The Nicest Packaging I've Ever Seen: A Review of Rooftop Tents

As we embarked on our adventure with our two nearly identical Toyota Tacomas, one equipped with all the expensive parts and the other with a bunch of cheap stuff, we couldn't help but wonder if the elevated luxury and comfort of a rooftop tent was worth the investment. After all, nothing says "adventure" like sleeping in a 24 square foot area with your fully grown adult friend.

We decided to put our money where our mouths were and purchased two nearly identical Toyota Tacomas from eBay Motors, a platform that's no better place to buy or sell vehicles and parts. Big thanks to E-bay motors for sponsoring today's video, as they are invested in making the auto parts sales process honest by including a Money Back Guarantee.

Our plan was to build both trucks into daily drivers that we could take on any adventure. We installed tents on top of our trucks so we can camp wherever we park, because there's nothing more fun after a day of driving and digging your truck out of stuff than sleeping in a 24 square foot area with your fully grown adult friend.

The first tent was the Hi Truck's iKamper 2.0 Top Clamshell Tent, which came in at $3,500. On the other hand, we had the Low Truck's Smittybilt tent, which got us on sale for usually $1,200. That's a $2,500 difference between the two tents.

Is more expensive really mean "more better"? The only way to find out is by putting them to the test. So, back at the shop, we unboxed our tents and quickly installed them on our bed racks. Oh, there's a lot more bugs! Aagh! They came from your box!

Our bed rack was a bit too beefy for the brackets supplied by iKamper, so we had to do a bit of modifying. Hi Truck had its fair share of snags as well. So, it's crooked which way does it need to go to center wise?

After installing both tents, our bed rack was a breeze for the most part. Just going to drill a couple holes that way these little pins can hold the length. Nice and strong.

As we hit the road and drove all the way to the San Juan mountains in Colorado, America, it's hard to get an impression of these tents without actually using them. But over the course of our four nights in the mountains, we were able to get familiar with the ins and outs of both tents.

Welcome to the Crawl Daddy Cave. Please don't judge us by a riff raff neighbor once you get inside, this baby is plush. As you can see, it's pretty nice in here; the materials are super nice. This is like a very high quality wax or oil canvas. The zippers are really nice if you'll notice the actual pulls are covered in rubber so there's no jangling in the wind.

You shake Low team's tent sounds like a bunch of freaking jingle bells in there. There's obviously thought put into the shell; the foam is amazing, it's kind of like you buy a really nice jacket and only having owned cheap jackets, you're like...

We're still not sure if Hi Truck's tent is three and a half times better than Low Truck's, but we'll find out soon enough. After all, there's nothing more fun after a day of driving and digging your truck out of stuff than sleeping in a 24 square foot area with your fully grown adult friend.

In conclusion, we still need to test both tents under real-world conditions. But for now, it looks like Low Truck's Smittybilt tent is a great value for its price, while Hi Truck's iKamper 2.0 Top Clamshell Tent is definitely an investment worth considering if you're looking for the ultimate camping experience.

So, what do you think? Is more expensive really mean "more better"? Let us know in the comments below!

Cold drinks in the ARB zero fridge freezer; burgers and dogs cooked on the Coleman gas stove; even a sweet Smittybilt over lander. We've got all the gear we need to take our adventure to the next level.

But, for now, it's time to hit the road and see where our two nearly identical Toyota Tacomas will take us. Stay tuned for more updates from the road!

