Rooftop tents are great, giving you a place to sleep during car camping that’s far away from the cold, damp ground. It’s convenient. Problem is, it takes up, pretty much, your entire roof rack, leaving you unable to load any additional gear on top. The Thule Tepui Foothill changes that.
A more space-efficient rooftop tent, it vows to take up only half the roof space of similar products in the market, leaving you with half the rack to load equipment, supplies, and whatever else you need in the trip. That’s right, your roof rack remains a viable cargo area, all while still giving you a proper tent to sleep in right at the top of your ride.
The Thule Tepui Foothill manages this by measuring just 24 inches wide when collapsed, allowing you to mount it on one side of the roof rack, leaving the other side available for carrying your mountain bike, kayak, or a couple large coolers filled with food and refreshments. Heck, you can even add a roof-mounted shower, so you can clean up while playing mountain man without any body of water nearby, as well as mount your detachable awning once you’re set up at camp. Even better, it’s also just 9.5 inches thick when folded, so it allows you to maintain your car’s head clearance. Of course, the bike, surfboard, or whatever else you’re mounting on the roof rack will probably take up more clearance space, but at least, it won’t be the tent’s fault.
It uses telescoping frame poles to provide structure, so deploying the tent just requires you to pull out everything until it’s in place and collapsing it just requires pushing everything back in. Granted, there’s a bit more nuance than that, as there are some lines you have to set up and all that, but everything is still pretty simple that one person can do it easily, as is common with many rooftop shelters.
Despite the compact footprint on your roof, the Thule Tepui Foothill is designed to sleep two adults comfortably, so it provides you with plenty of room inside, complete with a wide entry, a panoramic rear window, and dual skylights for plenty for air circulation and an expansive view of the world outside. It comes with a high-density foam mattress to give you cushy surface to lie on, with optional accessories like fitted sheets and a quilted insulated tent cover for cold nights in the outdoors. The tent, by the way, comes with an easy-to-attach rainfly to keep rain away during wet weather.
While it can be deployed by one person, the whole thing actually weighs 110 pounds, so you might want to get some assistance when installing it on the roof. Unless, of course, you’re the kind of guy who shoulder presses 200 pounds, deadlifts 600, and benches 400, at which point, yeah, you can do it yourself. The tent, by the way, is rated to support up to 400 pounds.
The Thule Tepui Foothill comes out in February 2021. Price is $1,700.