Back in 2007, Apryl and I were invited on a camping trip with some offroad buddies and we chose to head out, pretty much with no idea what we needed, and completely without any of it... Afterwards, I discovered the Oasis II Roof Top Tent and it met our needs, and has been on many trips!
We discovered the perfect replacement at the 2014 Trasharoo/American Adventurist Toys For Tots event. Bobby from Cascadia Vehicle Tents (CVT) showed up with the Mt. Thielsen mounted on his truck. It looked like a nice tent, we were impressed by the interior space, but the exterior was not overblown in dimensions either. We really liked the integrated awning that is part of the rain fly, too!
Cascadia Vehicle Tents Mt. Thielsen
And then Bobby did something amazing. He closed the tent with the click of a button in his pocket. We, and several others watching, stood there in awe over this tent that can open and close itself!
[video=youtube;R2MVvZPZySs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2MVvZPZySs[/video]
The motor is at the front left corner of the tent, with a cable long enough to reach inside the cab to plug into a cigarette lighter style power port.
I think that Apryl had her heart set on the Mt. Thielsen since Toys For Tots, because when I brought up that it's time to do something about our roof top tent situation, she suggested that we get this tent over several other options we were considering, including the one that I wanted from Roost Tents.
After a short deliberation, short since I also secretly fell for the Thielsen too at Toys For Tots, we placed our order. It arrived at my work just a few days later. Oregon to San Diego via freight. The tent comes in two sizes, Large (82" long x 49" wide x 39" tall when open) and XL (82" long x 55" wide x 41" tall when open). We chose the Large because we didn't want it too wide on top of the 4runner. Those with larger mounting platforms might want to consider the XL.
The package comes with everything you need. The tent, instructions, a repair kit for the steel cable drawn opening and closing system (including replacement cables), a manual hand crank (just in case).
Two remote controls come with the tent. Buttons for Up and down will start the motor in that direction not stopping until it is either fully open or closed, or until you hit the stop button to interrupt the process for whatever reason.
It also comes with mounting hardware for four points that looks as though it is suitable for Thule bars, Yakima Bars, and probably some of the more common roof racks.
Since I have three Yakima bars for six mounting points, and easy access to a machine shop, I set out to make my own hardware. This is of course completely unnecessary, four mounting points would have been sufficient, but I had access to the 80-20 extrusion, and the tools, so why not?
Now that we're mounted up and ready to go, the next step is of course getting out and going! This being the last few days of Apryl's vacation week, we stayed close to home and headed off to Anza Borrego. We've never been to Sheep Canyon and thought it would be perfect; New Tent, New Place!
The travel cover is made of durable vinyl. It goes on over the tent much like a fitted bed sheet and straps to the tent frame in eight places, and cinches on the corners tighten it further. I've put it on by myself a number of times, but a little help from Apryl made it a quicker process. We didn't notice much wind noise, and no flapping while driving down the road. I made sure to tuck any excess strap length under the edge of the cover to help reduce the noises.
The ladder shown here comes with the tent as well. It mounts to the tent via two "snap-tight" fittings on the tent frame. My next update will include details on how easy the ladder mounts, adapts to terrain and collapses for storage. It has a handy bag made for it included, and we're just stowing it in the back of the 4Runner for now.
The Mt. Thielsen allows us to leave our sleeping bags and pillows inside when it's closed and covered, so setup was easy! Plug it in, click "UP", and the bed is ready! A huge smile on our faces as we prepared dinner instead of unrolling sleeping bags and unpacking pillows and making the bed. Even more of a relief if you roll into camp after dark!
Celebratory flame broiled rib eye steaks and our favorite root beer.
After burning through two bundles of firewood, it was time for bed!
The tent is much roomier than our old one and comes with storage pockets, and three hooks along the top of the back wall.
Originally I thought of this part as a novelty, the tent has two bags on each side outside the entry. These are for your shoes. There's even a mesh at the bottom so that it's vented and so that dirt just falls out. Looking back, we used to bring our dirty shoes into the old tent with us! What I thought was something I wouldn't use, I now can't imagine being without!
When you're not using the bag or packing up, they're easily stowed.