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: en- Ooh, this is like the nicest packagingI've ever seen.- Whoa!- Oh my god- Bugs! Bugs!- Get it outside! Get that outside.- We're not going to doso good in the wilderness.(laughter)- $900 rooftop tent- Versus $3,500rooftop tent.- Does more expensivereally mean, more better?- Let's find out.(music)- Big thanks to E-bay motorsfor sponsoring today's videowe couldn't have asked for abetter partner to help us buildthese awesome trucks.You guys are watching so you already know.There's no better placeto buy or sell your vehicle and partsthan eBay motors and looking at us nowwe're riding in style thanks to them.Cold drinks in the ARB zero fridge freezerburgers and dogs cookon the Coleman gas stoveeven a sweet Smittybilt over lander tent.We got it all on eBay.- Heads upnow what Nolan forgot to mentionwas they're actually invested in makingthe auto parts sales process honestwhich is why they includea Money Back Guarantee.It doesn't cost you anything,and it covers your purchase priceplus original shippingon eligible purchases.- So no matter whatyou need, shop with confidencetoday on E-bay motors by clicking the linkin the description belowor download the eBay motors app today.Thanks for getting me this.- Absolutely man- Ahh!- Open it.- What?- You're supposed to open.- Take a sip, just take a sip.- It's not the right take yet Joe.- We bought two nearlyidentical Toyota Tacomasand we've been building them to be fundaily drivers that you can takeOne Tacoma gets all the expensive partsand the other one gets a bunchof the cheap stuff.- Then we compare the twoto see which components are worth spendingyour hard earned money on.- Some outdoors people are grossand they sleep on the ground.But if you're a real adventureryou know that the elevated luxuryand comfort of a rooftop tentis the only way to camp baby.- That's right, James.That's why we've installed tentson top of our trucksso we can camp wherever we park.- because there's nothing more funafter a day of driving and diggingyour truck out of stuffthan sleeping in a 24 square foot areawith your fully grown adult friend.Hi Truck is getting an iKamper 2.0Top Clamshell Tent coming in at $3,500.- And Low truck, on the other handwe have a $900 Smittybilt tentwe got it on saleusually its like 1200 bucks.- Smitty built it themselves.Are you guys keeping score at home?That is a $2,500 difference.Hi Truck's tent is three and a half timesas much as Low Truck's- But is it reallythree and a half times better?- The only one way to find out.- Hey mic, check, one two.(music)- Back at the shopwe un boxed our tents.- Oh there's a lot more bugs.- Aagh! They came from your box!- And we quicklygot to installing themon our bed racks.- Okay, there are some instructions here.- It's come this way,three quarters of an inch.Low Truck's installed was a breezefor the most part.- Oh (beep).- Just goingto drill a couple holesthat way these littlepins can hold the length.Nice and strong.- Hi Truck had itsfair share of snags as well.- So its crookedwhich way does it needto go to center wise?- Our bedrack was a bit too beefyfor the brackets supplied by IKamperso we had to do a bit of modifying.- Oh my gosh.- Look at our house man.- Oh, no that's fine.- Oh god!It's not fine, i did the same thingLow team did.- All in all theinstalls on both trucks waspretty plug and playbut it's hard to get animpression of these tentswithout actually using them.- So we hit the roadand drove all the way tothe San Juan mountainshere in Colorado, America.'Cause nothing says donut media morethan driving 900 miles into the wildernesswith a bunch of stuffthat you put on a truck yesterday.The main goal of our trip is to testall of the components of our trucks.But over the course of ourfour nights in themountains, we were able toget familiar with the insand outs of both tents.And after familiarizingourselves with our tentsit's time to give you a little tour.- Welcome to the Crawl Daddy Cave.Please don't judge usby a riff raff neighborsonce you get inside, this baby is plush.As you can see, it's pretty nice in herethe materials are super nicethis is like a very high qualityi think like a wax or oil canvas.The zippers are really niceif you'll notice the actual pullsare covered in rubber so there's nojangling in the wind,you shake Low team's tentsounds like a bunch offreaking jingle bells in there.There's obviously thoughtput into the shellthe foam is amazingit's kind of likeyou buy a really nice jacketand only having owned cheap jackets,you're like"Oh this is why things are expensivethis is how nice things can get"- The material's mightnot be the highest qualityespecially compared to Hi team's tentbut it's all thereand it's very well constructedIt's got the double stitch hereI mean, yes, some of the stitchingmight be a little bit off or layered upbut nothing's moved andit's nice and sturdyso that's a big plus for me.