20 Best Truck Topper Tents (2022 Updated)

Used once. Rained pretty good when we used it. Seam leaked right behind our heads, and made a pool on the floor. It’s difficult to get in and out of once the tent has 2 cots, and a little gear in it.

And one pole snapped during set-up, and I ended up with several splinters, and I haven’t been able to remove them all yet. The big splinter felt like a needle being jammed in my pointer finger. It was horrible, and I’ll never touch these tentbpoles again because of it.

Trying to return it, but the company won’t respond. Cheaply made and defective the first time we used it.

Used this for a week-long trip. PROS: Fit very well in my Colorado (6 ft bed). Pockets and overhead hanging shelf are nice extras. Easy to put in bed of truck, put air mattress and gear inside it, lower tent and cover with rolling tonneau cover.

Once it was in, it took less than 5 minutes to set-up/break-down. CONS: One pole pocket started ripping out the second night; I had to reinforce the stitching. The door poles split apart; I had to wrap them in duct tape.

The ridge pole is starting to split. OVERALL: I believe I got my money’s worth. Might consider upgrading for next year.

I ordered this tent to put in the back of my 1988 Chevy 4×4, Extended cab, Long box. Even though the Tent was 2 feet short for the Long box, the design of the tent allowed for a good wall to push the mattress against.

We were able to inflate a queen size matress in the tent. With the mattress pushed up against the front wall, we still had about 20 inches of room across the rear of the tent to place our gear and shoes.

My 10 year old son and I followed the instructions to assemble the tent on the ground 1st. This setup only took us about 5 minutes and 3 or 4 minutes to lift into the tent and fasten all of the straps.

After we set the tent up for the 1st time, I was able to set the tent up inside the back of the truck on my own in less than 5 minutes. The tent looked great in the truck and we were approached by 2 different campers asking where we got the tent, and did we like it.

I had no hesitation telling them were we bought it and “YES” we love this tent.

I purchased this tent to complete a simple towable camper to pull with my Goldwing (pulls it like it isnt even there). It is mounted on a small steel trailer that fits and holds it perfectly. It is smaller than most motorcycle campers, but has more than enough room in it for two to sleep comfortably.

We got an extra large double flannel sleeping bag and it is nice and cozy (romantic too)! Have not had an opportunity to use it in heavier rain yet, but we stayed dry during light rain. I will likely treat it with Scothgard just to be sure.

Highly recommend this tent. Be creative and enjoy it. We also purchased a nice privacy shelter to use as a shower/toilet/changing room Since you cannot stand in this tent. Plenty of headroom sitting up, just no standing.

I researched RTTs to the end of the internet, and landed on the Smittybilt being the best investment. I have a small family (wife, two young kids) and the size and quality of this tent are perfect for our overlanding trips.

I’ve only had the tent out a handful of times, but so far, I’m really happy with it. The money I saved on the tent allowed me to buy a high quality roof rack, and an onboard air compressor (ARB single piston) I installed it on my 2013 Jeep Wrangler JKU via a Rhino Rack Backbone with Pioneer Platform.

I do notice a bit more weight, but nothing that significantly affects off-road performance. After all of my research I couldn’t justify spending 2X-3X on a tent, if my sleeping experience was not going to be 2X-3X better.

The quality seems very good. The materials are fairly standard in terms of fabric, seams, zippers, etc. Mattress is a little slim, but that is a cheap/easy fix with egg crate or other sleeping mat. We bought the annex too.

Can’t say enough about how luxurious it is to have the annex. It’s quite big, lots of space to dress. Could easily sleep two more people. Cover is really great – the velcro attachment is strong, keeps tent clean, and really easy to install/remove.

Highly recommend this tent if you’ve never bought an RTT. Don’t waste money on a super expensive tent – start with this tent – find out if you like the set up or not – then if you really feel like you need an upgrade, sell your Smittybilt (they will sell fast) and upgrade.

I’ve used this tent twice now and love it. My wife can set it up alone within 5 minutes. I’m 6 foot 4 and I can lay down the long side or the wide side and have enough room to sleep comfortably without touching the side walls.

My wife, 2 kids, and I sleep in it with our dog and still have room to keep a pile of spare blankets on the side Incase it gets colder. The mattress is comfortable and has a removable liner that makes it easy to wash.

The shipping was quick and painless. We had our tent at our door within 3 days. The front awning ties down good enough to handle the 30 mph winds we had on our 2nd trip. I would highly recommend.

