A Backpacker Tries Her First Rooftop Tent

“Oh, I have some thoughts about rooftop tents,” my neighbor Kris told me, when I mentioned I was testing the iKamper Skycamp DLX Mini. He didn’t elaborate, but his tone had said enough: Rooftop tents are some bourgeois thing, not the kind of gear real people use. This mirrored my own thinking. I could guess at the appeal if you are actually overlanding, but they always look like overkill at campgrounds and dispersed sites. Since I prefer to head into the backcountry on foot, I didn’t see the point. 

So I wasn’t prepared for how much my perspective would change, thanks to the biggest wild card in all of gear testing: the Kid. 

iKamper Skycamp DLX Mini Features

Product card

• Price: $4,695
• Sleeps: 2
• Interior Area: 83 x 52 inches
• Weight: 140 pounds
• Includes a self-inflating mattress
• Two light fixtures (require separate power banks, not included)

The iKamper Skycamp DLX Mini is a hardshell rooftop tent, although a portion of the exterior of the tent is softshell, with an included 4-inch air mattress. It claims to sleep two, but could easily sleep three if you don’t mind being a little cozy. A ladder is used to both access the inside of the tent and provide support for the extended panel. In addition to the mesh screen on the door of the tent, there are two windows on either side, and a skylight. Two adjustable light fixtures, one inside the tent, and one below the bottom panel, can be powered via a USB-A connection to a power bank. 

How I Tested the iKamper Skycamp DLX Mini

If there is one part of the rooftop tent that really appeals to me, it’s that it makes it easier to pick up and go with minimal planning or packing. Your tent and mattress are already on your car. It’s a seemingly small thing, but helps with the psychological barrier of packing that I’ve seen stop friends from maximizing their weekends. Finding all the odds and ends to pack up the car for a camping trip can take hours if you don’t have a system, and a rooftop tent is a hell of a system. 

So, in that spirit, I got the rooftop tent on a Tuesday, and had plans to head out camping that Saturday at a local state park with the Kid. “I don’t like camping, Mama.” This is what the Kid, currently five going on fifteen, has been telling me as of late. “That’s your thing.” Fine, I tell her, we’re still going camping this weekend. 

Part 1: Trial Run in the Driveway

I did a trial run of setting up the tent late on a weekday evening. It started out pretty poorly. I set up a lot of tents as part of my work at Outdoor Life, and I almost never need to look at the directions. But for the iKamper Skycamp DLX Mini, I only got as far as unlocking and opening the buckles on the side before I was stymied and resorted to YouTube. This was around when the Kid poked her head out, curious as to what I was up to, and could she help?

I did need some help. Setting up a rooftop tent in no way resembles setting up one of the best camping tents, or even one of the best instant tents. So expect a bit of a learning curve, even if you ostensibly do this for a living. After the lid of the rooftop tent pops open, you have to use the ladder itself as leverage to pull down the second panel of the platform. The video makes this look pretty easy, and that might be true if you are 6-foot. Five-foot-five me struggled with this part, and I ended up getting a stepladder out from the garage to get a better angle. But once that’s done, the main body of the tent just pops into place. 

Next you have to adjust the angle of the ladder by closing up any excess segments. This part’s important because you need the ladder both to climb up into the rooftop tent, but also to support the portion of the tent platform that is jutting out over the edge of the roof. I eventually got there, but the mechanics of how to adjust the ladder were not intuitive to this classic car camper (ladder segments push up asymmetrically and only lock into place in the extended position.)

Further complicating setup was the Kid, who tried to climb up the ladder any time I turned around to check the directions. When I did finally get it set up correctly, she bounded up half the ladder, got a little freaked out by the idea of essentially climbing on top of our SUV, and scampered away to go visit the neighbor’s dog. So, after finally installing the two poles to hold up the front awning, I climbed up first instead.

She was right. You wouldn’t think these tents would feel all that high off the ground given that they are sitting on a car, but it really does. If heights make you a little anxious, this style of tent is probably not for you. If you dream of reliving the days of your childhood treehouse, I’ve got great news. 

When I had just about finished inflating the air mattress in the top of the tent, the Kid reappeared, ready to try again. This time she made it inside the tent successfully and promptly lost her mind. She was bouncing up and down, poking her head out every window, laughing the entire time. She’s typically pretty careful, but even so I was having to remind her to not accidentally fall out of the tent. I eventually crawled up inside after her, whereupon she had me close up all the windows and doors so it was pitch black inside. “Let’s play hide and seek!” she cried, throwing herself on top of me.

Part 2: Setting up in the Field

For our official test of the iKamper Skycamp DLX Mini, we headed out to Kanaskat-Palmer State Park. The first thing I noticed about camping with this rooftop tent was how easy it was to pack up. I grabbed the pot box, some chairs, our clothes, pillows, and the HEST Down Comforter, and was basically ready to go. An hour later we were at the campground.  