Condensation is not going to be an issue in this tent. The roof is a thin breathable fabric that remains covered by the rain fly. There are also two vents on the front wall that allow for some airflow through the tent. The windows are also able to be opened a little, or all the way. Another nice feature, the screens can also be unzipped for a completely open tent on all four walls.
All of the seams in the tents are sealed very well with a heavy application of seam sealer, which will keep this thing water tight in even the wettest outings.
On the bottom of the tent, there appears to be a very firm closed cell foam enclosed in the material that composes the floor of the tent. This rests on the slats on the bottom part of the tent's frame. Above this is the mattress, which appears to be open cell foam covered in a typical bed sheet linen.
Now, this is going to be one of those "Your Mileage May Vary" kind of things. Just about every person has a different type of mattress they like. The one that comes with the tent is pretty firm. I want it to be clear that the tent floor is very padded, when you combine the closed cell foam floor with the open cell foam mattress, you're on top of about 4 inches of padding. There is no way you'll be feeling the frame slats. I'm not small person by any means, and sitting on the tent with all my weight on one area, all I felt was comfort. But Apryl and I prefer something slightly less firm for a mattress, so we'll be looking into that for sure. Be that as it may, we still had two great nights in the tent even with the firm mattress. As an option, CVT offers a 3" mattress instead of the 2" mattress it comes with.
I will add some details photos of the floor and mattress when I get a chance to take some.
After our first weekend with the tent, we couldn't be happier with our decision. There are a lot of options out there. CVT has quite a selection, from the traditional fold over tents, hard shell crank ups and clamshells. It's not easy to find the right tent, especially as picky as we are. The things that meant the most to us after seeing so many tents over the years were that it had to be easy to deploy and take down, it had to be durable to support us both (mostly me!
), it had to allow us access to all of our doors when deployed so we can grab whatever we need without having to move things around, and it has to be able to move to our next 4Runner when that time comes. We also wanted something a little different than what everyone else is using; to get a truck with a flippac would just be another truck with a flippac in the group we travel most with! The Mt. Thielsen has met our needs as well as surpassing everything we expect from a Roof Top Tent!
Subscribe to this thread, we'll be posting more as we go from place to place. Feel free to subscribe to the YouTube channel for more exploits of the tent!
We discovered the perfect replacement at the 2014 Trasharoo/American Adventurist Toys For Tots event. Bobby from Cascadia Vehicle Tents (CVT) showed up with the Mt. Thielsen mounted on his truck. It looked like a nice tent, we were impressed by the interior space, but the exterior was not overblown in dimensions either. We really liked the integrated awning that is part of the rain fly, too!
Cascadia Vehicle Tents Mt. Thielsen
And then Bobby did something amazing. He closed the tent with the click of a button in his pocket. We, and several others watching, stood there in awe over this tent that can open and close itself!
[video=youtube;R2MVvZPZySs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2MVvZPZySs[/video]
The motor is at the front left corner of the tent, with a cable long enough to reach inside the cab to plug into a cigarette lighter style power port.
I think that Apryl had her heart set on the Mt. Thielsen since Toys For Tots, because when I brought up that it's time to do something about our roof top tent situation, she suggested that we get this tent over several other options we were considering, including the one that I wanted from Roost Tents.
After a short deliberation, short since I also secretly fell for the Thielsen too at Toys For Tots, we placed our order. It arrived at my work just a few days later. Oregon to San Diego via freight. The tent comes in two sizes, Large (82" long x 49" wide x 39" tall when open) and XL (82" long x 55" wide x 41" tall when open). We chose the Large because we didn't want it too wide on top of the 4runner. Those with larger mounting platforms might want to consider the XL.
The package comes with everything you need. The tent, instructions, a repair kit for the steel cable drawn opening and closing system (including replacement cables), a manual hand crank (just in case).
Two remote controls come with the tent. Buttons for Up and down will start the motor in that direction not stopping until it is either fully open or closed, or until you hit the stop button to interrupt the process for whatever reason.
It also comes with mounting hardware for four points that looks as though it is suitable for Thule bars, Yakima Bars, and probably some of the more common roof racks.
Since I have three Yakima bars for six mounting points, and easy access to a machine shop, I set out to make my own hardware. This is of course completely unnecessary, four mounting points would have been sufficient, but I had access to the 80-20 extrusion, and the tools, so why not?
