black / airtop roof tents

[Jon Wildsmith]

As mentioned in the xmas list thread I haven't bought a tent for a while so I'm pondering tent choices and among the options are the autohome airtops of which there are white & black shell options. The black seems a lot less in your face than the white and given my preferance is for cold rather than hot climates I'm trying to work out how much hotter a black RT will be if I do find myself in the sun? BOAB prefer the white / off white wind up maggiolina's still rather than the gas strut air tops but that would get me what I had before just 15cm narrower and I'd like to get something else new to me for all that money Just thinking out loud so any comments you've heard about them or your experiences would be welcome but make it quick please because I'm not very good at holding fire once I've got an idea in my head

 

[Julian]

Jon
Are they fiberglass? my only reservations about black painted fiberglass is possible overcooking of the laminate and becoming brittle/ delaminating

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

They are 'marine grade' gel coated fiber glass and I *assume* they did enough testing to not worry about the materials degrading, they do have a good reputation for testing thoroughly first. I know how hot my car body gets in uk sun though so it is a concern.

 

[TonyP]

Can't give you any advice about which one to get... all I can say is:


BUY BUY BUY

 

[Julian]

shame to waste all the potential heat, maybe a hot water shower waiting to be built

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

very helpful Tony. I can manage that part buying things is not something I have difficulties with, it's buying things I still want in a few months that seems to be the problem

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

shame to waste all the potential heat, maybe a hot water shower waiting to be built

I had wondered about some pipes on top

 

[24Seven]

/ Matt keeps a look out in the "Classifieds" section for a bargain in a couple of months time.


Black one for me

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

/ Matt keeps a look out in the "Classifieds" section for a bargain in a couple of months time.


Black one for me

I'm expecting Ian to have a say at some point and be conflicted between getting me to buy my old one back and getting me to buy the one he wants next Seriously Matt, would the black bother you, you go where it's hot? They're supposed to be well insulated roofs so I'm also wondering how much would be transmitted to the interior anyway.

 

[24Seven]

Seriously Matt, would the black bother you, you go where it's hot? They're supposed to be well insulated roofs so I'm also wondering how much would be transmitted to the interior anyway.

I don't really think it would be a problem unless you tried to sleep in it during the day, once the sun goes down the temperature drops a lot in the Moroccan desert even more so in the mountains, most of the time the sun rising was gratefully received for the heat, then a few hours later it was bloody hot.

I think you would be too hot trying to sleep in anything a few hours after sun rise although its very dry heat, not humid at all.

I would not be put off the black one Jon, if that's what you want.

 

[Toby]

Hi Jon,

Glad to see you're back on the roof tent trail again

If you're thinking of a future desert trip I'm not sure a black tent will be an issue - given that you tend to be in it at night or during the early hours of daylight when it tends to be pretty cold anyway. Obviously very early or late season trips would be a different matter, as would european destinations in the summer.

For my money the black looks smarter, though whether it would stay that way I'm not so sure.

I'm sure Ian will let you know what he'd prefer soon

All the best,
Toby
1990 HDJ80
1994 HDJ80

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Some good points there (like the sun not being out in the night ) thanks. I think I'm more likely to go north than go further south than the pyrenees but I was also thinking 'just in case'. Extra warmth on a cold morning sounds good to me

 

[Andrew Prince]

Jon, is the debate about colour purely cosmetic? If so, get the colour of your choice (personally I think white would be easier to sell on but what would I know ) and then try Paul/BAT's mates wrapping technology to colour-code it to match your truck If dark blue proves too warm, you can remove the wrap back to original white

Cheers,

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Yep, cosmetic Andrew, the white ones hurt your eyes to look at on a sunny day I thought about a wrap but there wouldn't be much difference in heat between my dark blue and their black I don't think so black would do for reducing eye strain I'm not sure if that wrap can handle the heat either? Not too worried about resale value as my stuff is usually cheap anyway and I'm keep this next one!

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Well I made my mind up so I just hope santa can get it down the chimney that we don't really have Thanks for everyones help

 

[Toby]

Hi Jon,

If you haven't already ordered or looked at these, it might be worth taking a look at James Baround http://www.jamesbaroud.com and this new one from France: http://www.hussarde.fr/

Both on the pricey side though.

All the best,
Toby
1990 HDJ80
1994 HDJ80

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

I have placed an order with santa I definately only wanted a Maggiolina style hard shell tent with draylon or similar sides again, just needed to be the smaller size this time and choose colour / opening mechanism. When I sold the last one to Ian I thought I'd be fine on the ground but keep coming up with the thought I always slept very well in the mag and not nearly so well on the ground. Seeing as most of the tight lanes are now shut and I've started traveling out of the UK I think I can get away with having a small mag on the roof and still squeeze up the remaining few tighter lanes I frequent

 

[Jon Wildsmith]

Got to open the tent up and have a play today There's surprisingly little information about airtop or at least I didn't find much so I thought I'd post some pictures and compare it to the wind up maggiolina I had before.

The Airtop has a back door. In theory that means you shouldn't have to climb over your partner to get in and out as happens with the side entrance.

The side doors (and the rear door) have the same fly mesh as the wind up model but it doesn't have the zip panel in the top of the door for ventilation which is a shame because that's a really good feature on a hot day. The bigger end panel windows of the airtop are supposed to make up for that but I think they should have given it the extra door panels as well.

very cosy inside. There are small cut outs in the matress for the roof supports to fold in to so technicaly you lose a little width but in practice unless you like to sleep with your head against the side of the tent I don't think it'll matter and the benefit is that you get the full length of the tent because there's no sissor jacks at the ends like the wind up model.

not sure if i'll use the back or side entrance yet

back entrance has a big window in it for ventilation. Something I don't think the literature shows for either style of these tents is the little flap of material on the bottom of the doors that folds inside and makes a draft excluder. From the outside it looks like you might get a draft under the door but the flap fixes that so it's well sealed.

to close just pull the front down, give the material in the front a bit of help to fold inwards as it goes and pop the straps in to the first click

TJ at BOAB was convinced it would be hard work to pull the front of the tent down because of being reaching across and up and the struts being quite strong so I had all sorts of ideas for ways to deal with that but as it turns out I can just grab it and pull it down without trying very hard at all

then pull the back down and again put the strap on the first click

then go round and poke anything sticking out so it's not and then do the straps up tight and you're ready to roll.

On the previous wind up one there was a bit more going round poking bits back in but it was still quite quick to put away. The elastics in this one do most of the work so there's hardly any tucking in to be done at all making it much quicker and this was only the second time I'd closed it

 

[adrianr]

Great looking tent Jon. And write up too.

 

[Gav Peter]

Very chic Jon Have you tried it out yet??