Rooftop Tents: 10 Reasons You Should Be Sleeping On Top of Your Car

Is car camping on the ground a thing of the past? With the introduction of rooftop tents like those from Tepui, your road trip sleeping arrangements just became quicker, more comfortable, more convenient, and easier to use than ever. What is a rooftop tent (or RTT)? Imagine folding your home mattress in half and attaching a burly canopy over top, then slapping the whole thing on top of your car: They mount onto your car’s roof rack, opening like a clamshell to reveal a far more luxurious sleeping experience than you’ve ever had on the ground. So why should you be using one?

1. Setup is super fast.

There’s basically nothing easier than rolling into a campground or dispersed campsite late on a Friday night or after a long day of driving, finding someplace level to park, and popping up your rooftop tent. Once you have it down, you can go from parked to bed in under a minute. That means less time searching by headlamp for a flat spot, fiddling with tent poles, realizing you used the blue ones on the red side and needing to re-do it, or fighting a fly over top of the body in the wind. Just unzip the cover, pry the tent open using the ladder, extend the fly (if you even need it), and climb in.

2. Packing up is even quicker.

It works the same way in reverse, too. Moving on quickly in the morning or trying to race some weather? Climb down, flop the tent closed, zip it up, and away you go.

3. Rocky, uneven ground is no problem.

With a rooftop tent, all you need is a fairly level spot to park (but with some camper levelers, you can make do just about anywhere). You don’t need to search for a spot free or rocks and roots—no matter what, you’ll be sleeping on a flat surface, so spots that would have been miserable sleeping on the ground are up for grabs: Parking lots, gravel river banks, rooty forest campsites, you name it. Going camping after a couple days of rain? Muddy, wet ground is no problem either. You’ll never need to worry about a river running through your tent during a rain storm again.

4. It’s the most comfortable sleeping pad ever.

Tepui’s rooftop tents come with mattresses built-in, so not only do you not need to worry about packing (or blowing up) a sleeping pad, the mattress in an RTT is about as comfortable as your bed at home. Memory foam, anyone?

5. Sleep above wildlife and critters.

Rooftop tents have been popular in South Africa and and Australia since the 1950s, largely because they elevate campers above the savannah, full of big bugs and critters. We may not have dinner plate-sized spiders to worry about in the Northeast, but there’s definitely a confidence boost from being slightly higher than the animals roaming around your campsite at night. Not to mention if you hear something come through, you have a bird’s eye vantage to scope it out.

6. Your bedding is always right where you need it.

We mentioned you don’t need to pack your sleeping pad for your rooftop tent, but packing your sleeping bags, pillow, and other bedding is a whole lot easier too—Just leave it in the tent. Rooftop tents are designed to close right up with your sleeping bags and pillows inside, so you don’t need to worry about waking up, stuffing everything back into it’s compression bags then finding room in your car. Just close your tent up with your bedding right inside and it’s there when you open it back up again at night.

7. Pack more stuff inside your car.

Leaving your sleeping bag and pillow in the tent and your ground tent and sleeping pad at home can open up a lot of room in your trunk, especially if you have a family. Pack more hiking, biking, or paddling gear and have more fun.

8. The tents are seriously tough.

Because they’re designed for your car to carry, not you, Tepui’s rooftop tents can be made out of far more durable materials than your standard ground tent. And because they’re not on the ground, they last a whole lot longer, which means an RTT is something you’ll have for a while. They’re designed to handle the biggest rainstorms and burly aluminum poles can handle some serious wind.

9. Instantly make any car a top-tier road-trip rig.

One of the best parts of a rooftop tent is that just about any car can take one. Just slap a roof rack and rooftop tent on there and your little car is instantly among the ranks of Sprinter vans, camper trailers, and built-out Tacomas. Plus (depending on your car), you’re likely to save some serious gas money over a big van or towing a trailer.

10. Take better advantage of the breeze.

On a hot summer night, pull the fly off your RTT and open all the windows to take full advantage of the breeze. After all, you’re elevated, so you’ll have more of it to keep you cool.