Roof Top Tents - 4 Season Use?

[cruiseroutfit]

Lots of great comments here but I'll add my personal experiences. I've camped year round in my ARB Simpson tents, woke up to plenty of mornings with snow. As Martyn pointed out with heavy accumulations you will likely need to 'bump' off the snow but its easily done from the interior of the tent.

[toymaster]

Well as one that enjoys being in such an area. Here are my two cents. One, November is kinda late being that far up; you can easily get caught in a storm. Nonetheless, I say get a nice heater like the propex. http://westyventures.com/propex.html

I always carry a -20 rated bag and a four season tent backpacking tent with fire being my source of heat. If you have a RTT the heater is the ticket. With a decent one with say 200g weight poly-cotton walls and the heater would be entirely luxurious. If you want to live like a king then one of high end (thick) tents and the heater would have you there in style. Traditionally, while on horseback, a wall tent and wood stove has worked. A heavy RTT and the propane heater would be the 'modern' equivalent.

The year we got our first dusting at 6 or 7k October 7th. From my porch....

[vitara]

My Brother and I use our own home made ( D.I. Y. ) rooftents. Recently on a camping holiday in Wales on the Strata Florida we woke to a decent snow storm. Not a problem for us as we use Eberspacher blown air heaters. Toasty warm and save all that I want to stay in my sleeping bag argument from my kids.

[ssssnake529]

My experience with my Autohome RTT (Columbus model) in the winter has been good. I've been fine in wind, sleet, and snow. The fuzzy interior roof minimized condensation dripping. I haven't found the winter hood to be all that great. It doesn't seem to add much warmth, and it doesn't seem to make much difference in terms of condensation.

[bunduguy]

How's this? I believe this pic was taken in Poland or somewhere similar. Looks pretty 4-season to me. Though, as previously suggested; may need a little bit of an "inside job" reducing a snow load on the roof.
Stargazer in snow.jpg

[kilimats]

The old Maggiolina "Adventure" I had was a little different from the new ones. I had what they called a "winter hood" very thin waterproof fabric that went around the sidewalls , the top being fiberglass and insulated, didn't need it. The difference was the way it attached. You first installed a velcro strip to the inner lip of the drip rail of the roof. The the winter hood would fit to that, kind of backwards, with the velcro out to attach to the inner drip rail. When you tightened the drawstring under the tent, the winter hood would tighten up and you would have a little more than an inch of separation between the waterproof outer fabric and the breathable inner fabric. It was confusing, the new Maggiolinas use a much more straightforward system. The concept is the same, to separate the the fabrics so they perform better. I would think you could do this to just about any tent and make it better for cold weather.

I have the airtop tent and a winter hood, it attach with velcro like you describe, what is the new model you're talking about ? i don't see anything on the website

[Lemsteraak]

You are fine, AutoHome simplified all the winter hoods about six or seven years ago. The new hoods are a reflective silver and the old one are a lightweight blue nylon. The old mounting method was a retrofit where you had to modify your tent, the new tents are all set up for the silver hoods from the factory.

What I was trying to explain, unsuccessfully, was that the old method of mounting the winter hoods would not touch the inner fabric and was about two inches outside of the tent's fabric. If you are really going into some sub zero temperatures, may be a bit better. The point is that folks have been going out in really challenging conditions in Maggiolinas for over 50 years and have been coming up with improvements. If you are planning to go out in really challenging conditions, contact the factory and they can help you. They not only build them, they use them.

I've found the Maggiolina is better in cold conditions than the Columbus. The Columbus is simpler and faster to set up. Maggiolina have a fabric that really breathes well and having the top down low keeps the warm air down low. About ten years ago I had an old small Maggiolina Adventure I was taking up to Oregon and stopped for the night high up in the Cascades in winter. Later that night it snowed and when I woke up it was really cold. I had no idea.