I leave trailer at home, I just sleep on the ground. You asked about pros and cons.

If you have an emergency in camp and need to leave quickly that rtt breakdown will cost you significant time, especially if you are sick or injured. Ladders can be dangerous, especially coming down if wet or frozen or you are still a little groggy, hungover for some. They can be noisy, zippers break and so forth. On a vehicle they can be top heavy depending on mounting height and will affect off road feel if you are into that.

Pros can be ease of setup if practiced, as mentioned earlier, but packing away takes me a little longer. Off ground has never been a factor for me but the fact that it is mounted on its own rack frees up bed space for other cargo that a similar sized tent would take up. No ground prep. You can park on boulders and still have good level sleep experience, nothing poking you in the back.

It is dependent on your use, but my experience most people would be happier, have more money in their pocket, if they just used a ground tent. A GFC for moving every day and an RTT if you base camp with a trailer. There are some pretty inexpensive cargo trailers that offer RTT racks if you can stay away from buying into the need for modern amenities like kitchens, showers, fridges etc., it can be a solid investment.

 

I've camped in ground tents, campers, wall tents, and RTTs. I wound up with a hard shell RTT because of the ease and convenience of setup. They are not cheap but IMO there's no beating them.

I'm short, and I move slow. I can still set up or takedown my iKamper Skycamp Mini in just a few minutes, so if I need to move the truck or want to go exploring it's not difficult. When I got it I also towed my SxS that was street legal so I could run any local errands without breaking camp. Now I'll do the same with a motorcycle. It's a pretty easy work around for most scenarios.

The single biggest disadvantage is that you cannot stand up in most RTT setups. I'm ok with that because I'm not usually in the tent for anything but sleeping, but I can and have changed clothes in the tent.

Keep in mind, there are a huge variety of RTTs so not all have the same pros and cons. For example a Go Fast Camper is setup so you can stand inside, but is also a camper shell system with a RTT on top. Soft RTTs are much less expensive, but they aren't really much quicker or easier to set up than a ground tent. Hard shell tents are faster to set up and usually quieter if you put the hard portion toward the wind, but they are frequently double the price of a soft tent.


If you want quick set up and the ability to drive away without breaking camp, check out something like a Gazelle Tent. Fast setup and good space.

 

I purchased a super cheap new one on FB market place, it was I believe $750 ish and dude had a garage full of them straight from China. I will say as far as quality goes I figured eh who cares they are all probably made in the same sweat shop in china, doesn’t matter what you get. After having this one for one year I would say that’s not entirely true. Major issues I had with mine was the crappy hardware included. Mostly their “nylock” nuts coming loose all the time. I ended up having to replace 80% of the bolts/nuts that came with the tent, as well as using a better mounting solution than what is included since on a trip my tent was falling off my bed bars. I think all companies give you the same mounts to attach to bars which if you do any aggressive offroading I suggest replacing with some wheel every weekend security mounts.

Do I think it was worth it? Honestly I love mine it’s very convenient for me, I have used it a lot more than I thought I would in the last year. Somehow I am able to set this thing up with no issues even when I am heavily under the influence (don’t worry not while driving just something we do when we arrive to camp). Closing up is fairly easy too, longest part is honestly climbing up and just taking a few things out of the tent so it closes up nice. You do have to be careful when zipping up the cover just to make sure the zipper doesn’t suck anything up. Also they are very noisy if it’s windy out at night. I suggest adding a few extra adult beverages these nights to help you fall asleep, or ear muffs maybe.

Another down side is if you want to take the tent off the truck when not using it. I know people like to talk crap about people who leave their tents on their truck but I have no where to put it so it stays on the truck. The cover is holding up ok but some of the straps are fraying badly now. This is where some of the nicer tent options would have been nice. I notice my cover is almost the wrong size. I think if I would have spent money on a name brand tent their covers are a lot nicer and look better when on the truck.

Overall would I purchase another one? Yes that is my plan actually probably next year.

