Rooftop Tent vs Ground Tent:Anthony's Take

Alright guys, back at it again with a great discussion actually.

So we're going to talk about rooftop tents and personal takes, pros, cons, what I personally would do, what I wouldn't do and why.

So I would like to say I camp pretty often, right? I would like to camp more often than I do, but you know two times a month is pretty often I would say. The way I look at rooftop tents, right? Rooftop tents are awesome if you're overlanding, meaning you're doing a trail, you stop, you sleep overnight, you pack up and you keep it going. Now if you are camping at a site for example, let's say, I don't know, Delaware Water Gap for example, and you are actually going to be setting up camp and then you're going to be going out to travel, look around, hike, fish, whatever it is.

That's when I wouldn't do a rooftop tent. Reason being is, you know, it's kind of annoying having to open, close your tent, set up bed, break it down, opposed to where, you know, you can just, once you get to your site, you set up your tent, you set up your bed, it's all good to go, your car is ready to go.

When it comes to the rooftop tent, right, there's a big question on oh but they weigh a lot and oh but they're horrible on gas mileage, right. I would not keep my rooftop tent on my daily driver every single day meaning like once I come back from my trip, that rooftop tent is coming right off my vehicle, getting put away, stored, cleaned and that's that. That tent would, you know, my rooftop would only go on if I'm going to be actually traveling, doing some kind of like trail with the boys and actually just, you know, opening it up, closing it down in the morning and then keep, you know, keep it moving with my vehicle.

A, I wouldn't keep it on there because, you know, first of all, you know, what does it stop somebody from just walking up and opening your rooftop tent just because they want to be obnoxious or it getting damaged for, you know, whatever reason, you know, you're driving something flies off a car, hits your rooftop tent, you know, now your $5,000 rooftop is damaged.

You know, again, just kind of keeps just for the safety. Also, gas mileage, like everybody's concerned about.

I personally don't have a rooftop tent yet. I'm still looking into which rooftop tent I want, how often I'm going to use it. I soft tent camp, meaning like I just have a regular tent that I camp out of a mattress, throw down the mattress, put like a little cover underneath so that the cold doesn't seep up through it. And I actually love tent camping, like meaning not rooftop, just regular tent camping, because it's a little different, you know, it gives you that outdoorsy feel.

But at the same time, again, pros and cons. In a rooftop tent, you're, you're not on the floor, you're away from, you know, you're away from the bugs, less chance of bugs getting into your tent bothering you.

Right, nobody says that. That means that your soft tent is covered in bugs, right? You simply what I do, like I'm, I'm petrified of bugs. I don't like bugs. I don't do bugs. I hate them.

I spray my tent from the outside with bug spray, and then I'll just leave the let the tent air out with like the windows open, and the netting closed so that this way it doesn't stink in there.

You know, when, as far as convenience, I think rooftop tents are super convenient. They're super cool, super easy, just, you know, for the most part, flip them open, set up bed, you know, set up your bed, and you're good to go.

When it comes down to soft tent camping, that's really good only, like I said, if you're just going setting up camp, and you're going to be using your vehicle to actually travel around, you know, and coming back to your campsite. That's when you would want a soft tent.

Again, there's, you know, pros and cons. There's things that you're gonna be using. There's times that you're gonna wish you had a rooftop tent, but the soft tent is gonna be better.

You know, again, like I said, my personal take is rooftop tents are great. I wouldn't keep it on my car all the time, especially being that it's a daily driver. I would be taking it on and off, and depending on the situation, what kind of camping we're doing, what this is, you know, depending on where we're going, what we're doing, would depend on whether I'm using a soft tent or my rooftop tent.

But what does that mean? That means get that rooftop tent. Don't be soft.