Hi,
Time for my small contribution.

I've owned and used 2 roof tents.

We started with an ECHO 4x4, made in South Africa, it is of a similar quality and material to all of the other SA tents and it cost £300 second hand. We used the tent on Dartmoor in the rain, and Widmouth Bay, Cornwall, again one night in the rain. We have also used this tent in Tunisia on two seperate visits for a total of about 25 days under canvas. We have never had problems with water ingress, however condensation is a significant issue. I sold this tent for £375 to a South African couple hoping to return home in a 110.

The second tent is an Autocamp, the German version of the Autohome. It cost £800+ and was mainly chosen for it's lightweight construction (35kg).
In my opinion the Autohome is not that well made to justify the the price difference. A lot of the SA refinements are missing; there is no wire through the upright supports, all of the weight is held by the ladder, the SA tents use bungees to pull the sides in when packing away, the door/awning is almost a waste of time, etc.

In all cases with ours we go as a family of 4. Me and the wife use the roof tent, the kids have a ground tent. We tried a 6 man tunnel, Caranex, 4 man ridge and now have a 2 man Kyham, the quick erect with all of the poles built in. We also use Kyham sleeping bags and a Kyham windbreak.

Personally, for 5 people I would go for two roof tents, not the sideways mounted ones, as you have to climb over the other person to get out for a leak, in the night. Although I dismissed all of the Howling Moon/Hannibal etc as they had lots of dangly bits, front awnings, side flaps etc, which look awful when not put up properly, having seen lots at Billing this year I wish I had kept my money until I had looked at more options. I bought my Autocamp from the brochure and the sales pitch of a good sales person.

As far as stability is concerned - one would hope that with 3 of your own children in the car you will drive within the capabilities of both car and driver.

Roof tents have improved considerably over the last few years, buy from a good reputable dealer in England.

BTW forget the home-made custom set-up. I thought I could save money by making my own (not roof tent but other bits an pieces) in reality it does not work. We can make, and break, camp now in about half an hour, because we've bought the right kit.
Kevin
www.4x4-travel.co.uk

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Having seen some of theSouth African tents Iwould be surprised if they were that leaky. Knowing Widemouth reasonably wel, if it can survive there it should be OK for what we need.

OK I guess a major factor in the price difference will be the fact that you bought one of them second hand, but having said that I did notice that the Autohome tents were a fair bit lighter and it's interesting to hear your views as to why.

With our children being so young I wouldn't want to have them that seperate from us.

If you don't like the Howling Moon/Hannibal ones, would you recommend another brand?

Agreed.

Yes, the time taken to make and break camp is important.

Hannibal
 

Hi Julian,

we've had a hannibal on top of our land rover 130 for about 8 months now. We've been camping in Wales in early spring (5 out of 8 days with rain) and two weeks in europe (1 night of light rain and two nights of torrential downpour) amongst others.
From our experience, no leaks (unless you leave the window open and the rain is vitually coming horizontal:-( ), but we've only come across 1 weak point... the 2 piece ladder design means there's a lot of pressure on the join (and with people our size it soon showed!!).

Other than that, we love it...with a bit of practise, setting up and breaking down is quicker than we've seen anyone accomplish with a ground tent (other than the 30 second oztent) and it's out of the way the rest of the time...no storage issues. We opted for the enclosed entrance and its super.

We're selling up and heading home and I know we will have one of these when we get there (if we don't take this one back with us).
Cheers
Chris

We have just faced the same dilema when planning for a family of four. We have opted for an Oztent (Ground Tent). Fantastic bit of kit and half the price of a rooftop. It is very strong and only takes 3 minutes to errect. Cannot recommend it enough. Because we like space (the wife likes a king-sized bed) we have actually brought 2, which can be joined to form 1 huge tent. See www.oztent.com for distribution (BOAB in the UK). Good Luck.

Oztent
 

Saw the oztent at the last Land Rover show...they do look super quick to erect, but how sturdy are they and how heavy?

