Three years ago, German startup Roof Space turned to the Indiegogo crowdfunding community to help bring its unique hybrid rooftop tent design to life. The campaign was a rousing success, and Roof Space has gone on to become rising star in the European rooftop tent (RTT) market. Now it's officially coming to America, bringing its aluminum-shell cabana-style tent to adventure-hungry US explorers.
While Roof Space did use a popular Silicon Valley-based crowdfunding engine to launch its original tent, the campaign was aimed primarily at backers in Germany and Europe, not North America. The company has long had its eye on the American market, though, and has now officially established its presence on the continent. It opened up Roof Space USA HQ in San Diego this past November and made a broader announcement this week.
Over the past 10 to 15 years, rooftop tents have enjoyed quite a rise in popularity in the US, going from a curious novelty associated with exotic safaris in faraway lands to everyday equipment used for everything from basic car camping, to overlanding, to base camping for sports like climbing, surfing and mountain biking. RTTs are now carried by major retailers such as REI, Backcountry and Amazon, not to mention more overland-specific specialty shops.
More than just another generic player in that sea of rooftop tent brands and retailers, Roof Space has set out to be an RTT innovator looking to bring something fresh to market. Its first product, the Roof Space 2 addresses the same issue as the original iKamper Skycamp and the numerous fold-out hardshells that followed but in a different way.
The Roof Space 2 is a hybrid RTT designed to combine the small packed footprint and expandable living space of a softshell RTT with the ruggedness and ease of use of a hardshell RTT. But instead of using a hardtop that tilts out of the way for access to the fold-out floor, a la the Skycamp and others, the Roof Space 2's hardtop becomes its extended floor, folding out a full 180 degrees to double the footprint of the tent at camp. It takes about 30 seconds to fold out, and the tent erects as it folds.
At camp, the fully pitched tent offers space for two adults, and Roof Space even reckons you could squeeze in a child or pet with those adults on the 81 x 53-in (206 x 135-cm) mattress. The tent design is more like a softshell RTT than a hardshell, a full fabric dome with 51-in (130-cm) peak atop the bi-panel floor. Since the hard lid works as the floor, it does not serve as a roof or one of the walls, the way it would on other hybrid and hardshell RTT designs.
A unique feature Roof Space offers is a "panorama" mode that lets owners quickly unzip the fabric around the entryway of the tent to create an open air deck, good for sitting out during the day to take in the views from a high vantage point.
When folded back into travel form, Roof Space says its two-man tent fits comfortably on some of the smallest cars out there and over top short pickup truck beds.
Last time we compared the Roof Space 2's initial specs with the full-size iKamper Skycamp, but now we realize it's much closer in size to the two-person Skycamp Mini 3.0, which has a comparable 83 x 51-in (211 x 130-cm) sleeping area. The Mini 3.0 folds down to 58 x 55 x 14 in (147 x 140 x 36 cm) when packed up, compared to 62 x 54 x 9 in (157 x 137 x 23 cm) for the packed Roof Space 2. So the Roof Space is considerably slimmer but also heftier at 147 lb (67 kg) compared to iKamper's 125 lb (57 kg).
The Roof Space 2 prices in at an MSRP of US$3,499, $200 cheaper than the current base price of the Skycamp Mini 3.0. It is available from Roof Space's San Diego headquarters as well as through its dealership network of overland supply stores around the US. Roof Space also offers various annex tent and accessory options and plans to bring its four-person Roof Space 4 to the US this spring.
Source: Roof Space