- The mattressitself is pretty goodfor a tentbut I feel it breaking in already.- True.- I'm not surei like that very much.(music)- We have quitethe spacious opening- Also we can enterthe tent from both sides of the truckHi team cannot.I think that's kind of inconvenient.- I would say thatour airflow in this tentis a lot higher just becausethere's more openings and Ithink that's an advantage.you know?You can have so muchmore control over your-It's true, i haven't showered in a while.The windows are two layer,you know, you've gotyour screen door kind of feel hereand then a more, waterproof coverand just two layers like that.But I've heard tell, that Hi teamhas a more sophisticated windows system.- One of the coolestfeatures about this tentis the windows, so we have the classicscreen and flapbut we also havethis really nifty clear plastics.- In case you're outin the rain, you can watch it.- So if you're in the rainand you want to watch thefrogs skip around you canbecause of the fiberglass shell,this being a clamshell tent,we don't have as many windowsor entryways as the Low tentwhich I donot like.- Yeah.- I want to be in naturei want to be up getting some breezei would like to add a window to this side.- We missed out onsome good views, to be honest.- Yeah you reallyhave to position your trucktowards the views.- Yeah, and if thecampsite doesn't reallywork for that then youjust miss out on the view.- Yeah, you missed the sunrise.(music)- Slept in thisthing a couple of nightsand I've been fairly comfortable.I sleep like a babyaside from one bad aspectwhich is just leveling the whole tentI mean parking in a spot that's flat.- If you're notyou can feel yourself over timethe sleeping bags sliding down to the edgeand you'd have to like readjustyou have to wake up and readjust.- We have a lot more space in herethan the Low teams tent.Zach and I have been sleepingin this thing for a few days now.And sometimes I forget that he's here.- We roughly estimatedthe size of this thingit's about 49 square feetabout seven feet by seven feetwhich ain't bad.- Yeahthat's like $1,500 a month in LA.- As for sleeping spacethere's room for two sleeping bagsAaron sleeps exactly like thatso bumping into him hasn't been a problem.I know that Hi team's tent is a lot biggeri'm just not sure that thatmuch more room is necessary.But me personally, I've actually not hadvery good sleep the past couple of days.First night in the oldSmittybilt roof tent.I feel like (beep).(giggling)- I feel great.I went to sleep hoursafter you, I feel amazing.- I think I got one hour of sleeplast night combined.When rain fly on this,gets extremely loud.This material is pulledpretty tight in areasand it acts like a big drumso like, even though thistiny, thin rain fliesis flapping against it,it's very loud in here.- Yeah, and that might be a thingwhere Hi teams materials come into playbecause it's just less noisy, you know?(music)- One big inconveniencefor having a rooftop tentis that your tent is on the roof.You have to climb in aladder to get up into itto get to bed.That being said, it does feel likewe're in a tree fort rightnow, which is kind of cool.- Yeah.- If you have to wake up to go peein the middle of the night- You better not miss that ladder.- because this tent is so bigyou really do have tomount it up super high on the roof.Some people do mount itlow, like Low team didon their bed but, it's longer than the bedso it's going to hang off about a footand we really didn'twant to deal with that.- And since we'd haveto put this thing on topon top, on top of the truckwe have a lot of leverage overthe suspension on the truck.So anytime you kind ofreadjust in the nightthe whole thing shakesfor about five or six seconds afterwardsit's really kind of annoying.- Another downside to our tentwhich Low team also hasis bad access.With all of our recovery gearhanging off of our bedrackthe convenience of having a pickup truckis really lost.- Dare I say, wemay have gone too far.- I think we'veadded a lot of stuff.- The truck bedis a lot harder to use.- Yeah.- You have to go through the backthe tailgate.- It seriouslycuts down the convenienceand the accessibility of the bed, I meanif we end up gettingstuck on a mountain faceand we don't have access to the truck bed?That's an issue to me.