Oztent
 

If you're looking for UK prices, give Nene Overland in Peterbrough a call - they seem to import most varieties and if you ask for TJ (I think that was his name) he'll be able to give you the pros and cons as well as prices.

They have a website just on tents: http://www.rooftent.co.uk/

Julian,
My comment

"Although I dismissed all of the Howling Moon/Hannibal etc as they had lots of dangly bits, front awnings, side flaps etc, which look awful when not put up properly, having seen lots at Billing this year I wish I had kept my money until I had looked at more options."

did not come across properly, I missed a few words.
Once I had seen the Hannibal/Howling Moon's etc, erected properly at Billing I think I would have looked more closely at the pro's and con's of them and made a good choice from those available.
Kevin.

Sounds like a good option, but what is the likely hood of finding suitable camping grounds in Morocco?

This is my big concern with ground tents. With a bit of clever parking you should pretty well always be able to have a good level tent with a roof tent, where as with a ground tent you are fighting the problem of (a) finding a level surface and (b) finding a smooth surface.

Personally having camped on the side of the Himalayas, I'm not that fussed, however I will have an 18month baby, a 5.5 year old, a 6.75 year old as well as a wife to contend with - the last thing they and I will want to do after a long day driving is trying to find a level surface and then clear it of stones to smooth things out before putting a tent up sticking the mattresses in e.t.c.

There is nothing more annoying when crawling around in a tent to end up kneeling on a stone under the ground sheet.

Having said that the one option I have considered is carrying some hinged sheets of ply or compsite that can be folded out as a base.

live it up instead?
 

I realise I'm missing the point slightly, but you can't move for great auberges and hotels in Morocco. As someone already pointed out, you get an awful lot of catered comfort and convenience for the price of a roof tent!

Bush camping is one of my favourite things - but I've never done much of that in Morocco. Why not buy a good family tent on ebay (£50 tops) for the odd day when you find that perfect spot, and then chill out by the pool the rest of the time enjoying your Howling Moon cash?

Just a thought...

OK, I have never been to Morocco so have no idea what exactly it will be like, but I couldn't think of anything worse than sitting by a pool in a hotel. Yes we will stay in a hotel, but probably only once a week or one night in 4-5.

The other thing is I'm not planning on getting one just for Morocco, if all goes well down there we will plan to do plenty more family trips hopefully getting more adventurous each time so it is vary much a long term investment.

I don't mean the pool thing too literally! Although after 3 or 4 days of eating piste dust...

The driving distances in Morocco are fairly small and the accomodation is often very good (or at least convival), so you never really 'need' to camp.

For us, the struggle of finding a good camping spot away from curious locals or villages, cracking open all the gear etc. etc. is usually defeated by the prospect of a hot tajine and some Moroccan hospitality. Last trip I suppose we camped 2 nights each week.

Re: the SA style tents, looked at these closely a few years back and decided on the Eezi-awn which stood out as the best of the bunch in terms of design and build.

We are just trying to help Julian! ;-)

The other thing is, with kids as young as yours, I doubt you will be on the move everyday. So with a ground tent in a campsite you can leave the tent in the campsite for the day - take the cruiser out for a day trip and then return to your already made up campsite.

I don't know what your kids are like, but many that age might find it hard going being in a strange place and camping with poor toilet/shower facilities?

All gritsle to the mill - your choice, we just don't like to see money spent unless it's the right choice ;-)

Would you, actually have you ever left your campsite all setup at an auberge and not had any problems?

Not in places like Tanger, but in smaller places such as Tata where the campsite is excellent then no problems. You need to judge it on a case by case basis, and obviously don't leave valuables. But it would work fine in many smaller places where you can get to know the owners.

And put a little lock on the tent zipper anyway and have one bag with all valuables in it to take easily with you etc

With the children in tow I would never want to risk it. We can't afford to loose any camping kit so would never leave it behind.