Another plus side is one trip where we camped near last chance canyon there was a ton of spiders on the ground. I wasn’t worried but my friends in ground tents were a little freaked out

Also I will say even this cheap one has held up very well to extreme weather. If it gets wet on the outside you do need to let it dry out. If you are still on a trip it’s fine to close up and go to your next destination but I would not leave it closed up for a few days. If you can open it up when you get home and let it air out.

tl:dr version:
Pros: super easy setup/take down. Keeps you off the ground which is nice and don’t have to worry about staking a ground tent into the ground. Very durable in wind and rain.

Cons: you need to go over all the hardware if you buy a crappy one. I suggest better WeW mounts or similar at minimum. Windy when noisy, also a permanent -mpg if you don’t have a place to store it off the truck.

 

I love my smittybilt XL. With two big pups and sometimes my GF, a king bed was needed. It is definitely a filler until I can afford a solid camper, but it’s comforting knowing I have a comfy place to sleep in less than 10 minutes wherever I am.

 

I'll mirror most of this sentiment minus the cheap hardware, Tepui has been good in that regard. I don't take my tent off my truck either, but in all fairness I ain't like 3rd gen folks, my truck is just for camping it's not a daily. Setup and takedown is fast since we change locations every night when on a trip. I've also never had issues with adverse weather affecting the tent. Even folding it away sopping wet on the outside it has kept the interior dry. For $950 I don't think I could make a more convenient purchase to compliment my other camping gear. My advice to setting it up... if you think you'll go somewhere before sleeping... wait until the last second to set it up. Only takes like 5mins.

 

I ran one for around 2 years. Too many times I would get to a spot in the evening, get all set up then the next day I want to go explore or find a fishing spot...but then I would have to take down the tent, take my sleeping bag, and pillow and all the other crap I had set up in there. So finally, I just sold the whole setup and went back to a ground instant tent. It's also so nice not driving around with that on your truck all the time... visibility and just dropping the extra weight I was happy about. Shortly after I sold mine, my two buddies decided to sell theirs too.

I will say it is nice being up off the ground and just having that extra comfort that it'll be more difficult for any creature to get up to you lol.

I definitely wouldn't pay 2-4k for one...I got mine locally for $450 (china model, never had any issues though) new before they really took off.

 

If youre going to get a RTT, I highly recommend getting a hard shell tent. I had a soft shell tent for several years and it gets the job done, but a hard shell tent sets up and packs away so much faster. My Desert Armor sets up in less than a minute and packs away in less than two (my buddy's wedge rtt is even faster). Makes it less of a chore if you're like me when you typically only spend one night at a camp spot before moving to the next one. Durability wise though.. my abs shell is starting to crack and will need to be bedlined soon before the rainy season starts (I had no issues with the cover material of my soft RTT). Perhaps look into getting an aluminum hard sided tent instead of plastic hard sided tents.

Def beats sleeping on the ground when it’s cold out though

 

Guess it really depends on intended use.

For me, I'm picking up a GFC next summer
Have been rolling bed tent for a few years now( same set up/take down time as traditional RTT)
During that time I've watched a couple friends with traditional bed rack rtt set ups go through multiple racks and tents then ultimately go GFC.

The one RTT that is pretty cool is the Ikamper sky camp but still pricey and doesn't solve the bed rack/ open bed problem.

GFC definitely has some added benefits that justify the cost over bed rack and rtt
Enclosed locked bed=I can now put fridge in bed and not lose back seat. Plus other gear can stay secure in bed permanently.
Super fast set up and take down=great for multi day multi destination broverlanding trips like the 5 night one I went on with some TW folks last month.
Setting up and taking down my bed tent each day sucked. Especially watching the gfc/alucab guys set up in 10 seconds

Wifey likes it and would camp more with me once I get a GFC

I'm also out camping 25-30 nights a year would prob get out more with the GFC too. If I wasn't camping that often or when go only stay in one spot for a night or two and had no use for fridge because a cooler works fine then going bed rack/rtt would be work just fine. If that were the case i would prob go hard shell style Ikamper desert armor etc

I use GFC cause that's what I'm doing but super pacific alucab etc all apply to that style

Group shot from last trip. This really sold me on gfc style camper set up

 

I think you lost some of these.