For the price, this is a solid rooftop tent. Haven’t had a chance to take it out yet, but seems very well built and i like that it includes the telescoping ladder and a lamp. Other hardshell tents by name brand companies run for $2k+, so i found this one to be a bargain.

Will probably add mattress topper since the fiance likes to sleep on soft bedding, but for me it feels perfect. Cant wait to use it!.

Nice roomy RRT. It’s fits two adults well. Construction is adequate. Super easy one person set up and break down.

I ordered the tent on Black Friday as it was a really good deal. I got a shipping confirmation within a couple days and was told to expect it within a couple of weeks. It took two weeks for the tent to arrive in Denver.

I didn’t think that was bad considering the holiday rush. Now for the bad. The tent was beat up when delivered. I knew it wasn’t going to be pretty when the driver warned me that the “fork lift guys” beat the box apart.

That was an understatement. We got the tent in my garage and upon inspection, the top was all scratched up, the hinges were tweaked and there were 2 large gashes in one end of the tent. I had to refuse the delivery and send it back.

I don’t blame Camping World for this, I blame the freight company. In fact, the driver was not surprised that I refused it. I do wish that CW had better control over the delivery of a product like this.

I will say that Camping World’s customer service team was okay. I was not offered a reshipment and was given a refund. The refund did take two calls to CW and two weeks to get. I would by from CW in the future, but I would be hesitant to buy an item like this.

After researching RT tents we decided that Tepui was the nicest. The first couple of trips out it took some finagling to come up with best way to deploy and tear down. I’m happy to say that with the annex it takes about 15 minutes from start to finish.

Ours is mounted on a Taco Max rack made by Voodoo for the Toyota Tacoma. Because we don’t have a lift yet the annex does hang a little long on the ground. If the weather is good we usually leave the floor off.

Its comfortable to sleep in (my husband is 6’4″ and has plenty of room). The annex has enough room to put our dog crates or even a cot if you needed to. We’ve had to 2 weekend trips where it poured and we stayed perfectly dry and warm.

The tent held up great in the wind and rain and stayed dry. The annex was fine, however because we couldn’t stake it with the ground being so hard the rain came through the door and puddled on the floor.

We had purchase new stakes for the hard ground, hoping they work better. It did take a couple of tries to get the annex attached, but by the 3rd trip we were able to attach it very easily and I’m really happy that we decided to purchase it.

The most difficult part of deploying or tearing down is that I am short and can’t reach everything without using something to stand on, but once I can reach it’s easy up and easy down. It’s great being off the ground and a lot more comfortable! With it mounted on the rack we still have plenty of room to attach our bikes or whatever else you would want to the sides of the rack without interfering with the tent.

I highly recommend ordering this rack from Voodoo rather than going with the Thule. The only reason I gave it 4 stars is because there a few small things that could be changed to make it a little better, like the annex door.

Other than that if it’s clear and you have a clear view of the sky open the ski light windows and enjoy the view! Well ventilated, stays warm and keeps the wind out, stayed dry in heavy rain, plenty of room in the annex, very comfortable.

I was so excited to pick up this tent. It is heavier than I thought it would be. It is incredibly well made and durable. The setup is easy and the installation is easy as long as you have someone else to help you get it on the vehicle.

I was surprised that there is no way to lock it to the vehicle. I looked online and there are some locking nuts you can purchase, but they get horrible reviews. I am not sure yet how I will lock it down, but the tent itself is incredibly solid.

The material is great and the mattress inside is comfortable. I look forward to spending many nights in it.

After having the tent for a few weeks and using it in sunshine and rain I figured it was time to write a review. Pros: 1. Comfy bedding. 2. Easy set up and take down. 3. Lots of space inside 4. love all the windows 5.

Breathable 6. Good customer service from tepui Cons: 1st. The annex ripped as we were trying to attach it to the tent first try. Customer service was great and sent a new one right away but odd it ripped so easy for how expensive the tent as whole is you think the material would be more durable.

2. The annex is a little difficult to put on and stake down and also wAter leaks in during rain from the main door making the floor all muddy. 3. The tent itself started to leak rain on the inside. We sat in it during a four hour rain and water started leaking in on the side.

It looked as if it was coming from the pocket where the rain fly pole sits in but yea. The bedding on one side got really wet which is a bummer.

Tents great. Install was a little tough. ISSUE is they changed their brackets that secure the tent to the vehicle with out changing their website and with out telling us when purchased. The bracket advertised would have worked just fine but the new U brackets leave a massive gap between the rack and the bracket it self allowing the tent to slide around on top of the truck.

