Finally settled on a roof top tent. I've been looking into them for over a year and after much research on all the pros and cons of most tent on the market I purchased what I think is "The One". I'm excited to test it out when I receive it later this week.
After looking at all the CVT, Tepui, ARB, James Baroud, Autohome and Treeline it was a very confusing process to narrow it down to what was wanted and needed. I wanted something that could fit 2 adults and 2 kids. It doesn't have to be very large since most of the time it'll most likely be me and my 7 year old son sleeping in it but has to be large enough to accommodate the wife and daughter on the occasional trip. After trying my friend's Tepui Ayer last year, I knew that it would fit 2.5 of us ok but there was no way of squishing the 4 of us.
I was attracted to the high end AutoHome and James Baroud but the price tag is too hard for me to justify since we would only do a few trips a year.
The Other guys are for the most part all the same made in China cookie cutter but with different colors and options. Nothing wrong with that but they do ask for a premium on the larger tents and apart from the Tepui Ruggedized, I felt like most bigger tents were unstable and flimsy. The Tepui Ruggedized XL was on top of my list but the 220 lbs is a bit much for the roof of my Jeep. The price tag is also steep at $2800 CDN without shipping.
On Saturday my son and I ended up at the Gear Shop here in Calgary to look at a demo from the Echo 4X4. They had a very nice expedition trailer on display and the larger tent. I was very impressed with the quality of the tent, the materials and the design. The tent doesn't rely on the ladder to hold it up. It has a really neat cable system on the inside that can support 500 lbs. The ladder in recessed into the frame when folded so there is no "hump" in the cover. The frame is all welded steel square tube. The rain fly is also part of the tent fabric which makes it less noisy in windy conditions. Setup is simple and quick. The tent we decided on is 160 CM wide (63 inches), so it's not too big for the roof of the jeep. It weight in at around 150 lbs. The fabric is heavy duty D450 ripstop and it also has a condensation fabric lining the ceiling. And the best part is: It's not made in China!
Michael and Denise from Echo4x4 were really nice to talk to and answered every question I had. I'm looking forward to having the tent mounted to the jeep.
These pictures are of the demo tent they have used for the past 3 years.
Happy camper
I'll post more pictures when I actually get the tent and install it.
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