Your take on the RTT vs. Ground tent debate

[Opus]

Not really planning on doing any overloading or camping out of the Jeep, but if I was, I would do an SUV tent:

It's a cheaper option than a RTT, it can stay in place if I want to wheel and worry about CoG, and frankly, the older I get the less likely I think I'd be to want to crawl up and down on the roof top. JMHO.

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[SadRobot]

(Photo credited to DieseJL YouTube channel)

I have the same deepsleep setup (except 2 door version).

 

[STW]

The most important thing you can do is be honest with yourself. What is your use case. How often are you going to use the piece of gear under consideration. How much of an improvement - objectively and subjectively - will it make to your experience. Now spreadsheets and weeks of analysis are one way to do it but let's be honest - we're all Jeep people. That means typically we've made a decision to get a fun, impractical, expensive vehicle versus some boring cheaper jellybean that would meet most of our needs. There's an element of emotion in every choice.

There are some places that rent out little trailers with RTTs. Give it a spin, see how you like it before you decide one way or another.

We've personally started with a complicated gigantic ground tent. It took 2 people at least 30 minutes to deploy and was a pain. It took away from the experience.

Up next we threw a rhino rack backbone w/2 crossbars on my JKUR and picked up a CVT RTT. It was a size above their smallest and it worked great, we loved it - like camping in a treehouse - but we needed more space for a growing family and it had all of the downsides mentioned above. The biggest was locking the jeep in place. Even if deploying the tent was a 1-man 15 minute task, by the time you get your bedding and everything setup, it was probably a solid 30 minutes. Tearing down to run to the store to come back and rebuild was a pain. We took a 2 week 3000+ mile trip in it to Canada - it was great, the biggest issue was the lack of space to hang out in torrential rain (we didn't have an awning room).

Funny you mention that - Our current solution is a decidedly non-off-road 5x8 cargo trailer with a very large tepui RTT on it. Parents sleep in the tent with the dog (I carry her up and down the ladder) with ample room to spare - larger than a king bed up there. Baby (now kid) sleeps down below in the locked, hard-sided trailer with electrical power for things like noise machines, baby camera, fan, etc. Parents can hang by the campfire keeping an eye on kiddo and go to bed later without any issues.

On the topic of off-road vs non-off-road trailers - again we were honest with ourselves and our use case when we spec'd the trailer. Honestly, the thing we needed most was a solid platform for our RTT and a dry box to hang out in if it's really bad out. The trailer interior includes an L bench, a fold down dinner table and a fridge... what more do you need?
A few reasons that kept us in the on-road trailer category: #1 cost. I can't afford a 30-40k+ trailer that we'd use a dozen times a year. Our rig all-in was about 12k. #2 space. Most off-road trailers don't have adequate interior room for a family to hang out in unless they're really expensive, and #3 use case - what trail am I actually going to drag my $30k+ trailer down and be comfortable doing it? 99.9% of the time I will drop the trailer at a base camp and then wheel the Jeep carrying only supplies for the day.

The best part is - now I get to flip open the soft top on the jeep without having an RTT up there. 2nd best part - our non-off-road trailer is only 2000lbs and the rubicon can easily drag it places it shouldn't be
3rd best part - roof deck! We opted for a plywood reinforced flat roof on the trailer and we can climb out of the front door of the tent and hang out up there.

such a great combination of solutions for family travel

 

[STW]

Yeah that was one of the main reasons I got the mini. I didn’t want to cover the freedom panels. I went with the Rhino Rack platform.

+1
Also on a 2door it leaves the freedom panels able to remove and replace.

Using an iKamper Mini hard-shell RTT on a RhinoRack with Maximus-3 rack platform for a 2door JLR. 23Zero 180 awning that fits across the back and opens/closes in seconds to provide rain/sun protection over the tailgate area. AAL tailgate table and small fridge in back plus ~organized storage bins. All this comes out/off the Jeep easily and quickly when I get back from a trip. Except the rack and tailgate table stay installed. RhinoRack and tailgate have no drawback for me in a daily driver role.

Hardshell RTTs tend to set up and stow in seconds. It really is that fast with the iKamper Mini. I'd only try to save the money on a soft top RTT if I had young kids along who can be tasked with climbing up there to get a soft top RTT all stowed.