Now that we're mounted up and ready to go, the next step is of course getting out and going! This being the last few days of Apryl's vacation week, we stayed close to home and headed off to Anza Borrego. We've never been to Sheep Canyon and thought it would be perfect; New Tent, New Place!
The travel cover is made of durable vinyl. It goes on over the tent much like a fitted bed sheet and straps to the tent frame in eight places, and cinches on the corners tighten it further. I've put it on by myself a number of times, but a little help from Apryl made it a quicker process. We didn't notice much wind noise, and no flapping while driving down the road. I made sure to tuck any excess strap length under the edge of the cover to help reduce the noises.
The ladder shown here comes with the tent as well. It mounts to the tent via two "snap-tight" fittings on the tent frame. My next update will include details on how easy the ladder mounts, adapts to terrain and collapses for storage. It has a handy bag made for it included, and we're just stowing it in the back of the 4Runner for now.
The Mt. Thielsen allows us to leave our sleeping bags and pillows inside when it's closed and covered, so setup was easy! Plug it in, click "UP", and the bed is ready! A huge smile on our faces as we prepared dinner instead of unrolling sleeping bags and unpacking pillows and making the bed. Even more of a relief if you roll into camp after dark!
Celebratory flame broiled rib eye steaks and our favorite root beer.
After burning through two bundles of firewood, it was time for bed!
The tent is much roomier than our old one and comes with storage pockets, and three hooks along the top of the back wall.
Originally I thought of this part as a novelty, the tent has two bags on each side outside the entry. These are for your shoes. There's even a mesh at the bottom so that it's vented and so that dirt just falls out. Looking back, we used to bring our dirty shoes into the old tent with us! What I thought was something I wouldn't use, I now can't imagine being without!
When you're not using the bag or packing up, they're easily stowed.
Condensation is not going to be an issue in this tent. The roof is a thin breathable fabric that remains covered by the rain fly. There are also two vents on the front wall that allow for some airflow through the tent. The windows are also able to be opened a little, or all the way. Another nice feature, the screens can also be unzipped for a completely open tent on all four walls.
All of the seams in the tents are sealed very well with a heavy application of seam sealer, which will keep this thing water tight in even the wettest outings.
On the bottom of the tent, there appears to be a very firm closed cell foam enclosed in the material that composes the floor of the tent. This rests on the slats on the bottom part of the tent's frame. Above this is the mattress, which appears to be open cell foam covered in a typical bed sheet linen.
Now, this is going to be one of those "Your Mileage May Vary" kind of things. Just about every person has a different type of mattress they like. The one that comes with the tent is pretty firm. I want it to be clear that the tent floor is very padded, when you combine the closed cell foam floor with the open cell foam mattress, you're on top of about 4 inches of padding. There is no way you'll be feeling the frame slats. I'm not small person by any means, and sitting on the tent with all my weight on one area, all I felt was comfort. But Apryl and I prefer something slightly less firm for a mattress, so we'll be looking into that for sure. Be that as it may, we still had two great nights in the tent even with the firm mattress. As an option, CVT offers a 3" mattress instead of the 2" mattress it comes with.
I will add some details photos of the floor and mattress when I get a chance to take some.
After our first weekend with the tent, we couldn't be happier with our decision. There are a lot of options out there. CVT has quite a selection, from the traditional fold over tents, hard shell crank ups and clamshells. It's not easy to find the right tent, especially as picky as we are. The things that meant the most to us after seeing so many tents over the years were that it had to be easy to deploy and take down, it had to be durable to support us both (mostly me!
), it had to allow us access to all of our doors when deployed so we can grab whatever we need without having to move things around, and it has to be able to move to our next 4Runner when that time comes. We also wanted something a little different than what everyone else is using; to get a truck with a flippac would just be another truck with a flippac in the group we travel most with! The Mt. Thielsen has met our needs as well as surpassing everything we expect from a Roof Top Tent!Subscribe to this thread, we'll be posting more as we go from place to place. Feel free to subscribe to the YouTube channel for more exploits of the tent!
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Didn't look THAT big during my brief inspection a few weeks ago!