Roof Tents, Awnings, Roof racks, and all that Jazz ..

[Brian the Sn@il]

Ok, the reason I went for my land cruiser Amazon was I wanted some adventure.
I drive green lanes and attend lots of off road Days out ( we are lucky to have two active Norfolk groups)
My fun 4x4s have been
A Old Hilux pickup
Isuzu Trooper SWB
Nissan Navara D40
Jeep Grand Cherokee
EX MOD Land Rover 110 300TDI soft top.

THe best by far is what I have now.

I have already fitted BFG All Terrains to it.
Upgraded all lights to HIDs and LEDs

My next project if for short weekends and Days away.

A roof tent, awing and rack

I have spent most of the weekend looking and reading and have my shortlist

Awining - Fox Wing - as it covers a large area and is adaptable to add walls to it
Roof Tent - Pro Tent from Waypoint http://www.waypoint-tours.com/4x4-expedition-equipment/rooftop-trailer-tents/
Roof Rack / Bars .. Not Sure, as I already have the factory fitted rails ?

Any advice or input would be much appreciated.
At the moment this is for light leisure use with a few nights away on a camp site or similar until we build up confidence to do something special

 

[Gav Peter]

Watch the load rating on the factory rails Brian - most folk whip them off & fit bars or a rack for tenting. I'd use bars personally

 

[Chris]

Brian, hope you don't mind, but I'd like to jump in with you on this thread. I actually believe that there is no perfect answer for this and the only way to do it is have about three vehicles!

I have a straight out awning off the drivers side which is fine, but the Foxwing looks like something I could be tempted into. But question is, how well do they work with roof tents? They do look as though they could be a real nuisance. My roof tent folds out over the tailgate so if I had a FW you wouldn't be able to get up the ladder. I don't want to mount it sideways. With a poptop hard shell tent then side access is the norm.

It could prove an interesting discussion.

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

In the short term some bars across the OEM roof rails should be ok unless you go for a very heavy tent. Longer term you'd do better with bars or a rack but I prefer bars. The main disadvantage of bars on a 100 is limited options when it comes to positioning things because you can't move the bars they are at fixed mounting points. Rhino bars plus 100 series feet are good but not cheap.

We get good use from our FoxWing, with and without the RT but our folding RT opened over the side and the hard shell ones also have a side entry. It wouldn't really work with an RT that opens over the back. You need a fair amount of space to put out a FoxWing which isn't always available. For tighter spaces I have an awning track across the rear most roof bar that I can slide a FoxWing extension panel attached to an RV5 caravan connector into which gives good coverage of the tailgate area.

I think the folding tents are best for space and comfort but not convenience or robustness. The hard shells can be a bit cramped for more than 1 unless you get one of the wider ones or are skinny! We've used a drive away awning with a hard shell tent and that was a good compromise between roof tent and ground tent but it was a fiddly awning to put up. Now I'd consider one of the new air beam drive away awnings which look just the job if their pack size isn't too prohibitive.

 

[Chris]

Looks like I'll be getting as hiz n herz then Jon. One for wet weather and one for the day when it's sunny

Missus Chris drove the 24v for the first time this weekend. Result?


Oooh I like that a lot, shall we drive to Greece this year and take three weeks? WTF?

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Missus Chris drove the 24v for the first time this weekend. Result?


Oooh I like that a lot, shall we drive to Greece this year and take three weeks? WTF?

You'll have to get her one of her own now, great excuse to have another one

 

[SpinDrift]

Best start planning then Chris. Take advantage of her enthusiasm and plan a trip.

Looks like I'll be getting as hiz n herz then Jon. One for wet weather and one for the day when it's sunny

Missus Chris drove the 24v for the first time this weekend. Result?


Oooh I like that a lot, shall we drive to Greece this year and take three weeks? WTF?

 

[Brian the Sn@il]

Thank you for the replies and advice.
THis is my thinking of the set up, the pro RT has the ladder access inside, plus there will be some sides

 

[Brian the Sn@il]

Ive just ordered a set of 3 Rhino Heavy duty roof bars and am about to order a Foxwing awning... But .....

Left hand side mounting or Right hand side mounting ?? .....mmmmm ?

 

[David]

Where have you ordered them from as I have stuff from TBR on order and the delivery at the moment is shocking

 

[David]

Ive just ordered a set of 3 Rhino Heavy duty roof bars and am about to order a Foxwing awning... But .....

