Maggiolina or Columbus

[Corey]

Manoweb, look on their site, they have a list of dealers who may be near you and have some in stock.
Also there are members with them who may opt to show you theirs.
I have shown mine to a few before who were interested in one.

My favorite model is the one I have, the Airlander.

[bigreen505]

Interesting. I think I'll stick with my Columbus ... or a Howling Moon. Howling Moon has a new tent that I am curious about. It is very similar to the Columbus, but with the Howling Moon canvas and mattress, which I think are much nicer than what Autohome uses, but it also results in a much heavier tent.

[spressomon]

I wish they had a comparison table that made easier to choose. I'll have to print out and put the pages side by side.

Also: do you know if it's possible to actually see the tents before buy?

I believe Mudrak in Sonoma has them in stock...give Gary a call first.

http://tufdp.dajza.servertrust.com/Default.asp

[STREGA]

I wish they had a comparison table that made easier to choose. I'll have to print out and put the pages side by side.

Also: do you know if it's possible to actually see the tents before buy?

Best place to see most of the models they make in one place would be at the Overland Expo, which is being held at Flagstaff this May. Depending where you are located in Cali it may not be that far of a drive for you and well worth to make up your mind on which one would be right for you. I went to the first 2 and it was very helpful to see all the different brands and make comparisons, being able to crawl up inside of them and try them on for size was great. The Expo is the best place I know of to do this and you will meet a lot of people there who have real world experience using them, I'am signed up for this years Expo and it looks like there is going to be a FJ Cruiser camping section this year.

Autohome does have a catalog that I picked up at the last Expo that I went to and it has a lot more info than the website does and is easier to do comparison between the models also.

The differences between the models are not that much but can be important. The Extreme would not be a good choice for you IMO because you have a baby and it only comes in a small IIRC and has the lowest roof height of all their models, it is designed for hard use which most people probably do not need and weighs more than other models. Airlanders are the most common, proven design and they have an ex. long version available. Airtops are fairly new use air rams for lifting which makes for a little bit more inside space since they don't have the sissor lift mech. taking up space. Other models have racks but are generally not that much different inside. The Columbus has good inside height at one end at least and super fast setup/takedown not that the others are slow either.

On a FJ Cruiser, the small would be the best size in tight 4 wheeling situation but the medium works just fine, more likely to rub things though. The large is too wide and the ex. long will overhang the roof some. Hope this helps you.

[fubuki]

Interesting. I think I'll stick with my Columbus ... or a Howling Moon. Howling Moon has a new tent that I am curious about. It is very similar to the Columbus, but with the Howling Moon canvas and mattress, which I think are much nicer than what Autohome uses, but it also results in a much heavier tent.

Where'd you hear about the Howling Moon? I'd like to hear more.

Anway, I went to bed last nice sure that I would be ordering a small black storm airtop this week, but woke up reconsidering. I started looking at the columbus again, especially given it's $600 cheaper. I'm way too indecisive when it comes to these big purchases, but I need to make a decision. The black airtop has been on my mind since last summer, but it's special order and can't get it until the end of April at the earliest. That's really not that big of a deal assuming I place the order this week. First world problems

[Corey]

Remember black will hold heat inside more than a white one will.

[fubuki]

Remember black will hold heat inside more than a white one will.

Where I camp the low rarely gets above 40 at night. Plus black looks so much better.

[kilimats]

I am guessing black will also increase humidity in the tent when traveling with the sun hitting it the whole time, I also wanted a black one but decided to go white to play safe

[qwerty]

I wish they had a comparison table that made easier to choose. I'll have to print out and put the pages side by side.

The "How To Choose" section from the Autohome's Italian website includes a RTT comparison table.

http://www.autohome.it/file_gb/Autohome_Range.pdf
http://www.autohome.it/file_gb/guida.html


The Italian site also has links to digital versions of Autohome's RTT catalog.

http://www.autohome.it/pdf/Autohome-Cat-GB.pdf
http://www.autohome.it/file_gb/catalogo.html

[fubuki]

The Italian site is very good. I've spent quite a bit of time on it.