We sent them photos and explained the issue. After confirming it wouldn’t work the company offered to charge 50$ to send us the old CORRECT SET UP. terrible customer service telling us it’s our responsibility to replace if it does not fit.

Big let down for so much money. Later after much conversation. They sent it at no cost. But still be aware you will be getting a u bracket not a flat one.

After over a year of research and debate, I finally decided on the Tuff Stuff Ranger. The included annex, boot bag, gear hammock, and pre order discount offered by OffRoadTents was too much value to pass up.

Assembly, watch the tuff stuff video on unpacking, assembly, and mounting. The video is missing the segment on how to bolt the aluminum rails to the bottom of the tent, however, youtube videos from other manufactures show how to complete this step with one person.

I mounted my tent at the height of my trucks bed rails. It is possible to lift it up there by yourself through creative thinking, but two people would have made it much easier. I do wish the mounting bolts were just a little bit longer,.

my bars are 15/8″ Unistrut and the bolts were just barely long enough, I’d prefer about 5mm longer. First setup and use. The ladder is designed for a true roof top set up. The ladder only locks into one position and that is fully extended.

Fully extended at the bed height of my Chevy Colorado was not possible. I needed to drill two holes so the ladder would lock into the height I needed. At 360 pounds I was nervous to climb in at first.

This thing is rock solid!!! Ventilation is good, even though at bed height you lose the use of the window near the cab. Rode out a thunder storm my first night out high and dry with my 6 month old Lab puppy.

We both slept soundly. Very happy with my purchase so far! Next we’ll see how long it holds up.

Great rooftop tent, but plan on two people to install and remove. Directions are vague and video is missing sections, but we figured it out just fine. May need to adjust the ladder with a few drilled holes.

Spent the day on forest service roads and it fit securely on my 4Runner. Camped remotely in Minnesota 20 degree F weather. Through rain and heavy frost we were level, dry, clean and warm. Everything we expected.

Next, we are headed to the beaches on the Gulf of Mexico. Love the tent. (Get the Annex and Awning too. Great buy!).

The Tuff Stuff Overland Roof Top Tent is a great product. Installation was fairly easy following the instructions. I had help to get it up on to the racks but other than that it is mostly a one person set up.

It was nice to have a second person there to help flip it when drilling the holes as well. after getting it set up on the racks we opened it up and it was easy. I would definitely get this product again and love how easy it is to set up and take down.

I have it on a Chevy Colorado with bed racks and that is a bit short for the annex to hang down fully. A rack that went over the roof would be better for that but I don’t currently have that. I also ordered the anti-condensation mat and those slide around quite a bit.

When folding and unfolding the tent it slides through the opening in the middle and that is an issue. I have not been able to find a good way to keep them from sliding around when opening the tent. Love the tent and the service from Off Road Tents.

They were great and I would contact them again if I needed anything. Thanks.

This tent is awesome its really cool its really roomy has enough room for four people it says five but unless one of your five is very small like in my situation it works out great so its really a four person tent waterproof and very comfortable on the mattress.

easy to set up if you have some basic mechanical skills great product.

This is a must have for my wife. She requires a good shower and a place to potty so thats what I have it for. The delta annex does not have a floor, which is perfect for shower use so you dont fill it up with water.

You can find separate stand alone shower rooms for cheaper and/or more expensive. Id rather have the annex. It can be put on with one person but two is way easier. Overall Id recommend and buy again.

The description didn’t mention that these are the sky models of the kukenam tent (at least the camo one I ordered was) but really who cares. This is my first RTT, I have had it on the truck less than a week, only slept in it one night and it’s scheduled to be delivered tomorrow.

Yeah it showed up a week early. Assembly was pretty simple after i watched the Tepui sponsored YouTube video. It went together very smoothly. Think ahead before you just put the rails on and really plan it out how your going to mount it.

Would definitely recommend using 2 ratchet wrenches for everything as well as an elevated workbench not your garage floor. the materials used for the explorer series are pretty heavy duty for a tent and i am a little curious how much heavier the ruggedized versions are.

Mounting on my Tacoma was pretty awesome with my RCI bedrack because I’m able to adjust my rack to fit anything I want. I set the tent on rack and adjusted it to have the largest mounting surface but still able to move the tent side to side to clear a kayak if needed.

