by markhusbands » Tue Apr 16, 2013 4:34 pm
I have a roof top tent that I currently use on my Honda Element, and which I plan to install on my teardop.
Deployment in its most basic arrangement might take five minutes. Basically, you unzip three sides of a waterproof cover, reach up, grab a ladder, use the ladder as a lever to flip the tent open,the tent pops up, and you extend the ladder to the ground where it bears the cantilevered weight. Then you stick six wands in the fly to hold the fly up over the windows. The only thing that is time consuming is that you have to walk around the car a little to work the zipper and wands and they can be sort of high.
I also have a large "changing room" that attaches to the bottom of the cantilevered section, around the ladder, and over one of the two teardrop doors. This side tent is a little fussier, and might take ten minutes to attach to the roof tent, reset the ladder, and stake out tight. But with this set up I can sleep four in two beds and have storage or even an enclosed night toilet space for the three females that make up my family. Optionally, I could even fit a couple of cots in this room and sleep a total of six. But I'd want earplugs with that many potentially snoring noses.
In any case, if you deploy all this stuff in the right sequence, it goes pretty fast. If not you find yourself walking back and forth around your car (or trailer) a lot more. And two working together makes it quicker, of course.
