Delica Canada | Mitsubishi Van Club

thanks fellas! yep, not just tepui, but hannibal, titan, arb, mombasa, gordigear..and a few more :) the main difference is the materials used, some use 200g or 250g fabric, these have 300g fabric. a fellow delica owner here picked onup from andy and was able to compare it to an arb...according to them, you can totally see a difference in quality and hardware used. :)

here's a similar tent ;) nice assembly vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWHrD7sBTU8

(note, he's had to use a ladder extension on this model) i've seen Andys tent on a high roof l400, ladder still long enough.

i'll be sure to add more pics and hopefully even a vid when i get the time...IF i can at least spend one night in it! or maybe even just an afternoon nap in the bushes somewhere.

thanks for the tip on the mattress Dave! i was just thinking that. i have a couple thermarests i can use to add. was maybe even thinking of using a foil emerg blanket under all that to reflect heat back up on colder days. if i do get out soon, i'm bringing a down filled duvet to sandwich me in the sleeping bag, that should be toasty enough!

so, finally got the chance to spend at least one night in the RTT. took my son to a prov. park this weekend and did a little cold weather camping!

got to our spot, not much campers around which was nice and started settin it up for the first time.

undo 2 main cover straps, unzip cover



undo tent straps

climb on top through the back and undo ladder strap and pull it out



pull down on ladder and unfold tent and you're almost done!



peg down 2 anchor points at the end of the overhang



open window awnings using metal bows (x8). i had 1 pair left for inside the front entrance, but that can roll up out of the way

metal bow attachments for the window awning..
also, velcro down centre strip that goes over the main hinge. there's also a corresponding flap on the inside of the tent.


it's best to slide one end into the tent frame first, then bend and hook into the hole of the awning.



cover can stay there, or you can roll it up. i really should have tried using the annex room, but my son was buggin me to kick a ball around and it was getting dark soon (and i remembered that the cover has to come off first, simply slide it out, then one side of the annex room would slide into place, and the remaining 3 sides would zip around the perimeter of the overhanging section)



easily well under 15 minutes with just one person, under 10 for sure with a few more practice runs.



all 4 windows/screens can be opened



close up on the fabric and how the water can just bead and roll off it, pretty good fabric i'd say



not too many neighbours around :)



i think the high of the day was 9 or 10 degrees (C), lows of below freezing. i brought a feather down duvet along with 2 -9 degree sleeping bags and 2 0 degree sleeping bags. we were quite warm and cozy in there and had fun reading stories before bed.



there are 2 vents at the top of the tent, on either side to let air in and condensation out. i cracked open a couple more windows just to get more air in. it was a very nice sleep. high density mattress was fine on its own and did not need extra padding (although you could add some thermarests underneath it, personal preferrence really).

the inside of the tent was moist in the morning. so before take down, i just wiped all the sides with a towel and opened the windows to dry it up before folding it close again.

overall, im sold, impressed, and quite happy with this roof top tent!

A buddy of mine has a Hannibal Tent on top of his Land Rover Defender. The whole thing is wicked but very$$$$$. I'd like to add one to the top of my van. Right now, I'm just working on trying to get the rack and ladder for my high roof....and she ain't easy to find.

i got an extra set of gutter mounts and load bars for the l400 (initially for hauling our 12' paddle board). there's an 11" thule guttermount that works i believe. the 400 is quite tall and a bit of a climb, but i understand it's doable for this set up.

Could any of you shed some light on the tents by arb, tepui and cvt? They all look like they are out of the same factory in china. Dimensionally the cvt mt bachelor and the tepui kukenam are the same but different prices. Have you heard good or bad. Is cheaper (tepui) going to be a mistake? I am at a loss as it all looks the same to me online but the prices are all different. I like the look of the one in this thread but its a bit overkill and large for my liking. I kind of want less is more. Ideas?

I have an an Autohome Columbia that is awesome. I picked it up used for less than a new one of the Chinese made softtop versions listed here. You get get good deals in used ones but you have to watch and be quick because they don't last. Mine pops up in a couple of seconds and there's enough room to stand up inside, and it's insulated.

Rattlenbang do you leave it on all the time, or is it easy to take off your roof racks? It does a pretty solid job of covering up your crystalite!

LOL everything is a compromise. I leave it on when I know we are going to be using it soon, but if there's no plans in the immediate future I'll take it off. It's on now as I'm heading down the Oregon coast in the next few days, but when I get back I might take it off.

