What's everyone's feelings on roof top tents? Anyone here have one or had one? Pros and cons?

I feel like they are more usable out west than in New England, but I'm drawn to them for some reason. I've seen 2 in the past week, one happened to be on an Xterra I saw on Route 3N in Braintree last Sunday evening (Not sure who it was, beige I think). These were my first sightings in the area and I liked the look even more in person. I usually go to campgrounds and ground tent it, but I'm thinking of going this route. Hopefully to get more camping time in. They are a lot of money and I could use the money towards better things for my x, but when the time comes I can transfer this to a new rig too.

Id love to hear if anyone else has personal experiences with them. Thanks!

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You really have to boil it down to which type suits you best. It’s what I did, and I ended up spending about the same amount on a ground tent.

RTT:
Quick set up, maximizes storage space in the truck. No tent taking up space, no need for mattress pads for how ever many are in your group, and you can keep all your bedding in the tent. Better quality mattress. You’re off the ground, i.e no critters can get at you.

The downsides are cost, weight, shape (hit in fuel mileage), every time you want to leave camp you need to fold it up. Can be a pain to get kids and dogs into tent, and make for a pain during mid night bathroom breaks.

Ground Tent:
Some ground tents are rapid set up (Oz Tent is 30 seconds), you can stand in them, more room to store items when setting up camp, able to leave set up i you need to drive away from camp, smaller pack up size in same cases, in some cases lighter.

Downsides are some are small, poor quality materials, size in some cases, all the extra items inside the truck such as bedding and mattress pads, cost.

These are just some of points to ponder. There are more and some may apply to you and some may not.

Lot bit of a background. I wanted an RTT and these were some of the things I used. I ended up with an Oztent RV 4 with the side peaked panels and front wall. It allows me to set up base amp if I choose and have a tent and screen room, or an enclosed porch if you will in cold weather or just use the tent if im traveling to a new camp each night. The tent itself is water proof so no need for an external fly, but I have one as it helps with heating and cooling and that extra layer of water protection as the canvas can only withstand so much water saturation. The cost is a downside as the base tent is just as much as some lower end RTT, and if you include all the accessories it costs just as much as a high end soft sided RTT.

Here are a few pics

Here is the Oztent folded in its storage bag, and on the roof rack. It’s 6’ long


This is just the tent and built in awning


Here is the tent with the front room installed. It’s a little hard to see the tent portion. The section with the lights is just the front room.


Let me know if you have anymore questions and feel free to throw some thoughts out there.