RV Like Conversion For Car

[trebuchet03]

http://www.carrooftoptent.com/indexenglish.htm

Comments?

[Peakster]

Oh my, that's kind of interesting.

mini7.jpg

I'd be afraid of crushing the roof of the car.

[roflwaffle]

I think I would be comfortable with towing something like that behind the car, but not so much having it on top.

[elhigh]

When touring to MN via Superior's north shore - stunning, lovely, wonderful drive - we took a Caravan and did much sleeping in a tent we custom made from PVC pipe and lots of heavy nylon. The pipe was flexible enough to spring and hold the tent's shape, and the tent we made to drawstring tightly around the entire back of the van with its hatch open. The hatch is high enough for me to stand under without even ducking. Inside the tent was very roomy, lots of space, and we made a platform bed for the back of the van where our two small boys could sleep, complete with a tumble bar so nobody wound up on the ground the hard way in the middle of the night.

It worked great. We practiced with it a couple of nights at home, and on the road got many questions and compliments. One morning in Michigan we were just starting to get up and move around when we heard the first few drops of rain. Five minutes later we were fully dressed (well, rated G at any rate) and had the entire tent completely broken down and stashed in its place in the van. Then the sky opened up. Practice pays off.

[WaxyChicken]

It's kind of cool, but i'd be afraid of rolling out and falling 5 feet to meet the ground head on. i move alot in my sleep.

A cooler one would unfold to encompass the car + sleeping space. LOL

[Frank Lee]

http://community.webshots.com/album/58088478ZfFFoU

[ConvertMotorHomes!]

I think I'd rather just camp on the ground, like normal people. Neat, though.

[dremd]

Nifty; I may just have to agree with ConvertMotorHomes, unless there is some sort of danger on the ground . . . .

[metromizer]

For people who just aren't into tent camping and don't want a full blown RV, this looks to me like a decent compromise. If you put it on a 4x4, you have a mobile tent site, anyplace the vehicle can park becomes a camp. At 65lbs, it isn't going to strain the top of the car while underway. Most cars will support their own weight in a rollover, if mounted correctly, I can't see why the weight of two people and gear would be an issue... unless you have a Metro

I have owned several different smaller campers over the years, from several older Westfalia VW campers, to a mini-truck w/cabover camper, then a 1 ton dually Ford w/11foot Lance cabover. They all had their pluses and minuses. As my kids have grown to teens and aren't interested in camping anymore, and I've significantly down sized my pile of 'stuff', my camping gear now consists of a tent and a sleeping bag. I've daydreamed about some sort of conversion for our mini-van, that could be removed and stored, but could support my lady and I for a week long trip to the desert or the San Jaun islands. I don't want another vehicle w/reg, ins., tires, a water pump that breaks on Friday night just before a trip. I don't want anything that gets 10mpg again.

This has me thinking again...

My RV journey:
The VW's were kinda retro-cool, a phase I went through in my 20's I guess. But those old busses seemed to always need a full day's attention and maintainence before any significant road trip. Having no cruise, no ac, and relatively rough noisey ride made 1000 mile road trips tough on the body.

After starting a family, I bought a 7 foot long six pac cabover for the back of the Nissan hardbody truck. That worked great, but after daughter #3 arrived, even the king cab with rear jump seats were not enough room for all of us.

I was starting to race <cars> more and more, needed a big truck to better haul a car trailer and equipment, so I bought a big ole Ford crew cab, outfitted it with a cab over camper. It was perfect for the family, I could tow a car hauler behind it to camp at the track, other than FE <about 8mpg w/camper, 5-6mpg w/camper and car hauler> it was great. Gas prices made long family vacations so expensive that motels seemed the better way to go, water leaks rotted out the camper, so I got rid of it.

I haven't camped much in 6 years, but want to get back to it.

[zjrog]

I know a fair number of my offroad friends that use rooftop tents. Or even rooftop tents on top of trail trailers. Personally, I'm not worried about roof crushing, I just don't want to sleep that far off the ground unless its a survival issue (lions tigers and bears...

I recently purchased a beat up old tent trailer that is supposed to be my winter project. It is light enough my Neon MIGHT be able to manage it, but it is mainly for use behind my Jeep. It needs some cleanup... But is compelte and needs minor repairs. Including new tires and wheel bearings to roll better.