RTT camping does work best for people moving place to place day by day. That's one reason they're a natural for overalanding. People making a base camp they commute to and from using the Jeep find themselves having to open and stow the RTT every time. Not ideal and if that's what your trips call for then you might not like an RTT. Couple of my trips have included daily drives away from camp and return to the same camp that night, and it wasn't that bad at all. Since I had set up my hardshell RTT and awning for fast easy deployment/stowing anyway, it makes it easy no matter what you need easy for.

The advice to know your own personal camping preferences is a good one. For me the RTT is good for the comfort of not sleeping on the ground. I've done a lot of that in my time, but had noticed in recent years I was not camping much because I'm not willing to sleep on the ground anymore unless I'm through-hiking, which makes it worth it. The mattress is comfortable and easy to augment and down bedding stays up there when stowed.

But the thing I really dislike about a ground tent is packing up the muddy wet messy thing and sticking it into the jeep. So I'm only willing to put that thing on a roof rack anyway, which makes a roof rack happen for me (2door Jeep) one way of the other. RTT doesn't--for me--add the cost of a rack since I'd need the storage if I didn't have the RTT up there. There are ways to make a ground tent as comfortable as an RTT but packing up cots and tent furniture would be another dealbreaker for me.

Never having to wrestle with a wet-muddy or dusty-sandy tent in the morning is a huge plus for me. I know this is not a big deal for many people, and that's why knowing your own preferences matters for this question.

I've had rainy trips where I would have hated using a ground tent, and have found it is not an issue with the hardshell RTT. Wet rainy mornings where I had to close up the iKamper Mini while it's still wet--it still took only the same few seconds to put away, and there's no mud up there either. Later that evening opening it back up, it has always stayed dry inside the tent while stowed and provided excellent dry sleeping that night if still raining, or it has aired out quickly if not.

I've posted elsewhere that the iKamper hardshell has not seemed to affect mpg a lot. Was getting 23mpg at 65mph on Canadian highways with JLR on stock 33s. It matters perhaps that I use a very low profile rack: Maximus-3 supports for RhinoRack platform.

iKamper Mini is 125 lbs / 57 kg.
Some people posting here decry the cost and weight of the rack required for an RTT, but then they add a rack anyway, and they're hoisting a heavy ground tent up onto that roof rack. Make sure you'd actually save the money and weight of a roof rack before you decide that's a drawback of the RTT.

I'm mid-60s and don't mind the ladder at all. I wondered whether I'd mind but it's easy and secure up and down. The ladder is fine for a middle-of-the-night pee outing, too, but I notice most experienced travelers are sleeping with a pee bottle whether they sleep on the ground, or inside their truck, or up top in an RTT.

 

[donmontalvo]

Been down both roads. Ground tent since the late 70's, and then got an iKamper Mini 2.0 a couple years ago (first RTT). There are and cons for both. For now I'll be rolling with a ground tent. The iKamper needs some repair (functional but the corners are beat up), one day I'll find someone with fiberglass experience to patch it up.

 

[Kleiss1]

Just got a Core Instant Up with rain fly. Set it up in the yard and it’s really nice. https://www.coreequipment.com/collections/tents/products/copy-of-6-person-instant-cabin-tent-11-x-9

 

[Flip]

I have a 2-person, Coleman tent I bought in 1999 I'm still currently using. I'm not a fan of dragging anything especially on a jeep trail. I thought about an RTT once, I think they're kind of cool. I camped with some folks who had an RTT, all set up. Later that night the gentleman got a severe case of the sheetz. He was climbing down that ladder as fast as he could. About 1.5 hours later, they we're packing up to drive to a drugstore. Said they would have come back but didn't feel like setting up camp again. I haven't thought about an RTT since.

 

[Tredsdert]

I have the same deepsleep setup (except 2 door version).

Dang guy, where you get that blanket? Are you Tyler from DieseJL?

 

[donmontalvo]

Nice guitar, guessing it is for serenading yourself to sleep.

 

[JakeOh]

+1
Also on a 2door it leaves the freedom panels able to remove and replace.

