Yes, Another RTT Thread

[vonhanson]

I've been doing some research on tents for a while now. I was going to order one tonight but had a question.

My question is, how many of you have outgrown your RTT's with a family.

thats the only thing that's stopping me right now, I was going to get a "two" person tent, since right now its me. But I do have a girlfriend and she has a 4 year old son. Which I know they would want to come camping. I also have a ground tent but I wanted to hear some stories before I ordered a tent that might be to small for me.

 

[Lemsteraak]

You presented what may be a bit of a trick question. Roof Top Tents aren't really designed for family camping. Yes, there are some huge ones where you can and I know the companies out there will happily sell you one but I wouldn't do it. Here is my reasoning, a well designed RTT is simple, fast, light and convenient. The big ones are not, I don't even think they are safe, way too heavy for most family runabouts.

I would suggest looking at a RTT the same way you look at a sleeping bag. Get what you need for your journey and nothing more. A large sleeping bag isn't better, just bigger and may be worse because it is heavier. Same idea applies to RTTs. Get one that is as simple as possible, it is easier to put on your vehicle and you will use it more. When family camping, go old school, ground tents are great, even if you use a RTT you need a place marker for your campsite. If you bring a RTT kids will be up there, it is like a tree fort.

Since I'm on something of a rant, please excuse me, but I see a lot of marketing hype out there, even on these pages. The reality is that the inexpensive folding tents aren't really set up to be on the vehicle full time, fuel mileage, durability ...., so you want a way to get them off easily. Anything much over 100 pounds is difficult to load, the noise at the other end gets loud (from the wife). So, you want to be able to lighten the load, have a mattress that is easy to take out, a good one is heavy. Get the lift weight down to less than 100 pounds.

The other thing I've noticed about RTT is they are vehicle dependent. Family camping is more about parks and campgrounds. You can set up a ground tent in the campsite, while the RTT is where you parked it. So, while a RTT is a good thing, it doesn't necessarily replace a ground tent. I use both, my next trip in two weeks, the RTT is staying at home, we are going to be in a lot of parks and a ground tent makes more sense.

 

[green73brc]

Well I am in a bit of a different situation. My family has gotten so big I have decided to go with a rtt. We have a family of 6. I just ordered the McKinley off of the CVT group buy. The more kids we have the more I have tried to cut down on setup/tear down time for camping(1 week same spot)/expoish (move every day to 2 days). The daily grind of maintaining the camp was cutting into my family time. I am hoping that a RTT will help cut down on the time I am working around camp and increase the time I have with the kids/family which is the whole point of doing it to me. We have gone through 4 different ground tents for our family and nothing seems to have everything I want. A RTT does but it never made sense to us.

For us (our family) having a self contained trailer unit is going to really help with the packing and unpacking when we leave/come home and are camping moving day to day. Keeping kids under 5 supported seems to take way more stuff than it should. Even though each year it seems like we have simplified our camping gear through choices and removal of items all together.

I never considered a RTT though when we had 3 kids and could fit everything into the sequoia. Now with 4 everything has changed since we need a trailer to fit our stuff. Now it seems to make more sense to have a RTT. Hopefully I did not just make a really expensive mistake!

I have been in your shoes and with just one kid, I wouldn't really think a RTT would add much value to the camping experience. You can get some really small ground tents that setup/tear down very fast and easy and are feature rich.

 

[overlander]

Alot of wisdom shared here. RTT is not the end all solution, it is a tool, and you need to pick the right tool for the job. In semi-primitive campsites, the RTT is not ideal. It prevents mobility by making your vehicle part of the basecamp. sure it opens and closes quickly, but you still have to wrestle with the cover of any soft shell model. and once the wife and kids get all fluffed up in the rtt with their soft toys, books and whatever collections of knick knacks they can't do without, it becomes a PITA to make a run down the road to the country store for that bug juice, sunscreen or slurpy they need on short notice. RTT's rein supreme in the highly mobile encampment in primitive camps. when you pull in late at night and want a quick setup, or when it's soaked mud everywhere and you want off the ground. When you know there are snakes in the area and you want your children off the ground worried about them not checking their sleeping backs or forgetting to zip their tent door closed. that is where RTT's are supreme. When I was in Botswana last year, which was my first time to Africa, I finally got the point of RTT's. In Africa, you are constantly thinking about if that next step is going to be the hiding spot of a Black Momba. I had to sleep on ground tents, and I was wishing I had an RTT.

I have an RTT now, a 1400 T-Top, and it's good for 2 adults and max 1 very small child. It would work for you but still be tight...for now. In intend to get an OzTent RV5 in addition. I need to sleep 4. 2x in the RTT and 2 in the oztent. I have the oztent for base camp when I want to do trail rides and such. and kids are seperate from adults. I think that mix will accomodate when I roll on man-trips in primitive areas, or with family in semi-primitive.

I agree that setup time is critical to enjoying camping. My initial outfit had a 30-45 min setup time, and that made camping a bit painful, in particular for the short family weekend away. I've made several changes to get that time down. my target is 10-15 min max.

I think the oztent family is very good for not only setup time, but modular and scalable. you could get a single rv5 now, and then add the connector awnings, extensions and an additional RV-X as your family grows. In my opinion, RTT's are NOT a single solution for family camping over the long term.

 

[loup407]

I agree there is no single perfect solution. Our Horizon came with a 1600 (I think). It was easy to set up and take down, and being in a trailer, we maintained the mobility one might lose if their tent was on top of their truck. Also, the kitchen was quickly deployed, so camp setup/tear down was pretty quick. However, there was no changing room, or place to retreat if the weather turned bad (except the tent).
We sold the 1600 and got a Globetrotter, which made a huge difference. Even without the walls, we had a big shady area. With the walls up we had a room that was private, and big enough to drag in our large Snow Peak table and two chairs. At the last ExPo, it was nice, sometimes, just to have a place to get out of the wind. It would be easy to have a couple of kids sleep in it. However, when we were growing up, our parents took us camping a lot, and sleeping in the camper was for "little kids". Eventually the camper held just mom and dad, and the rest of us were in one and two man tents (much to Dad's chagrin). In my experience, every solution is a series of trade offs, and one mans ideal is another's hell. I liked our 1600 a lot, but enjoy the Globetrotter a lot more. The trailer/RTT combo has worked great for us, the only downside is that it's a three season solution, at least for us.