Roof Tents

Shippshape overall size is 2100 x 1500 I'm 185cms and have plenty of room for a couple. Check out their website and they are based in Sydney. Very happy with ours. Had it about 3 years and have spent about 7months in total use in that time.

Why must it have a queen size bed?

I am sure I have seen that you can hire these - good way to try before you buy. We have a home made one (not by us) and we're very happy with it. It can be a slight hasstle if we want to go for a bit of a day trip, but itsonly a 4 min job, so no big deal. Its very comfortable to be in a full size bed up away from the ground, just a bugger I end up in the tent with the kids most of the time.

Cheers Andrew

Are you commited to one? I don't want to put a dampeneer on the idea and a lot of people like them and all but they have down sides..
I spent three weeks travelling through Africa with one and although convenient for quick sdet up and all, they are no good once it rains.. the first time it rains the canvas gets wet. no owrries, but as soon as you pack it up.. all your bedding and everything inside is against wet canvas and next night everything is wet of course. Furthermore, unless you have rock hard suspension, they can get a bt of a sway up when you are getting in /out. No big deal on your own, or in the morning etc, but if one of you wants to stay asleep?? And finally. Can you always park your car perfectly flat at every camping spot??
At least with a quick set up tent/CT you can put it where you want it and it doesn't move. Just something to think about.. Oh, and you can stand up in them..

If you're tall - then an EeziAwn is longer than the ShippeShape. They are 2,440 vs, 2,100, and are still 1,440 wide. That's 8cm longer than a queen size bed, but 4 cm narrower. At least you can peel off your clothing and have room to throw it at the base of the bed and not hit it.

We just got back from 6 weeks travelling the cape and gulf with the in laws who used a roof top tent (we used a swag). Unfortuntely i can't remember the brand (made in south africa i think) but it was a hard top tent (looks similar to those plastic roof top storage pods) and to assemble all they did is push up one end. It took them less time than it did for us to set up the swag! We watched quite a few people setting up the traditional style of roof top tent and they seemed to take an awfully long time to set up and pack up.

We were rained on every day for 2 weeks on cape york and they never had any problems with water getting in or the canvas getting their bedding wet (probably because the only canvas is the sides and one end). However, they did have one camp area where they had to drive up on a rock to get level.

I'm not sure on the size of the bed but it might be worth investigating this style of roof top tent for sheer ease of setting & packing up.

One consideration to keep in mind is that you both need to be physically capable of climbing a ladder to get into/out of bed. This one aspect of the rooftop put me off, as Jaqcui has bad eyes without her glasses and she finds ladders/rocks/steps very difficult.

We've removed all the rear seats in the patrol and have a mattress and curtains in the back for sleeping, and everything goes in on top for travelling.

Hiya PajMan,

If you are in South Australia then Opposite Lock at Mile end have an Eezi-Awn rooftopper that they hire out. They have various bars and adapters to get it to fit most roof rack setups. I looked at this option on the Prado but went with a swag in the end.

Now we have a Carry-me Camper that we tow on a box trailer. Excellent!

Muddy