I wanted to share with you some of my thoughts on roof top tents. First let me say that I have been sleeping in these tents for close on 25 years, and we, Adventure Trailers, have been selling them for 6 years.
The classic RTT design came out of Europe in the late 50’s where they were manufactured by Autohome. The South African’s became the main builders of RTT’s in the 70’s. The South Africans, and I love them dearly, have a great ability of taking a poor design and improving on it rather than what happens in the US and Europe where the design is improved upon. In the case of the RTT I think we have the ultimate improvement on a design that could have been re-worked long ago.
I think the problem in coming up with a new design is that we all have the classic design in mind when trying to come up with something new. It will probably take someone from outside the industry to really be revolutionary.
I’ve read lots in this thread about the pros and cons of construction materials for RTT, and it seems that any selection of materials for any tent is a series of compromises. The advantage the RTT has is you don’t have to carry it on your back, and it doesn’t have to be small. So having a heavy, semi opaque, breathable fabric becomes a possibility. Anyone who has spent a night in a RTT will not want to revert to a nylon tent as the micro atmosphere within the tent is so favorable for sleeping (on extended Overland trips it also becomes a refuge). The size of the RTT also allows for a comfortable mattress and room to keep your bedding in the tent when it’s folded away.
The blend of materials can be a difficult choice for manufacturers, aluminum or steel poles, wood or composite base, impervious fly sheet and lighter breathable fabric or heavy fabric and no fly sheet??? These choice seems to be where the manufacturers fall foul. They make the decision, as many of us have done in this thread, that new high tec. fabrics and materials will be the answers to some of their problems. More often than not the results have been disastrous, the use of non breathable or coated fabrics, condensation under mattresses laid on composite bases and so on. So I’m not so sure that we should write off traditional materials for the sake of new technology.
The design of the RTT, in that it blends different materials together to form one unit, is deceptively difficult, while to the casual user it appears simple. Design changes and modifications that we look upon as an easy fix are not. Put that together with the skills needed to sew together panels of heavy material and you have a problem. Large tent manufacturers who have their tents made overseas will tell you that they design the tent for quality control. So in other words it’s a simple pattern, made of easy fabric that it difficult for the sewing machine operator to mess up. Unfortunately the RTT is a difficult design with difficult material. I say this as a person who has designed RTTs and 2 years down the road and three prototypes later have not been able to produce tent that I’m willing to sell to the public.
Finally, I hear you all breathing a sigh of relief, there are the problems of supply, cost, and availability. In 6 years AT has been used tents from 5 different companies and have even looked into importing tents ourselves. We have change manufacturers due to quality control issues, supply issues (great tents but none are available), importer issues (great tent supplies are plentiful but we didn’t order any). In defense of the importers and one reason we decided against importing, the cash flow issues are huge if you’re importing a 40’ container with 70 tents in it. You have to pay the manufacturer up front before it leaves the factory. You have to pay for hauling and shipping, customs bond, import duty, and storage, and that’s before you have even sold one tent. So the next time you ask the importer for a deal, don’t. Make them in the US you say, don’t even start me on that one!