- So it is awesomethat our lower profile tentmeans that we don't have to climb as highand that we might begetting better gas mileage'cause it's not blocking the air flowBut, that does mean that we can't see outthe back of our truck.(giggle)We only have the side mirrors.- Yeah, that's a inconvenienceespecially when you're tryingto see who's behind you.- Yeah!- If someone's too close.- It's veryinconvenient and parking lots.- One thing that's pretty coolabout Low tentis this thing takes like 15 minutes maxto put onto these racks.And you can actually take this thing offand set it up and justget rid of all those inconveniences.You have full access toall your recovery gearfor the rackand you still have a prettynice tent just on the ground.- Only four mounting points, done.- Yeah, it's just as easy to go onas is take to off, so.- I don't thinkHi truck and say the same.(music)- So the number one reason you gowith a rooftop pop-up up anddown tent is convenience.You want to get to camp,you want to go to sleep'cause you're tiredbut which one of these sets up faster?Only way to find out is agood old fashioned drag race.We got Zach Joe versus Nolan.We're going to do a time attackprison rules.(giggling)- 3, 2, 1 Go.- Zach job spent$3,500 on this tentand he needs to set itup faster than Nolanto prove to his wife, Karen Delevinethat it was good decisionor she's going to leave him.- Uno!- Oh no, he's havingtrouble- He's tossed the keys.- This thing's packed tight.- Uh, oh.- Oh, something's jammed up.- There we go.- There you go30 seconds as the clamshell is open.He's got to mess with that ladder though.- Oh no, I'm trapped.- Oh, the flooris bending downwards.- Uh, oh.- You gotta go up one.- Gotta go up one?- Gotta go up oneyou don't want to break that floor, buddyit's a very expensive floor.- Time-consuming,i'm going to be single soon.(giggling)- Minute and 30 seconds in.- Oh God.- Oh no.- It's not smooth.- Oh, wow (giggling)- That was pretty good.- Let's go Zach Joe.- One more arm!- That's time!- All right2:36 and some change.- That is fast.- That is smoking.- Yeah, that's impressive.- You get to camp, you're like"I just want to hop in with my honey"Two and a half minuteslater, you're in a tent.- Think the cover's really gonna-- The cover's gonna mess us up.- Yeah.- I gotta go beast mode.- Come on Nolan!- If you do this in 8:45 or lessthan this is not worth itthat means this is not three times faster.- I'm ready.- Alright. 3, 2, 1Go!Looks like he's at astrong man competition.He's in the bed.- That's whatI'm talking about, dude.Yes.Adios.- Gaaagh!- Long straps, long straps.- Long straps?That's on the other side.- Yeah, it's thesmallest legs that might costNolan the title.- Yes, there you go. Nice.- Yeah, he is on pace.He's definitely working harderhe's running around alot more than you had to.- I'm sweating.You didn't see how much movingI did up in there. (giggling)All right, andtime.- 3:49.- Not bad.- Really not bad.- A minute slower.- A minute slower forthree and a half times less money.- Yeah.And i'm out of breath.- I was too, i wastrying to keep it togetherbut there's not a lotof oxygen up here too.- Well we rode intocamp a couple times after darkand being able to setthis thing up in less than five minuteswithout rushing has really been amazing.Ikamper claims thatyou can close it withyour sleeping bags in it.And we've really tried andit's just not possible.(indistinct)And as far as i can understandthat's something thatLow team can do easily.- That's gotta bereally nice to really, you knowget our tent popped up in a minuteand have it completely done and ready.But now I gotta get my sleep bag.- If I'm not ready.- Which is reallyjust being spoiledbut that's why we paid all this dang moneywe're supposed to be spoiled.(music)- This tent is nice.There's no doubt aboutthat, but for $3,500i kind of expect a littlebit more wow factor.- Yeah.- You know, like I'm not-- Some electronics!- Right.I'm not surprised by anythingin here other than the mapthe map is really cool.- It's definitely just a tent.- Maybe some Bluetooth speakersmaybe some built-in lights.- Think about a motorized awning.That'd blow my mind!- Yes.And for almost $4,000 for whatis essentially a little roomthat goes on top of your cari want a little pizazz.- Yeah, i want tobe a little blown away.And while this is nice.- It is nice.- No doubt about it.- No doubt.- There's nogoing above and beyond.- All right, thank youDonut Media for visiting my house.Now i'm sorry to say, get the hell out.