Having set the tent up in my driveway already, I had a sense of how much space I needed on the passenger side for the extension panel and the ladder, but once I hopped out of the car, I realized there was another factor I hadn’t considered: how level the ground was. Not sure how else to determine this, I resorted to what I do when backpacking, spreading my feet as far apart as possible on the campsite’s driveway and rocking back and forth to see if it was reasonably level. I’m sure this looked dumb but after I moved the car forward a few feet I was satisfied that we wouldn’t be rolling to one side all night.

Getting it ready for the night went pretty smoothly. It wasn’t any faster than setting up a typical tent, but it wasn’t particularly slower either. After I’d finished, the Kid, who doesn’t typically spend much time in the tent while camping, moved right on in. She read some books in the tent, played with all the windows, had several stuffed animals practice flying by throwing them out of the tent and then climbing down to retrieve them. All of this gave me plenty of time to get the rest of camp set up before we headed out to pick salmonberries and hang out by the Green River.

Later, when it came time to get ready for bed, I was surprised by how smoothly things went. The biggest difference between this and a regular tent is that you don’t really have space to store your clothes or other sundries — that stays in the trunk of your car. But like many things camping, this is more about adjusting your systems than anything else. Once we had pajamas on and teeth brushed, we headed up with a few books to read. 

This ended up being one of my favorite experiences with the tent. With the light turned on just so (we could adjust the warmth and the level), leaning against the padded back panel curled up with the Kid on a comfy camping mattress was extremely cozy. I was able to close up the blinds to minimize some of the excess light we are getting in the evenings. Even after all the excitement of the day and getting to sleep in the rooftop tent, she settled down pretty quickly and was soon ready to go to sleep. 

What the iKamper Skycamp DLX Mini Gets Right

At the end of testing, I asked the kid if we should test more rooftop tents. “Yes!” she danced. The iKamper Skycamp DLX Mini is a fun tent and a great conversation piece. Even though there weren’t any bugs or animals to be concerned about, I also felt more secure in this tent than I do sleeping on the ground, an aspect of the tent I didn’t expect. If you’ve got a reluctant camper you’re trying to woo into the backcountry, of whatever age, this is your ace in the hole.  

And while I did need to get a stepladder out to use the tent, I can tell that with enough practice I could figure out how to set it up without it. That’s not bad for a tent that is perched on top of a car — and if you are setting up your rooftop tent on the back of a pickup truck, you won’t have this issue at all.

The kid and I really delighted in many of the details of this tent. The padded back wall was perfect for leaning against during bedtime stories. The different colors of the interior overhead light provided the perfect mood after some fun flickering through all the options. The skylight was a delightful touch that we both enjoyed looking out of while lying on our backs. There is a lot of joy here. 

What the iKamper Skycamp DLX Mini Gets Wrong

At $4,700, the iKamper Skycamp DLC Mini is unbelievably expensive, and its two-year warranty is hardly turning heads. I couldn’t afford one on my salary, and if I came into a windfall of $5K, this is not how I would choose to spend it. But there are people out there for whom $5K is their monthly “fun” budget, and for you, I say this is a great use of that. 

For a tent this pricey, I also have some nitpicks with some of the details. The camping mattress in this tent is fine, but if you’re already shelling out this much, you might as well go with the absolute best camping mattress, the Exped MegaMat Luxe. I also didn’t love that the provided mattress inflator required a car charger port. I wasn’t about to turn on my 4Runner just to inflate the mattress (the carburetor gave out a year ago, so the exhaust situation is extra disgusting), so I dragged out the Goal Zero Yeti 700 to get the job done. But I would have preferred something with a USB-C port, so I could just plug it into the same power bank that will sit up by the entrance to power the lights for the outside of the tent. As it was, I ended up bringing the Exped Mega Pump with me on my testing trip.

I would like to see some of the individual pieces labeled — or better, color-coded — in the future. I was particularly stuck as to which pole went in the doors versus in the windows, and which orientation they each went on the windows. In the end I wasn’t sure if I had done it correctly, but it seemed to work well enough. 

I also have the feeling that the tent is bringing down my SUV’s fuel efficiency. At this point, I don’t have any hard data to back this up (my Toyota 4Runner is ancient enough that it’s not simple to suss out what is the drag from the iKamper Skycamp and what is inconsistent AC usage), but we’ll try to gather some data on that in time for our roundup of the best rooftop tents. 

Final Thoughts

After testing over a hundred tents for Outdoor Life, I wasn’t expecting my first rooftop tent to be such a surprise. But it really was, and a good one at that. While the high price tag will likely keep this out of the reach of many families, it’s a worthy use of expendable income and something you should absolutely try if the option presents itself.