Haynes' World is a regular feature that takes a look at what the staff at Haynes are doing with their vehicles. This time, Euan's been fitting a roof tent to his Skoda Yeti.
Car: Skoda Yeti 1.4 TSI S
Owner: Euan Doig
I do love being outside. Faffing about in the garden, walking along beaches, walking anywhere for that matter, jumping on a bicycle, climbing a mountain – as long as there isn’t a cloud of white stuff falling from the sky (and even then, frankly, if there’s a sledge nearby), I’m happy to be out in the great outdoors.
Better still, we’ve reached that time of year when the world appears to be emerging, wide-eyed and blinking, from winter hibernation: the air is warming, the sky is blue and life is sprouting from the soil. There are things to see, experience, enjoy. And what better way to experience the outdoors than by camping in it.
You see, I plan to do a lot of camping this year, because my girlfriend and I are looking to climb as many Wainwrights as we can, Wainwrights being the 214 hills described by Alfred Wainwright in his numerous books.
But our plan had a wrinkle.
Those hills and fells reside in the Lake District, while we reside in the south, so any weekend jaunt would entail a B&B, the cost of which would begin to mount up over a fairly short period.
So we decided to camp, but not in any normal way. We need speed, flexibility and manoeuvrability, so that we can get up there, crash out, and be ready to get walking the next morning. Step forward, the car roof tent.
Which roof tent?
After much research, I settled on British brand Tentbox, and its Lite 2.0 model. This provides enough space for two people to sleep comfortably, and can be pitched in around five minutes (once you’ve got the hang of it). Putting it away takes a similar time, so actually putting up and taking down the tent becomes inconsequential, rather than inconvenient.
How to mount a roof tent
I checked my Yeti’s dynamic roof load limit, and found that the 49kg Lite 2.0 was well within it, so invested in everything I needed, starting with roof bars. Fitting these was pretty easy, just requiring a bit of shuffling back and forth to get them in the right place, then a small torque wrench to get the feet done up to the correct tightness.
After that, it was a case of attaching the ladder to the Tentbox, then enlisting the help of a neighbour to lift the whole affair onto the roof bars, before attaching the fixing bars and bolts using the ratchet spanner provided in the Tentbox installation toolkit. I’d also paid for some locking bolts for extra security, so did those up with a slightly larger ring spanner.
And hey presto, that was it. I unzipped the Travel Cover, flipped down the tent using the ladder, and that was it – ready for adventures in the wilds of the Lake District.
Putting the Tentbox to the test
We’ve already had a dry run with the tent at a nearby campsite, and can confirm that it is every bit as convenient as hoped, albeit with a certain degree of extra risk involved in going to the loo in the middle of the night.
The Tentbox unfolded in seconds, and was put away in a similarly brief period – no folding up, no searching for lost tent pegs, and no trying to cram a tent into a bag that always seems to be too small.
I plan to use the Lite 2.0 to do the North Coast 500 in the summertime, and intend to keep it on the car until around November, and at least I know that getting it onto and off of the roof is a comparatively simple exercise.
Bring on the outdoors!
