Family RTT suggestions?

fishEH

Explorer
I gave up on a RTT with five and went back to the ground. The reasons were weight, crampedness, and expense for the tent or two smaller tents. My kids are old enough now where they can simply set up the tent while my wife and I do other odds and ends setting up camp.

Bingo. 3 kids changes everything, from vehicle choice(mine are 6,4,and 2 and are all in car seats), to Disney packages, to RTT.
 

AxeAngel

Expedition Leader
You think a medium would be big enough for a family of 5? I like the specs, fairly light weight compared to the other brands..

For 5 you really need a tent around 2meters wide. I don't believe the medium is close to 2meters across let alone close to 1.8meters.

If you are gonna be cramped and uncomfortable why get a RTT at all?

-Sam
 

Martyn

Supporting Sponsor, Overland Certified OC0018
the habitat looks sweet but I want the roof rack for other purposes.

You don't suggest a 2200? I plan on only using it for 3-4 nights maximum at a time and i only plan on mounting the tent for our camping trips. All other times, it will be off the JK. I was told the 2200 will fit. Is safety compromised at that length/size?


I'm sure the 2200 will fit on the roof rack, and something this size is the only real solution for a family of 5. The tent weighs 215 lbs, so it will effect your center of mass. You also need to take into consideration you have a lifted JK on 35" tires, so your center of mass is already raised, and you are putting a roof rack on top of that, and a RTT on top of that. It doesn't make it impossible, it just has to be taken into consideration along with what type of terrain you will be going over.

Talking the tent on and off will require some sort of hoist mechanism. If you haven't though this one out all the way I would do so. If you park the vehicle in your garage and you have a standard door the vehicle won't fit in with the tent on.
 

Voodoo11

Observer
I'm sure the 2200 will fit on the roof rack, and something this size is the only real solution for a family of 5. The tent weighs 215 lbs, so it will effect your center of mass. You also need to take into consideration you have a lifted JK on 35" tires, so your center of mass is already raised, and you are putting a roof rack on top of that, and a RTT on top of that. It doesn't make it impossible, it just has to be taken into consideration along with what type of terrain you will be going over.

Talking the tent on and off will require some sort of hoist mechanism. If you haven't though this one out all the way I would do so. If you park the vehicle in your garage and you have a standard door the vehicle won't fit in with the tent on.


Thanks for this. I'm going to continue to do my research through the end of the year and pull the trigger once everything is sorted out. I plan on not wheeling hardcore with the RTT, just trails, camping with the family. When I head out to moab, it's staying at home.
 

ozarkroozer

Observer
Another chime in for the Largest Camping Lab. I've got it and Sleep two adults and two small children comfortably on my 80.
 

007

Explorer
I would suggest a large T-top and sleep one or two of the kids with cots on the ground. Keep the walls attached when you fold it all up for quick and easy deployment.:)
 

Airmonger

Adventurer
I would suggest a large T-top and sleep one or two of the kids with cots on the ground. Keep the walls attached when you fold it all up for quick and easy deployment.:)

X2

My wife and I have slept both of us and our 3 kids in a Eezi Awn 1600, But not very comfortably. A changing room would be the bees knees.
 

Steigergreen

New member
I know this thread is kind of old, but if you are still around Voodoo11 what was the outcome of your decision? I am in the exact same boat.
 

lbrito

Broverland Expert
I'll chime in here...
I say, ditch the RTT idea all together. I have a JK, and getting my kids up into an RTT in the rack was a pain. In addition, you can't stand in an RTT, and that can be a problem. We were stuck in heavy rain more than a few times, and the RTT was fine for a few hours, but after a while, you want to stand up and stretch. The kids get tired of being stuck inside and not be able to play more liberally. Our RTT took up pretty much the entire Gobi rack, with a small amount of room up front. This wasn't the biggest RTT either, but still meant the rack was almost exclusively the tent.

This was my final solution: http://www.alphaexpedition.com/oztent-rv-4-5-person/
I actually ended up getting the Oz-tent RV-5, which is a bigger tent than I listed there, but I think the RV-4 is a good size for most. I really wanted a lot of room, so I went with the large tent. This thing uses up only a small amount of space on the side of the rack, and there is plenty of room for tons of extra gear up there. The setup is ridiculously easy, but again, it's Oz-tent, "the 30 second tent." It takes me about 3 minutes to setup. But yes, it's up in about 30 seconds, it'll definitely get you out of the rain or bad weather in that time frame, but if you want the full setup, it takes a little longer to stake it down.

What a difference though. The kids can actually play in this tent, our little one can crawl around and has plenty of space, our daughter who turns 4 soon can play inside, we usually setup a little table in there for them, and my daughter can color or do other things, or they can do puzzles or play with toys on the table. Best of all, we can stand, stretch, move around, and my favorite part.. you can be outside under the awning, it protects you from the weather, and you can setup even more chairs and tables there. They are solidly built tents, strong frame, and thick canvas like what you find on good RTT's. Tons of windows too, if you unzip the rear window, you can actually star at the stars at night while you sleep.

We have a trailer too, but the RTT is pretty much done for. I'm going to be removing the RTT from the trailer soon and getting rid of it. Adding a rack to the lid instead to hold the Oz-tent + extra gear as needed for trips with the trailer. The only real benefit left for the RTT is if we have really foul flooding weather, and the water level rises pretty high. The Oz-tent has a raised floor to prevent this, but if things got really bad, we'd have to relocate. Though, if things got that bad, I'd be planning my exit strategy from there a lot sooner than that I'm sure.
 

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