With the tent on it only sits about 4-5″ above the cab line and pretty much even with the shark fin. If you’re going to mount it on the bed don’t mount it to close to the cab if you want to use all 4 awnings, I mounted too close and can’t open the one over the truck, I also don’t care I can’t open that one up.

Setup and teardown is a piece of cake with the zipper on the cover and the cover itself being the only fault with the tent if you had to find one. There’s nothing wrong with it and it does exactly what its supposed to very well.

Bedding can’t be stored inside which would be nice. Originally I really wanted a hardshell to begin with for those reasons but had a tough time with the 3k+ price tag and at half that for this tent I couldn’t be happier.

It is still less than 5 mins each way. seriously it takes my wife longer to make the bed in the tent than it does to set it up. Sleeping in the tent is a very nice experience when compared to sleeping on the ground.

We chose Irish Canyon/Browns Park CO for our first test run and the conditions mid March were not ideal. My wife and I both had plenty of room even with everything else in the tent, I’m 6’2″ 220lbs she’s 5’6″ 120lbs plus a Blue Healer and Jack Russell terrier 2 gear bags and a few “other” items one would keep in the tent out in the middle of nowhere.

So with all of that we could still sleep comfortably. Which was good because it rained most of the evening and into the night. The tent is waterproof. duh. and holds up great in the wind. The mattress does leave a little to be desired but it is exactly as described and really comfortable for only 2.

5 inches. I will likely upgrade to the Denver Mattress siesta pad at a later date only because I’m a small child and I want to. All in all this tent exceeds every expectation I had and most of the Hope’s I had for it too.

I researched soooooo many RTT’s and was almost completely sold on a couple different hardshell tents (bundutec, iKamper and Alu Cab were my top 3) but price tags and mounting options for short bed Tacoma’s weren’t compatible with the bedrack I already had, so I grabbed up a Tepui and am very pleased with everything.

I’m so glad I splurged on this thing. It is a breeze to set up once a friend helped me install it on top of my Subaru Forester. The foam mattress it comes with is pretty comfortable, and not sleeping on the ground helps me stay warmer.

The cover I received was really tight so it was a big pain to wrestle the tent back into the cover–not sure if this was a defect or the material just needs time to stretch out. But after a few camping trips, I couldn’t deal with the sore fingers anymore trying to stuff the tent back into this rigid cover in 30 degree cold.

I contacted Tepui and they sent me a new cover right away so I really appreciated the great customer service. Now my 3 big furry camping buddies snuggle up in the Forester while I sleep in my “Treehouse”.

Everyone’s happy.

I bought this as a substitute for an awning/screened in porch set up for my rooftop tent. Works great, excellent materials. My only complaint would be that the included stakes are rather wimpy. They don’t quite take the abuse of the rock and high winds of the mountains.

Bought a more rugged set of spikes and it is perfect for my adventures.

The pros: It fit the truck bed It looks nice The cons: Mesh on the windows and door let in tons of gnats. It needs to be a much finer mesh. It should have had a green pole for the door arch. We had a third black pole that was shorter than the other two-by a couple of inches, but it was at least a foot too long.

The rain fly didn’t extend over the door area enough to keep rain out. The rainfly was marked incorrectly which side goes against the back window. The method to secure it under the tailgate is terrible.

It requires you to feed a buckle between the tailgate and behind/under the bumper. If you have a hitch,there’s no way to feed the center one. Plus, we had to lift the gate slightly with each one while trying to feed it through.

The two back corners at the tailgate don’t have enough angle to create the proper tension to make unzipping the door an easy feat. Really requires two hands and some finagling. One of the tie downs popped out of the seam as soon as we let go.

We are very experienced tent campers, have setup and used more than a dozen types for almost 40 years. This one is a must miss.

I haven’t Used it yet, but I put it on my truck. It was a little tight but it seems to fit perfectly with the truck inflatable mattress. Snug but nice

It is easy to build and install on the truck. The tent looks great.

I was so excited for this purchase …yet ultimately decided to return it. It’s heavy …and I can deal with heavy. I routinely remove and install my roof basket systems, roof pod, kayak racks, kayaks, bikes, etc.

, myself without too much trouble. The tent is a beast (weight-wise) and actually does require two people to get it on/off the vehicle. It’s general shape and the fact that the rails are metal which can easily damage or gouge paint/accessories if you’re not careful make it a 2 person mandatory job (without a hoist).

