Overland Jeep Adventures: Is a Rooftop Tent the Best Way to Camp?
Going on a Jeep overland adventure is a great way to vacation. Will a rooftop tent make it feel like glamping, or it is a royal pain?
For the uninitiated, overlanding is a self-reliant travel adventure to remote destinations where the journey itself is the main goal. This is the kind of thing the tough, off-roading Wrangler is built for. It can go where a road can’t take you, and allows you to see remote parts of the world. The sense of adventure and the thrill of the journey are what Jeep camping is all about. You set out to get away from it all and spend time in nature. But, does this mean you need to sacrifice comfort?
Overland camping means you pack light and carry everything you need for your adventure. You will not be towing a luxury airstream trailer across a mountain pass, but you will need a place to sleep. Traditionally you would just pack a tent and make camp each night, setting up a tent on the ground or finding room inside your Jeep.
If you’re well versed in nature, you’d sleep outside on the ground. Not exactly the most comfortable way to catch some zzz’s. Plus being in a remote area means more wildlife, which means you might have visitors in and around your tent. Seeking a safer alternative, a lot of Jeep owners are looking into roof top tents as a sleeping arrangement. It is a tent on the roof, how difficult could it be?
In this video, YouTube channel Autoedit shows us his roof top tent on his 2013 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited. He goes through the mounting hardware, which requires holes in the sport bar. He also shows the modifications he made to mount it securely. Then he gives us a brief view inside the set-up, which is a 1-2 person size tent.
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We can’t help but see the advantages of being on the roof of your Jeep, above and away the snakes, spiders, wolves, bugs, and mountain lions, you can sleep soundly. And, packing up camp is a quick fold up and you’re back on the road. On the downside, your space may be limited inside the tent, and you loose the storage space of a roof rack. So, what is your experience with roof top tents? Would you try this roof top tent? Let us know in the comments.