- So Nolan, home away from homedoes more expensive mean, more better?- Nope.(giggling)- I think this is a case ofmore expensive does mean more betterbut less expensive ispretty freaking good.- It's so good.I really like the Smittybilt tent.It is smaller than your tentbut it does comfortably fit two adultsyou could definitely fita third fully grown adult in therewouldn't be as comfy, definitely not.- But it mightbe a little bit more fun.- Yeah (giggling)Yeah, yeah man.Don't touch me.(laughter)- When it's down,I think it looks great.I think it's a lot less of a statementlike Hi truck at thispoint, i'm a kind of guyyou know what I mean?- Yeah.- I'm a kind of guyI think things about myself.You in Low Truck, just looklike someone who likes to camp.- Yep.- Okay. Let's talkabout pros of the Ikamper.- Yes.- Number one.- Big map.- Number one, thebig map on the ceiling" Ay, James, whereas Australia?"I could be like"Oh, let me just go..."(laughter)Number one pro of the iKamper isease of setup, and how quickly it sets up.We were in our tent in less than a minutethat's no exaggerationwe were out of the elementsand at that point we couldcontinue to set it up as muchor as little as we want it to.I also want to call attention to the factthat there's a lot ofthings that you couldcome into contact with while campingthat we didn't deal with.We went camping in themiddle of the summer.- That's true.- It was very temperate.It was beautiful out the entire time.- No rain.- I think if you were in a placewhere you had to dealwith more of the elementsIE rain or coldthe differences in the two tentsmight be way more apparent.- That's very likelyalthough I will saythe temperature control that we had inour tent was actually quite impressive.It's like our body heat itself- A bit.- That we just worked up.- I bet man.- I really(beep)I got distracted there for a second.- When we started this seriesthe tent was the thingi was looking forward to the least.I think a certain amount of stigmacomes with a tent ona truck.We've all seen the memes.But after having used them.- I don't think they're dumb.- They are not dumb.- No.- It is a life changer.It is so much better sleepingon top of your truck than on the ground.It just makes it so much easier to be like"You know what? Let's gocamping this weekend".- Yeah.- We know we'regoing to be comfortableand we know we're going to be tired.- Its ready togo, it's in your garageThe trucks like "Hey man, let's go out"And you're "You know what truck?We are going to go out".Speaking of looks and perceptionwe did do a contest onour donut undergroundseeing which tent had more IG steez.- Which one was more gramablewhich one got more likes?- Yeah.- At this time wedon't have the results yetbut they're right here.- Wow. Look at that.- So either congratulationsor in your face.- Either thank you orgo (beep) yourself.- All right, Nolanif you had to spend yourown hard-earned moneywhich one would you buy?- I'm going with the Smittybiltdid a dang good job.- I think I would gowith the Smittybilt as well.If somehow I got a wild hair, it was like" I'm going to drive across Canadaand camp the entire way"I might go with something more expensivelike thisbut for the weekend warriorI think the Smittybilt does everythingyou need it to and more.- For sure.- Next weekthe dramatic conclusion of Hi-Low trucks.- It is dramatic.- Let's see next weekhow a $21,000Toyota Tacoma compares to a$45,000first gen Toyota Tacoma.We go on this like really epic adventure.It's scary.It tested our friendships.- So subscribeif you're not alreadyclick that bell so youdo not miss the finale.It's amazing.All right, be kind.- I love you.- See you next time.(burp)- Nice.- Thank you.Show your support forAmerica's favorite off-roaderand America's favorite off-road teamwith the brand new Hi team tee shirt.- I think he meansthe Low team T-shirt.- No, I saidAmerica's favorite off roaderand off-road team Hi team.- Yeah Low team, that's what-- Hi team.- Low team.Low team.- Nolan people onlylike you guys, ironically.- I don't thinkthat's true, James.- Dude, this is a classy shirt.It's black it's sleekwe're like the heroes ofthe mighty ducks, the hawks.- If you'd like alittle more lighthearted fairthen Low team t-shirt comesin this beautiful light blue colorletting people know that you're aeasy going fellow or lady.- Well, whicheverteam you want to representwhether it's Hi team or the wrong teamthey're all available atdonutmedia.comfor $29.98which is so much cheaperthan the (indistinct)- So much, so much cheaper James.