Using an iKamper Mini hard-shell RTT on a RhinoRack with Maximus-3 rack platform for a 2door JLR. 23Zero 180 awning that fits across the back and opens/closes in seconds to provide rain/sun protection over the tailgate area. AAL tailgate table and small fridge in back plus ~organized storage bins. All this comes out/off the Jeep easily and quickly when I get back from a trip. Except the rack and tailgate table stay installed. RhinoRack and tailgate have no drawback for me in a daily driver role.

Hardshell RTTs tend to set up and stow in seconds. It really is that fast with the iKamper Mini. I'd only try to save the money on a soft top RTT if I had young kids along who can be tasked with climbing up there to get a soft top RTT all stowed.

RTT camping does work best for people moving place to place day by day. That's one reason they're a natural for overalanding. People making a base camp they commute to and from using the Jeep find themselves having to open and stow the RTT every time. Not ideal and if that's what your trips call for then you might not like an RTT. Couple of my trips have included daily drives away from camp and return to the same camp that night, and it wasn't that bad at all. Since I had set up my hardshell RTT and awning for fast easy deployment/stowing anyway, it makes it easy no matter what you need easy for.

The advice to know your own personal camping preferences is a good one. For me the RTT is good for the comfort of not sleeping on the ground. I've done a lot of that in my time, but had noticed in recent years I was not camping much because I'm not willing to sleep on the ground anymore unless I'm through-hiking, which makes it worth it. The mattress is comfortable and easy to augment and down bedding stays up there when stowed.

But the thing I really dislike about a ground tent is packing up the muddy wet messy thing and sticking it into the jeep. So I'm only willing to put that thing on a roof rack anyway, which makes a roof rack happen for me (2door Jeep) one way of the other. RTT doesn't--for me--add the cost of a rack since I'd need the storage if I didn't have the RTT up there. There are ways to make a ground tent as comfortable as an RTT but packing up cots and tent furniture would be another dealbreaker for me.

Never having to wrestle with a wet-muddy or dusty-sandy tent in the morning is a huge plus for me. I know this is not a big deal for many people, and that's why knowing your own preferences matters for this question.

I've had rainy trips where I would have hated using a ground tent, and have found it is not an issue with the hardshell RTT. Wet rainy mornings where I had to close up the iKamper Mini while it's still wet--it still took only the same few seconds to put away, and there's no mud up there either. Later that evening opening it back up, it has always stayed dry inside the tent while stowed and provided excellent dry sleeping that night if still raining, or it has aired out quickly if not.

I've posted elsewhere that the iKamper hardshell has not seemed to affect mpg a lot. Was getting 23mpg at 65mph on Canadian highways with JLR on stock 33s. It matters perhaps that I use a very low profile rack: Maximus-3 supports for RhinoRack platform.

iKamper Mini is 125 lbs / 57 kg.
Some people posting here decry the cost and weight of the rack required for an RTT, but then they add a rack anyway, and they're hoisting a heavy ground tent up onto that roof rack. Make sure you'd actually save the money and weight of a roof rack before you decide that's a drawback of the RTT.

I'm mid-60s and don't mind the ladder at all. I wondered whether I'd mind but it's easy and secure up and down. The ladder is fine for a middle-of-the-night pee outing, too, but I notice most experienced travelers are sleeping with a pee bottle whether they sleep on the ground, or inside their truck, or up top in an RTT.

Do you have a normal tent too? Been thinking about getting Eureka El Capitan from Gritr sports https://gritrsports.com/ since I'm planning to go much more on foot this year with family rather than driving to the spots.

Hmm, this looks really good to be fair. Do you recall how much was the whole setup roughly? Might look into those once I have a few spare bucks

 

[wibornz]

I say no to RTT. To hard to get into after drinking around a fire all night, and to hard to get out of to take a leak after drinking all night long. I wonder how many have fallen getting in and out of a RTT in the middle of nowhere?

 

[RubenZ]

Honestly the only advantage of a RTT is the ability to be off the ground in a terrain that is very rocky or off-centered. Other than that a Ground TT is just a far better option. Especially with a family of 4 and pets. If it were just me, I would just go the RTT route Though.

 

[kermitjewel]

jkloud hammock and sleep in the jeep

 

[ConqSoft]

A new contender has entered the ring…

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT884ERTV/

 

[SadRobot]

A new contender has entered the ring…

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT884ERTV/

I was waiting to see why the Jeep needed to be inside the tent but then it never happened.

Also this:

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