Lightweight rooftop tent RTT by Inspired Overland -- review & photos

[TahoeTexan]

Thank you. And yeah, don't kill yourself over it

I think I only have 9" of clearance to my garage roof, But in those awesome pictures you took, I noticed the entire tent is supported on 80/20….that comes in different sizes so It has my brain thinking.

Curious if you came up with any options to reduce the mounted height?
I need to reduce about an 1" in overall height to fit in my garage.

I currently have SAS wheels and tires and an adjustable lift. I'm probably going to go done in tire size (maybe 1", so reduce 0.5" in vehicle height) and maybe bring my lift down 1".

It would be nice to bring the tent down and inch too.

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[da_jokker]

Curious if you came up with any options to reduce the mounted height?
I need to reduce about an 1" in overall height to fit in my garage.

I currently have SAS wheels and tires and an adjustable lift. I'm probably going to go done in tire size (maybe 1", so reduce 0.5" in vehicle height) and maybe bring my lift down 1".

It would be nice to bring the tent down and inch too.

I just ordered the tent. Had been waiting on selling my jeep and them to have a sale. I did email them and ask specifically how tall their tent was from the ground and they said 5 in" I have 4".

So basically my only plan at this point is to hoist the tent up in the ceiling in my garage, and the time that I need it I'm just going to let a bunch of air out of my tires to gain that 1 to 2 in to get out of the garage.

BadAss makes a tent that is 2x the price but supposedly 1" thinner, but I didn't like the cover (nor the price).

I'll know more hopefully soon once I get the tent... I was going to pick it up locally but with the current sale, for 50 bucks more they'll ship it and it would cost me more than that in gas to drive down and get it.

 

[da_jokker]

Curious if you came up with any options to reduce the mounted height?
I need to reduce about an 1" in overall height to fit in my garage.

I currently have SAS wheels and tires and an adjustable lift. I'm probably going to go done in tire size (maybe 1", so reduce 0.5" in vehicle height) and maybe bring my lift down 1".

It would be nice to bring the tent down and inch too.

It took a awhile...the tent got lost in shipping and finally showed up. Then it took me some time to devise a hoisting system for the ceiling in my garage. But I finally was able to get it on and figure out how to get it out of my garage.

Now there are a couple of key things here to remember in my specific case

1) I have about 500lbs of bumper, winch, skids, and rails which lowered my Sasquatch 1"-1.5" to start with.

2) the inspired Overland is definitely not as thin as they make it sound. However it does sit on a 1" extruded aluminum (t-slot) rails and looking at mine And how it sits on my OEM roof rack, I could cut the sections out right where it sits on my rails so that the tent would rest that much lower. It would still be fully supported, especially since the outside frame of the tent would now sit on the roof rack at that point, and once you clamped it on, I honestly don't think it would be structurally compromised...but again, it all depends on how it sits on your rack. (One concern is tightening the bolts though. They're pretty tough to get to even with that one inch rail, so going lower may be really tough.)


Now with all that said, 1-in was not going to get me where I needed to be. To get my vehicle out of my garage, I needed 3-3.5" of clearance.

So this is not a daily possibility, however for when I go camping, I have found a way.

1) I back my bronco into the garage and lower the tent onto the rack and secure it. The weight of the tent has virtually no impact on suspension height.

2) i bought some cheap ratchet straps with the bigger handles. I use these to ratchet down my rear suspension (one strap near each rear spring)... This gets me down 1-1.5"

3) I lower my tire pressure to 5-10 lbs. This gets me the other 1-1.5" (letting ALL the air out of the rears will give me upwards of 3 in if needed.

It sounds like a lot, but it takes about 45 minutes and my vehicle is outside the garage. Then I just released the straps, pump up the rear tires, and I'm off.

Next house will require a larger garage door for sure (or maybe I would have switched to a Gladiator with a half rack by then )

 

[gorgin4325]

So just wanted to come on and post a review of my lightweight rooftop tent. I was in the market for something I could use on the OEM roof rack without exceeding the suggested weight restrictions, and while I looked at the go fast superlite tent, of course they stopped selling them

I found a company called Inspired Overland in the bay are, they make a rooftop tent that weighs in at 87lb, so I thought, perfect!

Cost was $1500, so I think a little pricier than the superlite? With shipping I think it’s an additional $500. We live close by so just went to a dealer and had it installed. We have taken it on two longer camping trips so far and here are my thoughts.

-two people fit fairly comfortably, but if you are taller than 6’ you’ll likely not want to share the sleeping space. As it is I’m 5’4” and my husband is just under 6’ and we both fit comfortably.

-the tent stays warm at night with all panels closed and just the air vents open. We had a pretty well rated sleeping bag too, but at no point did I feel like we needed more heat. This was in an area in the fall that was probably dipping to low 40s at night. We will be going to Moab in the early spring and can report back with how it holds up in colder temps then……

-super low profile, I think it looks pretty slick and out of the way, I don’t notice any noise or change in my gas mileage

-rain fly sucks, I already emailed them about this, the setup to hold up the rain fly is essentially useless and won’t hold it up at all…..

-it came with lots of pockets! Great for cell phones, garmin, lights, books, whatever

-came with ladder that’s easy to stow

-mattress is fairly comfortable, I prefer the deepsleep mattress for comfort in the back of the Bronco, but as far as lightweight rooftops go I think the provided mattress is just fine. It also comes with an anti condensation mat underneath which was a nice touch.

-if I could change anything I would consider just upgrading the roof rack. While we never exceeded the static weight recommendation with the tent and two people, the OEM roof rack just feels slim at with just the two support bars. I’d eventually like something with more crossbars but have yet to find what I’m looking for.

Pics below from some of the trips we have taken with the tent. Feel free to ask any questions that I didn’t answer!

Great review! Thank you.

I am interested in the XL version which is 8 inches longer. Did you consider that one before your purchase?

 

[da_jokker]

Great review! Thank you.

I am interested in the XL version which is 8 inches longer. Did you consider that one before your purchase?

I don't think the extra length would be an issue, especially if you added the 3rd brace like I did so that you could move the tent all the way back....not sure on the extra width though.

 

[gorgin4325]

I don't think the extra length would be an issue, especially if you added the 3rd brace like I did so that you could move the tent all the way back....not sure on the extra width though.

Thank you. The standard and XL seem to be the same width. I’ll be mounting it on a Trailrax rack.
I hope they figure out a better rainfly solution soon…

 

[da_jokker]

Thank you. The standard and XL seem to be the same width. I’ll be mounting it on a Trailrax rack.
I hope they figure out a better rainfly solution soon…

I've used mine for a total of about four or five nights so far, but it's been cold so I haven't had that rear flap open. I will say you won't be accessing the tent from the rear on a Bronco but from one of the sides. So unless it's hot and you need that opened, the rain won't be an issue.

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