......,,,,,,,,,,...,,,,,,,

 

I used to have one on my Cruiser, still have it in the garage, just not using it at the moment as my kid took my cruiser. Cruiser was set up with drawers so 2 people could sleep inside the vehicle and 2 more up on the RTT. As others mentioned, taking it down is annoying if you have to drive somewhere. Mine is the low profile type, Terrapod. It was the only one that would fit in my garage on top of the lifted cruiser. The drawback is that you have to deflate the mattress to close the RTT. My mattress is a 3” Exped Deep Sleep. If I was doing it over again I’d get a slightly taller tent that would allow me to leave the mattress inflated and all the pillows and blankets in place when I close it. That would make the set-up and take-down time a lot more tolerable, at the expense of not fitting in the garage in my case.

I just recently got back into a Tacoma and I’ll be doing a camper shell instead of a RTT for all these reasons. I understand that not everyone likes camper shells but it’s a lot more convenient than a RTT for my uses.

 

This video has some very good, honest information about having an RTT.

 

That's a complaint video, not really a pros and cons. Some of those complaints are semi valid, but others are either silly or situational.

1. "Not all campsites have a level place to park the RTT" and the complaint about having to level the whole vehicle are a stretch. If it's not level enough to park a ground tent won't be any better. They require roughly level surfaces. I've never bothered with additional levelling when I've used mine. Just make sure your head is uphill and it's good enough. It's also easy enough to get a truck semi level with some simple drive on blocks.
2. The immobile complaint is semi valid, but not a major issue for ALL RTTs. See point 3.
3. "Setup time is about the same as a ground tent" only applies to soft RTTs. Hard shell tents or wedge tents are significantly faster to set up and tear down. Even a fast ground tent like a Gazelle takes longer because of the footprint and staking.
4. The noise complaints are, again, a bigger issue in a soft RTT. I don't know that they are any louder than a ground tent, though.
5. "Mouse sized holes" are not much of an issue when there are flaps over them and you are 4-7 feet off the ground. Reaching hard to complain here.
6. "massive heavy tent ruins MPGs" is laughable. My hardshell is mounted on a rack just under the roof line and I haven't seen any impact to fuel economy.
7. Weight exceeding roof limits means the idiot didn't do research to find the right vehicle/tent combo. Non issue for most trucks running a purpose built bed rack.
8. Complaining that a 120lb tent is hard to set up 6 feet off the ground boils down to learning what the hell you are doing. A hard shell is a quick easy process, but the soft ones take more time/effort. Not sure how it being elevated makes it any more difficult than the mess of poles some ground tents deal with.
9. Then the complaint about it not holding as much as you expect..... it's a tent, not a storage tote! Do you store stuff in a ground tent when you toss it in the bed of the truck? The fact that they store their sleeping mats inside already puts them ahead of a ground tent as far as being a storage tote goes. Some hardshell tents can store all your bedding, but you pay for it.

RTTs aren't for everyone, but those complaints are a product of pushing for clicks and engagement on social media. Complaining is such a silly way makes people engage and debunk the claims, and that engagement drives the algorithm that puts the video in front of eyes. Common tactic of "influencers" of the tube.


The true cons of a RTT as I see it:

1. Hard shells are the only ones that bring enough convenience to outweigh quick set up ground tent like the Gazelle. That convenience makes them very expensive.
2. You do have to fold up the tent to move the truck or to go exploring. Again, this is heavily mitigated by the hard shell tents. It's even less of an issue if you plan to move and set up appropriately for that plan. Still, yes, you have to fold up to move the rig.
3. You can't stand in most RTTs. The level of inconvenience for this is going to be very personal and each buyer will have to decide how much it matters to them.
4. Adding height to a vehicle can cause issues for some garage situations. Again, very individual issue.
5. You're going to be lumped in with all the hipster broverlanders, whether you are one or not.

 

RE level surfaces...

I've never understood this complaint. Grab a rock or two and drive up on em, it ain't rocket appliances and you don't need to pack leveling blocks or whatever. Hell I've put the hi lift in the bumper and clicked it up one or two clicks to level even, use what you have. I'd like to see someone level a ground tent with a rock haha

 

You can pro and con this until the cows come home, but there is no getting around the fact that you are spending a shit load of cash for a fucking tent.