Should I Mount My Car Top Tent on Roof or Trailer?

 

If you read my first blog, I talked about the inconvenience of putting a rooftop tent on top of the car and taking it off after each trip, then the super easy convenience of popping it up and down while you are camping.  The alternative is to mount it on an adventure trailer with crossbars designed for rooftop mounting systems and then leaving the tent attached while in storage.

 

In this blog, I’ll talk about my considerations to mount the tent on my car.  In the next, I’ll talk about our considerations to transition to our Yakima Easy Rider Adventure Trailer. https://yakima.com/products/easyrider

 

In order to use my Yakima Skyrise 3 rooftop tent on my Volkswagen Touareg, I first had to determine how I could safely mount it on this medium to large SUV.  I had to find the weight rating for my factory roof rails which I was able to find from the manufacturer.

 

I knew my rooftop tent weighed about 110 pounds with mounting hardware. What I didn't know was how much weight the roof could hold and how to figure that out. It turns out that when you are considering how much weight you can have on your roof while driving down the road, that is called the dynamic minimum driving weight. Most manufacturers of rooftop tents recommend at least 165 pound capacity of your roof rails. Many small SUVs manufactured today do not have factory rails that can support that amount of weight. There are aftermarket systems that can beef up or be used in place of the factory rails to support that amount of weight.  Some cars simply cannot accommodate a system involving that much weight on the factory roof, so a small trailer may be your only option.  Also, many current SUV's do not come with factory crossbars, which have to be purchased as an accessory or from another manufacturer after market.

 

After learning about stationary versus dynamic weight limits, I learned that my factory rails and Volkswagen OEM crossbars (purchased from the dealership) were adequate to support the weight of the tent.  As shown by this Thule help FAQ, the acceptable stationary weight when camping and the tent open with ladder extended is about three times the weight limitations of the dynamic weight. https://thule.elevio.help/en/articles/118-can-my-vehicle-carry-the-weight-of-my-rooftop-tent  

 

Because weight in the tent is spread out and also partially supported by the ladder, There really were no issues to worry about with two people and equipment in the tent on top of the car.

 

If you are considering the tent for the top of your car, and your vehicle and rack system can support the weight, this can be a good option for you. When I first bought this system and mounted it on top of the Volkswagen, I developed a pulley system mounted in my garage to hoist the tent to the ceiling where I could back under it and lower it onto the roof rack. With two adults, we could have possibly lifted it on, but given the height of the roof and the short stature of my wife, this really wasn’t an option for us.  For two people, it isn’t that heavy, but it is very bulky.  I left it on for the duration of our camping trips then took it off using the same process in reverse after returning home. Once off the car I was able to store it in the garage leaned up against the wall.

 

Using the hoist to put the tent on and off the car was time consuming and a little scary at times. It generally took me about 45 minutes to put on and take off before and after each trip.

 

While camping, I could easily pop the tent open in about 5 minutes and close it up and get the cover cinched down in about 10 minutes. Working with the top on the roof of the car was a little bit difficult, opening and closing it while standing in the door wells and sometimes needing to use a short stool to be able to reach the attachment points straps, etc.  once it was open. We would transfer our sleeping bags pillows, etc. into the tent for the evening.  Keep in mind, once you open the tent and the ladder is sitting on the ground you cannot move your vehicle until you close the tent up again. That involves taking the things out of it and storing them in the car. You have to decide, therefore, how late you need to use your car during the day while still having time to set the tent up before it gets dark.

 

We successfully used the tent on the roof for a few years before buying the Easy Rider Trailer.  More on that next time!