Roof Top Tent vs. Ground Tent: What Experienced Campers Recommend

Whether you’re blazing a trail through the great outdoors or you’re just looking to enjoy a few campgrounds on your big road trip, you need a tent. 

Back in the day, you had to fuss with dragging a tent around, popping together poles, and fiddling with the whole thing. But technology has come a long way since then, and you can now easily have a tent permanently set up on top of your vehicle.

What’s going to give you the best experience, though? Should you opt for a traditional ground tent or try out one of those fancy-looking roof top tents? 

Luckily, we love to camp, and we’ve got some expert campers around to put together a short and sweet guide comparing roof top tents and ground tents. 

Deployment Speed: How Quickly Can You Set Up Your Tent?

Deployment speed is crucial in most camping situations. If you spend the day hiking, hunting, building your woodland skills, or otherwise blowing tons of energy enjoying yourself, the last thing you want to do is spend 45 minutes fighting a tent before you can get some rest.

There are ground tents that alleviate this issue a bit, but they tend to be more expensive, and they often weigh more. You also have to carry that weight, but we’ll talk about that later.

The clear winner in this area is the roof top tent. There are two main types: hard shell and soft shell roof top tents. Hard shell ones are the fastest to deploy, but both types are quicker to set up than most ground tents.

When you really need to get your camp set up without exerting more energy, the roof top tent is going to be a major advantage.

Tent Versatility: Choosing the Best Spot for Your Setup

We have to be honest, and both tent types provide a lot of versatility.

You can take your roof top tent anywhere your vehicle goes. You don’t have to take it off, find flat ground, or anything like that. 

Some models even come with an annex, giving you extra sheltered space beneath your rooftop setup — perfect for storing gear or just having a little more room to move around.

With a ground tent, you can place it pretty much anywhere. Obviously, you need to worry about safety, find a spot that’s somewhat flat enough to be comfortable, and consider other factors, but you can carry your tent just about anywhere you can get on foot.

Technically, this makes the ground tent more versatile. You can’t drive your SUV through the thick brush to reach that perfect remote clearing or park it along a razor-thin mountain edge safely. 

Fortunately, these situations are very rare, and you’re unlikely to encounter them unless you’re highly experienced. You’ll probably have a small setup specifically for those cases.

In terms of general use, both tents are going to serve about equally in this regard.

Weight Considerations: Roof Top vs. Ground Tents

Carry weight is a huge deal with camping. Unless you’re simply dragging the tent from the truck to the campground’s pristine site 10 feet away, you’re going to have to account for the weight of the tent every single time you go on an adventure. 

With a ground tent, this is a much bigger issue. You’re actually carrying the weight, and in a remote camping situation, you might end up rucking that tent for miles before you finally set it up. 

You can purchase extremely lightweight setups that make this far easier to handle, but with a roof top tent, weight is a very different topic. 

You don’t physically carry a roof top tent anywhere. You sleep right on the roof of your car. That doesn’t mean weight doesn’t matter, though. In fact, weight is so important that overdoing it can render the whole tent useless. 

With a roof top tent, you need to know your car’s maximum roof weight rating, and the tent must stay below that limit to safely hold both you and the tent. For larger setups, like 5-person roof top tents, exceeding this limit can damage your roof or make the installation unsafe.

With a ground tent, getting more than you need or can reasonably handle just means you’re going to have a harder time moving it than you need to. 

With that being said, as long as you pay attention to the weight rating of your car’s roof and buy an appropriate roof top tent, you don’t have to worry about the weight at all. Save your energy and weight limit for the stuff that counts. 

Safety and Protection: Staying Secure in Any Situation

You think that ground tent is a nice little safe haven when there’s a light rain tapping at the roof. But when you get caught in a torrential downpour that’s caving in, or a predator is just feet away outside, you realize just how exposed you are. 

In terms of safety, a roof top tent is the clear winner. 

There are hard options that aren’t going to get overwhelmed by downpours, and even the cloth variants are more substantial than your average ground tent. 

Also, being elevated on the roof of your car, predators are much less of a concern. Especially since you’ll typically install this type of tent on an SUV that’s taller than most North American predators. 

Think of your car as a short tree stand. All the snakes, spiders, coyotes, and more are very unlikely to get to you. 

That said, you do need to think about how you park, since you don’t want your car rolling downhill with you on top—but it’s easy to handle with a bit of common sense.

So, Which is Better: Roof Top Tents or Ground Tents

In the majority of cases, a roof top tent will give you the best experience. 

It’s fast to deploy, you don’t have to carry anything, and it’s safer. 

There are a couple of drawbacks, though. You can’t exactly take your SUV directly into the brush to reach those hidden spots, and you can’t light a fire right next to your car to stay warm. 

But honestly, those situations don’t come up often, and there are plenty of ways to overcome them. 

When you’re ready to gear up, you’ll find plenty of premium roof top tents to fit your ride at Overland Junction. 

Reach out anytime, and we’ll help you pick the right setup.