Intro
I've wanted a Roof Top Tent (RTT) since the first real camping trip I did in November. After the first night of camping in a normal tent on the ground, the temps dropped a little more and I got to try out my buddies RTT. I fell in love after that night and knew that a RTT was going to be one of my next purchases. However, I wasn't sure what brand to go with and what style would work best for me. I did a lot of research for this, since spending $1,500+ was not an easy thing to do. I knew I wanted the best tent in terms of reliability and dependability.
I had originally started talking with Ty and Bobby out at CVT back in December. Right away I noticed their great customer service and their ability to work with the constant spamming of different questions every other email. They happily answered all of my questions and like many other companies, went out of their way to offer a military discount as well.
The Big Buy
A week or so before Christmas, before I left to visit family back in Arizona, the CVT guys had started an awesome sales event on all their gear. I think this is what did me in, as it was a 25% discount off normally priced tents. Even though this still placed the Mt. Shasta Extended Summit at more then say a similar 23zero tent, I was sold on the customer service alone. I knew that the CVT tent had thicker materials, like the travel cover, and figured that the overall quality was better. I'd never seen one in person though.
So the first Saturday of the event I woke up early one morning, called the office, and drove up to CVT's newer location in Chattanooga, TN. I got there around 1pm. I was shown all the different tents they had on display and talked with the guys for a bit before finalizing the purchase of the Mt. Shasta Ext Summit.
They even offered to help install it with me. Here are a few photos of the tent right out of the box and getting it onto the truck.
Below: The tent out of the box. We had to remove the blue protective plastic from the underside. Preparing to install the mounting rail.
Below: Setting it up on the Leitner Designs ACS for the first time. CVT had the Leitner RTT mounts instock as well.
Below: All bolted down, covered, and ready for the journey back home.
Below: Outside the CVT office.
There's a pretty big different in MPG when I have this thing on top of my rack. I can't give an exact number due to the RTT alone, as I installed the new ties and the RTT in the same few days, but combined I saw around a 6 mpg drop on average. But I think that the drop in mpg is worth the ability to almost anywhere I can park the truck.
Below: A from the front view of the tent out, took this when I got home and I lightly sprayed it down with water to help to cotton expand.
Below: From the pax side of the truck, where the ladder comes down.
Conclusion
Since the purchase of the RTT, I've been able to use it exactly once. I'll cover that trip in a future blog post, but I will say that I have not regretted spending the money and that I have several trips planned for the future when I return home.
In the coming weeks I'm going to sit down and make a new series of blogs called "Technical", or maybe "Reviews", and give a detailed technical analysis and comparison of all the gear I have been buying, to include some installation guides. Let me know if you'd like to see content like this.
Until next time, strap in and enjoy the ride!