The attachment system is literally ‘the worst’. It’s 8 long carriage bolts [absolutely not] held in place by them fitting into a track while you tighten. When you push up to engage the wrench on the nut to tighten, you push the head of the bolt out of the track (on the sliding system) and routinely turn the whole bolt & head …so doing nothing.

The washers are locking so they can’t be hand-tightened then wrenched down; they require a tool for every painstaking quarter turn. If you’re installing this rack on a factory crossbar system; you’ve got about 4” to get you entire arm under the tent to tighten all 8 of these bolts.

After about 35 minutes of tightening with my arm out of reach of my eyes; I laughed and started to consider just returning it. I know I literally just complained about how hard it is to get on/off; so I hear the contradiction here but it’s worth the point.

The mounting system doesn’t lock to you car …in any way. Anyone with a wrench & [too much] free time can just go ahead and take it off your car and enjoy it in their own vehicle. It is an expensive piece of ten-bling, after all.

The material is a nicer, thicker material then a typical tent, sure. At $2k price tag, and the weight; it feels super basic. No real hard-hitting complaints here, just my general distain at having held its delivery in such high-hopes and feeling dismayed.

If you switch rack-systems based on activity, this system will drive you crazy (unless you have a truck bed rack system with enough room below to use a deep-socket on on a power tool – but that makes it easy to steal).

If you live in a metropolitan area with metropolitan rates of theft at overnight trail-heads (I. e. , the Seattle area), I would be concerned leaving this on your vehicle for extended periods of time.

I purchased this tent last summer and spent a solid 3 months using it daily up in the NW Montana mountains. I love the tent overall, but there are a couple of things one should consider. and hopefully the good folks at Thule will look into! The fact that you cannot store the ladder WITH the tent is a huge knock-off of this product.

Really, Thule, you could not have designed the cover to allow the storing of the ladder. This forces you to keep the ladder in your car which I am sure for most folks is already packed full. Sorry, but terrible lack of thought! But, I think the biggest drawback to the tent is the BLACK fly.

Thule, has any of the design staff actually tried to stay in the tent with the fly on, when the sun appears in its fully glory?? It is impossible. the heat inside is unbearable. Simple solution, offer some lighter color fly’s for those of us who use these things where rain/sun frequently come and go.

If you could offer a lighter colored fly and fix the ladder storage issue I would rate it a 5 star for sure.

We love this tent design! we’ve had a couple other rtt’s and this one was our favorite to use. there were a few issues which is why I put 4 stars. First, the mattress was just terrible! it was stiff and firm, really firm.

We slept 1 night and immediately went for a memory foam mattress topper. We can usually deal with uncomfortable sleeping but this was beyond tent camping. Second, after some moderate winds(around 25mph for 24hours) the canvas became “stretched” and started flapping with any wind which was kinda annoying.

Third, why is the big opening on the roof side?? i imagine the ladder could be mounted on the other side but no factory option to have the big opening for the main door. We spent 9 nights in this on a 3000 mile road trip.

We enjoyed our time and the mattress was WAY more comfortable with the 3″ memory foam topper but this also made closing the tent more difficult but it does close up really easy without the topper.

I waited till I went camping until I posted this review of the Trailhead tent. Value is where it shines but I bought it when it was on sale. There’s a few tents around that’s about the same price that I think is built just a little better than this one because my friends have them and I’ve already check out it’s competitors.

This tent is lightweight and it’s profile is small so it fits well on my RAV4. Im going to try to keep it short and informative. Profile is small and compact. Install and ease of use is basic similar to all RTT in this size.

Ladder is a bit finicky and takes time to learn how to get it to lock correctly. I can see light through some of the stitching which worries me just a bit but it’s all under the rain fly. That’s about the only issues I had.

I camped in the rain already and didn’t see any leaks. As long as you keep in mind this is a value minded RTT I think it’s a great first RTT for someone that wants one but not want to spend a fortune on something if they only camp a few times a year.

Ventilation was plenty, windows are plenty, comfort was way better than my air mattress or my cots that I’m used to when I ground tent. Would I purchase this again? yes whenever it goes on sale.

It’s a great tent and it’s easy to install. The instructions were easy to read and work with. As long as you have a lift or two people to get it on your truck you should be fine. The mattress inside is comfortable and there’s so much space.

Used it the first week I had it and I have no complaints.

Very impressed with my Trailhead! I was surprised with the quality given the affordable price. Highly recommend for someone looking for a smaller/ lighter roof top tent. Tuff Stuff customer service was great!.