A roof top tent is nothing more than a covered wagon

Roof top tents have an extremely interesting history. Whilst they are now widely in use for camping in Australia they did not originate in Australia.

In fact the first designed in Europe roughly 50 years ago for those travelling on expeditions. They were used extensively in Africa, for obvious reasons. Camping on the ground in Africa carries certain serious risks with it, like being eaten by a lion or trampled by an elephant.

The invention of roof top tents allowed travellers to access much more remote places with safety and convenience.

Technically speaking however rooftop tents were actually designed the way earlier than that. When we think of a roof tent we imagine it on top of a vehicle. A motor vehicle.

But there were plenty of vehicles that came well before motor vehicles. Think of a covered wagon for instance, commonly used throughout the wild West in the US.

The covered wagon is really nothing more than covered sleeping accommodation on top of the vehicle, which is of course exactly what a roof tent is.

So while you’re sleeping comfortably, away from the clutches of nasty animals, snakes, scorpions, spiders and anything else that might happen to be running around like a crocodile, you can think of yourself as like one of the original outback explorer’s, cosy in your modern version of the covered wagon. Read the rest of this entry

Roof Top Tents are fantastic, but come at a price

As you will know there are many options when it comes to selecting gear for camping. Probably the most important decision that you can make is what type of accommodation you will take with you on your outback trip. In our view a rooftop tent is about as versatile and useful and cost-effective as any of those options.

Unless you plan to stay in motels your option is camping. And basically, if there is a number of you, your options for camping accommodation, excluding swags, come down to choosing a tent, a roof tent or a camper trailer.

The camper trailer of course offers the most luxurious accommodation. There are all sorts of options available to you when using camper trailers, and from a purely accommodation point of view they are very good.

But when you consider some of the disadvantages of a camper trailer their attraction starts to diminish. First of course is the cost. A good camper trailer is not cheap.

Not only that but they are expensive to tow as your vehicle will use considerably more fuel, particularly in rough outback driving or sand driving or climbing, and they can be a serious nuisance in some circumstances.

We have seen camper trailers jackknifed on the top of sand dunes in the Simpson Desert, unable to go forwards and backwards. In some circumstances a camper trailer is particularly awkward.

A rooftop tent is much cheaper than a camper trailer and offers a range of other advantages as well. They are very quick to erect, often you can leave all your bedding in the tent, and one person can have your tent pitched and all your bedding ready in minutes.

Whilst they do increase your fuel consumption slightly they do not increase it anywhere near as much as a camper trailer.

And they are obviously pitched off the ground. This offers many benefits, for example you can camp and sleep comfortably on very rocky ground like a gibber plain.

You don’t need to worry about camping in mud, or about the ingress of water due to flooding.

And being off the ground you also don’t need to worry about nasty local inhabitants like crocodiles.

So what are the disadvantages? They’re certainly more expensive than a simple tent, and they eliminate the obvious benefits of having a roof rack to store much of your gear.

They also don’t offer options for storage like a camper trailer will. Read the rest of this entry