Left hand side mounting or Right hand side mounting ?? .....mmmmm ?

I mount my awning on the drivers side so I can see what i'm going to ram it into next

 

[stumog]

thats pretty much the set up i have on my 80. Seems to work well the only thing i dont like is the rtt ends up being off set to the drivers side might be a bit ocd but i just dont like it like that.

the Fox wing does give a massive area thats covered.

I dont think it makes much difference lh or rh most rhd cars have the awning on the left and most lhd seem to have on the right i suppose its so you would open onto the path if you were at the side of the road. not sure why you would want to.

I think it depends on what your set up is like to be honest.

 

[Brian the Sn@il]

Yes, Ordered from TBR - No delivery date yet.

Norwich Camping - Just a few miles from me sell the FoxWing so I might pop down and have a look.
Im thinking Left hand site might be better, but have also seen the OZTents !!! now they link into the foxwing awning, and are very quick to put up and take down.

 

[warrenpfo]

The potential OZ container might be of interest depending on timings as they also sell the fox wing. Mine is passenger mounted if that helps.

 

[Chris]

For packing away and setting up, I have found it's much better to have the tent open over the tailgate. Then you have two sides exactly the same and you can reach them off the sliders / rear tyres. I tried it over the side and found that every side was then different. When there are two of you (right, well that's a rarity) you can work opposite sides on the same operation. With practice RTT are extremely quick to put up and take down. But what really slowed me was having it over the side making the zip really fiddly.

But, over the back, it does mean you can't use a Foxywing. My RTT is different to that one on the picture and has the sort of loft ladder approach up into the tent which gives you pretty good shelter in conjunction with the tail gate. I think that if I made a 90 degree quadrant of material I could easily fill in between the edge of the tent and the awning. The downstairs but didn't really work very well and certainly not good over the tailgate as the 80 is too wide.

But where I am planning to go it will never ever ever be wet or cold so I won't need one. Anyone got any up to date maps of Lah Lah land?

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

the zips being tricky - is that just down to the design of the tent? Zipping the cover on wasn't an issue on the family sized Hannibal folder we had. The tailgate ladder was a big help for putting it up/down. On last years holiday I took a separate telescopic ladder that made it even easier to be in the right place and at the right height for neat folding / tucking

 

[Chris]

I did the same thing with the extra ladder too then thought, why am I bring a bloody ladder as well! Then someone stole it off the roof.

I found several issues.

Putting the cover back on was easiest from the tailgate and I found I could leave it on if I wanted, held up by the tailgate. But on the side it was more awkward and it hung over the doors.
When opening the windows and putting the whip arms in place, one was over the tailgate, one over the roof rack which was an arse to get to, plus you needed the rack clear to be able to open the window and the end window was over the side of the truck - nice an easy but not the window we wanted open most often.

End on I found I could put the side windows up from the ground nice and easy.

Zipping the cover up was, I found, easier with it that way on, yes. The folds of the tent can be tucked in from the sides whilst zipping and the end doesn't need much tucking. So that was best over the roof.

It's not that it's impossible or wrong in any way, I just found that trying the two and almost always being on my own, having it end on was a better routine. Two sides the same, one side where you do nothing really and the end over the rack where I could hold on with one hand and work with the other, all in the fewest number of moves.

But it doesn't lend itself to the FW awning.

 

[Gary Stockton]

Funny the whole tent thing - pretty much decided to sell the Howling Moon Tourer roof tent and get a Maggiolina Safari or AirTop instead ,

 

[warrenpfo]

Im in the market for a roof tent BUT unlike most am going to look at getting a James Baroud tent and not a Maggi. If only I could find one second hand seems to be the problem.

 

[Chris]

I can see me ending up with both. Plan A and Plan B, I'll call them. Oh and of course I have all of my ground tents too. Love the wood burner.

On my own I think I'd be very happy with a pop up. But The current wife is very much of the opinion that the RTT is here preferred style. But with two of you to halve the work, cooking, clearing and packing, then that's fine. But for a road trip where it's park up, bed and off at first light, I can see a pop up being spot on for me on my own. But then for a weekend when you want to set up and have the car, the ground tent really works for me.

There's an answer waiting to be invented for sure.