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Depending upon the car you’re driving and the style of tent you’re aiming for, you may have an option or two regarding the best position the tent can occupy on top of the car. This is less to do with how to get in and out, but more to do with what goes on in and around the tent, as well as a legal stipulation which may apply in some countries.
ONE NIGHT SLEEPOVER
DISCLAIMER This information should be taken with extreme caution and I strongly advise you to check local legislation before you set up and go to sleep.
There are several websites which address the topic of sleeping in or on your vehicle outside of official campsites. Two such websites are Dachzeltnomaden and TravelWorldOnlline, which focus on Germany in particular.
If you are driving a long haul on a road trip and you get tired, then you are permitted to stop and sleep for one night in, for example, a mobile home, so that you can rest and recuperate before continuing your journey safely. This applies to public parking spaces—not private property, unless you have been granted permission.
So, does this option also apply to someone with a rooftop tent on their car? Yes and no. The prime criteria you need to abide by is that the opened tent is not allowed to extend beyond the dimensions of the vehicle.
Hard-shell tents positioned lengthways on the roof fulfil the requirement.
Hybrid and soft-shell tents will have to be positioned so that they do not open beyond the dimensions of the vehicle.
NOTE This legislation applies to sleeping in the vehicle/rooftop tent and by no means gives you permission to unpack table, chairs or in any way act as if you were on a campsite. Stop, sleep, pack up, leave. That’s it.
BEST POSITION FOR YOUR ROOFTOP TENT
As a general rule of thumb, position your tent so that its weight (and the weight of any other items transported on the roof) is optimally distributed over the roof of the vehicle.
As far as full-length hard-shell tents are concerned, there is only one direction and that is the length of the roof. If the tent only has an entrance on one side, then you need to position it to suit your conditions. For example, if you have an awning on one side of your vehicle, then position the tent entrance on the opposite side so that the awning doesn’t hinder the ladder.
Hybrid tents generally open to one side of the vehicle. Theoretically, you can position them to open to the left or right. However, some tents are aerodynamically shaped and, therefore, better suited to sit in one direction only.
Soft-shell tents can be the most versatile. They can be positioned to open to either side of the vehicle, over the bonnet, or over the rear of the car. This is ideal for typical 4x4s where opening the tent over the rear door provides some weather protection when the tent is open. Even more so, of course, if the rooftop tent has a ground tent attached beneath it. Using the example of the One Night Sleepover above, if the rooftop tent opens over the bonnet, then the opened tent will remain within the dimensions of the vehicle.
RHD OR LHD
Many side-opening tents in Europe open on the passenger side of left-hand drive vehicles. This is something you cannot change if the closed case is aerodynamically shaped, but keep it in mind if you are looking at a rooftop tent in a showroom or at an exhibition without a car underneath.
VEHICLE HEIGHT
Vehicle height and accessibility also plays a significant role in how to position the rooftop tent. Think of a tall vehicle, such as a van, and how the tent is opened and closed. For example, if a soft-shell or hybrid tent were to open to the front, can you easily reach the clasps to release the cover and unfold the floor to open it? Can you exert enough pull to compress the tent and close it when you want to move on? Can you easily tuck in any fabric that might get caught between the top and bottom shells? Remember, the ladder is most likely inside the tent at this point.
CONCLUSION
The style of tent will often determine the position of the tent on the vehicle. Soft-shell tents are the most versatile and can be positioned to open to either side, front or rear of the vehicle.
If you are contemplating long road trips that might entail a sleepover in a parking space, remember that (in Germany, at least) your open tent must remain within the boundaries of your vehicle—simply put, if your tent opens to one side, you cannot use it to sleep in on a public parking space.
Don’t forget that tall vehicles can make opening and closing more difficult if the roof is not easily accessible.