It's a bit of work taking it on and off, and it's not light at 100 lbs. Right now it's held down by an archaic system of clamps and nuts, which take some time to put on and remove, and I want to replace that with something a lot easier. Shoulda got racks with longer legs; as it is I can barely fit the wrench under the racks to take it off. I tried taking the whole thing off with racks attached but that was a real gong show; the van is just too high and the tent's too heavy. If I had a garage or carport where I could hoist it off that would be perfect, but where I'm living, I have neither. That part is a work in progress.

Still, most of the time I'm up front and so don't notice lack of skylights, and they still let in lots of light, regardless.

just wanted to share these awning pics now that i found some time to finally get it on. tried it on our delica while i was setting up our thule stuff to carry more stuff and our paddle board.

pretty straight forward. the bracket is adjustable along the channel in the back of the awning/frame. just so happens that the L brackets can slide into the thule load bar. didn't have the tools to drill holes in them at the moment. so as a temporary install, i just used a strap to pull/hold in the frame. it's in there good. then got me thinking of a quick release way to move it to the land cruiser with different load bar widths. or i can just drill one hole, slide the bracket through and just use one bolt...anyway..















zipper side faces down, unzip and undoo straps, and unravel awning. 2 poles on the corner are wrapped in and 2 more poles are tucked in the back which pull out and support the sides if you choose to use the awning room. didn't get a chance to set that up, so next post hopefully. comes with rope and pegs to secure and you're ready to chill in the shade. set up in minutes.

just a mini update after i shimmied the RTT back a few inches to add a thule box infront. it barely fit with enough room in between to open the zipper and get access to open the thule box (which i got for 80 bucks). it's looking like my mileage has returned to normal too!



the box is blocking one rod to hold the window awning up, so i just jimmied a strap, it works.



nice access to roof box from the window too!







i added aluminum U rods along the bottom of the box to give it more rigity as it sticks out. no problems on the highway and i get an extra sun shade!

what's nice about moving it back is that i can get to the ladder and the zippers around easier and it's made set up time that much quicker, gettin good at it too. i took it to a park to air it out after the torrential rain we got and it was bone dry inside.

well, just thought i'd update on more pics of the awning room. been quite busy with fam and new baby.

so one of the bags comes with the walls and floor of the awning room..



pull out awning as usual and slide in rubber slip thingy through the channel at the base of the awning





then pull out side poles and extend and feed through holes on the other end. (had to open up the holes a tad with a drill)



velcro the sides to the side/horizontal poles and the front/vertical poles


then i just tested out the windows/zippers





back door opens up/lines up with sliding door of our minivan



nice view from inside the van



space b/w back of awning and vehicle



then unfold floor and line up zipper ends and just zip around





had to extend the vertical poles a little to use up/get strech out of the extra material on the ground. this set up is perfect for lifted rigs!

and voila



packs into it's own carrying bag.

Nice! The extra room is a real benefit to that style of RTT compared to the Autohomes.

nice. for the price, can't go wrong. I've always loved autohome's stuff but just can't pull the trigger on that price. lucky you for the find on the used market!

LeeHammy wrote:Could any of you shed some light on the tents by arb, tepui and cvt? They all look like they are out of the same factory in china. Dimensionally the cvt mt bachelor and the tepui kukenam are the same but different prices. Have you heard good or bad. Is cheaper (tepui) going to be a mistake? I am at a loss as it all looks the same to me online but the prices are all different. I like the look of the one in this thread but its a bit overkill and large for my liking. I kind of want less is more. Ideas?

hi leehammy,

sorry for the late reply, haven't been on the site in a while. I've done a tonne of research on this. it boils down to build quality and materials used. they are NOT all the same. some guys here compared this rtt to an arb and they saw obvious differences. for one, hardware is all stainless steel and not some plastic. the other major difference in the fabric. the other guys have 200 or 250 g nylon. this one's 300g. another difference is the ladder. this has the longest telescoping ladder available. the other guys have a two piece ladder that slides out but often needs an extension cuz it's short for lifte rigs (and especially taller delicas).

for what you get with annex room AND awning AND awning room, it's the best bang for your buck. imho.

if you notice, I can split the setups between the land cruiser and the delica. the delica can haul the paddleboard and I can set up the awning/room. the cruiser has the RTT and I can move the awning over and have a nice set up at camp.

hope that helps.