How To Set Up Tepui Tent
Thule's Tepui Foothill Lets You Acquit More Than Only a Rooftop Tent
Thule's Tepui Foothill is the next generation of usability in rooftop tents.
In late 2022, Thule announced its Tepui Foothill rooftop tent, or RTT. Information technology'south a slimmer-profile two-person tent that distinguishes itself by leaving space on a vehicle'due south roof rack for other gear instead of taking upward the whole roof.
I had the chance to test it out, and it's a bang-up option for those who might have forgone rooftop tents considering of other storage needs.
In brusque: I loved that the Thule Tepui Foothill ($ii,000) freed upwardly space on our roof rack for carrying kayaks, bikes, and a roof box.
The tent took longer to set up and pack away than other rooftop tents we've tried. Still, when deployed, it was comfortable inside even for 6-foot-tall sleepers, with storage pockets that kept inhabitants organized.
And awning-protected roof vents and windows kept united states out of the weather and remained warm or cool depending on the season.
Thule's Tepui Foothill Rooftop Tent
What Information technology Is
Rooftop tents are an excellent alternative to tent camping if you don't need that existent estate for anything else.
Most rooftop tents take up the whole roof, just Thule's Tepui Foothill is unlike. The tent is longer and narrower than almost other RTTs. This leaves space on the roof for boats, bikes, a roof box, and more than.
Setting Up the Thule Tepui Foothill
To prepare the Foothill, I unzipped the zippers around the perimeter of the tent. Thule doesn't apply ane continuous zipper simply several zippers to brand zipping and unzipping easier.
Unzipped, with the internal frame clicked into place and awnings staked out, the Foothill is spacious inside with plenty of pockets. And its mattress is every bit comfortable as the thicker Tepui mattresses I've tried.
Setting up the tent is a fleck of a projection. Once the encompass is unzipped, the tent folds open and is supported by the roof and its ladder, which stores within the vehicle until you set up the tent up. The tent is built on Tepui's newly designed base that reduces tent weight and has improved forcefulness and stability.
Dissimilar some RTTs, this tent doesn't automatically popular upward. The telescoping internal frame must be clicked into place past crawling inside the tent and pressing pre-assembled poles into place to support the roof.
Once that's washed, flexible metal stakes hook into awning grommets on every side before sliding into receptors on the tent frame.
Advanced Weather Protection That You Control
Massive roof vents and windows on all sides proceed wind, weather, and sun out. Or they tin can let the breeze in, as yous prefer.
The tent has oversized entrances on both sides — it'south symmetrical, with an oversized panoramic rear window and dual skylights for airflow and stargazing. Each window has both a screen and a polyester ripstop flap. The roof vents tin also be open or closed.
And even with 1 side of the tent battened downwards to allow infinite for a bicycle, kayak, or roof box, in that location was nonetheless steady airflow.
The Inside
The Foothill tent has loads of infinite within. The peak of the roof is 38 inches. Ane six-plus-pes tester said it was one of the roomiest RTTs he had slept in.
With an 84 ten 47-inch sleeping infinite, that makes sense. For reference, a queen-size bed measures eighty x threescore inches. It didn't feel crowded with two people inside, simply in that location wasn't a lot of extra space on the sides.
The sides of the tent come up equipped with organizer pockets that held a headlamp, a book, and other modest things off the flooring.
Trade-Offs
Having anything on your roof will impact your gas mileage, or if you drive an electric or hybrid — your range. It impacted mine about 15% per charge with local driving, and the bear on was greater at higher speeds and with highway driving.
The Foothill'southward cover comes completely off when you lot unzip it to open the tent, and it took me a few tries to get it back on when the tent was new. Leaving bedding within compounded the problem. Only the cover stretches a footling bit over time, which made the process progressively easier.
This rooftop tent isn't a pop-upwards. To set it up, yous need to unzip it, attach the ladder, flip information technology open, and then crawl within to printing the frame into place to requite the tent construction. Then you prepare the awnings and load the tent with personal gear. This is less than ideal, just every bit I said, information technology'southward a trade-off.
Breaking the tent down required the reverse process. The more than I did it, the quicker I got. But this wasn't a cracking tent for choppy-weather camping. When I tried to intermission the tent down in a rainstorm, both the tent and I got wetter than was ideal. Because the ladder doesn't stay attached to the tent for transport, I also had a moisture ladder in my car.
How much space you take on the roof once the tent is installed depends on the length of your roof confined. The tent's closed dimensions are 83 10 24 10 9.5 inches. Virtually vehicles have space for at least a single bike, roof box, or boat racks. And keep in mind that the 122-pound tent can hold 400 pounds of static weight.
Last Thoughts on the Thule Tepui Foothill
The Foothill solves a certain fix of problems that RTT campers face. And if y'all're a camper who loves sleeping on the roof, but who also needs to behave other set there, this tent is a great choice.
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Source: https://gearjunkie.com/camping/thule-tepui-foothill-review
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