Napier Family-Tents Backroadz SUV Tent

So I have been wanting to try this for some years. I finally got my new tent in just a few days after ordering it. Really fast shipping! Well, I read all about the inferior quality, lack of ability to set up and zippers getting stuck. So I am a 68 yr old woman. I decided to set this up by myself at the park and make sure it had all its parts before taking it on the road. It took me about 45 minutes to unpack and figure out the correct way to lay it out and to set it up. I found it a normal tent with a high ceiling. Today was a breezy day but I staked down one side of the tent and had no issues. I was on top of a drive through campsite so I was unable to stake down the whole tent and since I was doing a test run it really didn't matter. I really like this tent and hope to get many years use out of it as it appears to be of a quality construction. It fit my 2013 Prius excellently.

This tent is doing everything we wanted it to do--and then some. We already had Napier's "Cove" attachment which we liked a lot, and saw that it was good quality so we were confident ordering another of their products. We wanted a more all purpose add-on, and this was better than expected.We mostly wanted a place to stand up when camping in our Sienna. We can now climb out of the bed in the van and have a place to get dressed, etc.What we didn't expect? It's big: With the windows unzipped, it makes a great screen house if the bugs are bad. We brought our folding chairs inside and spent a dry, cozy evening while it thunderstormed. I put some mats down so the chair legs wouldn't scuff the floor. Plenty of overhead space so we felt comfortable setting up the stove and making coffee. No more setting up a tarp over the picnic table. The Dream.Downsides? It's big and heavy. The poles are thick fiberglass with big ferrules which snag on the tent sleeves making set up a bit more difficult. With only two poles, setup is simple, but they're really long and flexy and it takes a bit of doing to get that big dome to stand up (and we've been tent campers for years). It's gotten easier the more we do it. Once the poles are up, the rest of setup is really quick. I'm wondering if it would be worth it to upgrade to lighter, sleeker poles.A person could probably get it to fit back into the carrier bag, but it would take time and practice. We're car camping, not ultralight backpacking, so we roll it with the included straps and throw it into the car. We might use an old big duffel next time.The tent stakes are like railroad spikes. I've never seen heavier ones. Another upgrade in the cards?The main design flaw we noticed in that thunderstorm. The seam at the edge of the floor makes a natural gutter for rain to catch in and the seam isn't sealed, so we saw some pretty good leaking all around. (See photo) I got a tube of seam sealer and went around the edge, so we'll see if that helps. Since our bed is in the van, a little water on the edges wasn't a big deal. The thunderstorm blew rain under the fly near the car, but we zipped up that window and all was well. I had sprayed waterproofer around the bottom and on the fly and the connector sleeve, so I'm sure that helped. Just like in our "Cove," water gets in around the open hatch unnoticed and flows around the edge of the opening. It collects in the bottom of the connector sleeve, but (unlike our "Cove") they've installed drain grommets so most of it flows out onto the ground outside the tent. No problem.I wondered how fussy it would be to hook and unhook the thing to the van, but it's a breeze. Granted, our backup camera helps a lot, but you're not docking the space station here: there's a pretty big margin of error and the thing clips on really quickly with a good seal. Bugs didn't find their way in, but they weren't too bad at the time. It takes less than a minute, and it's great to unhook and be off for the day with no fuss.These criticisms (the poles, the stakes, the seams-- are really quibbles. We are very, very happy with this. The quality is really good overall, especially for the price. And the functionality is really great. We refer to it as 'the multi-purpose room.'Update: we found the two staking points on each side of the fly didn't allow for very good ventilation, so I sewed a loop of webbing to the center of the fly and attached a long loop of shock cord. It works a whole lot better, pulling the fly farther from the window allowing good airflow.

I got this (obviously) because I wanted to do some car camping (also, obviously). All-in-all it's a very good design and I think it will work out well for me. But it does have some issues - including a misleading description - so I'll tell you about those too.First, by myself, it was fairly easy to set up. It's a learning experience, so make sure you set it up in your yard before you're in some dispersed campsite in BF Outer Badlands. Running the poles was straightforward, but I found that Blue Tape is your friend when attaching the main poles to the corner fittings. A second person might make the tape unnecessary, but it would still make it easier. Getting the main structure set - for the first time - took about 20 minutes, the whole set up took about an hour but I was being slow and deliberate. The inside is great and the HUGE windows provide ample ventilation. If anything the tent is too tall (which makes it tough to put the rainfly on solo) but there's plenty of room to stand everywhere in the tent. The connection with the car is good but, as others have noted, you will get some gaps (especially if you have a roof rack) that will allow bugs to get in.Now, the big downside. The rainfly and construction is described as offering the "ultimate weather protection". Not even close. While the fly's seams are sealed, the fabric itself relies on the weave to let more water run off than soak through. The night after my initial setup there was a light dew and the rainfly was as wet on the inside as it was on the outside. The only part of the tent that seems truly waterproof is the floor. I'm planning on waterproofing the fly, the whole front door panel of the tent, any part of the tent exposed under the fly, and seal all the seams. Pay particular attention to the ground seam as it's completely exposed.Quality control was spotty. There were some poorly stitched seams (picture) that shouldn't have made it past QC. Also, the slide locks for the fly guy ropes were incorrectly tied so I had to take them apart and retie them (picture) to keep them from slipping. Not a big deal but indicative that somebody is not paying attention. (Note: There are a couple of different ways to tie a slide lock, one of which only uses the end holes, so I don't know why they made a 3-hole lock.) The guy ropes themselves are invisible in the dark. They're flecked with white but are not reflective so another corner cut (and thing to fix...)Bottom line is a good design with some issues that need to be fixed to make it a usable tent.Update - I've upped it a star. I just came back from my first camping trip using the tent. It went very well. The tent is very easy to setup solo. The screen material was 100% (well, 99.99%) effective at keeping the bugs out (and it was *very* buggy) and the height of the tent makes for very comfortable living. My original comments stand as to construction, etc, but I had a problem with a weak piece of fabric which I reported to Napier. Their customer service department was amazing. They addressed the issue quickly and totally fixed things. That earned them the extra star.

Very easy to put up and take down, camped for 2 days and on the second day it rained really hard, absolutely no water got in my RAV4. I’m 5’10 and I can stand up straight and raise my arms and not hit ceiling. Plenty of room inside with the ceiling so high, it makes it so you can use all of the tent and not jut the middle. I’ll camp again but next time I’ll keep all the equipment in my car and put my bed in the tent. My back seats do not lay down flat, I purchased the inflatable mattress but there was no compensation for this issue. Tent is big and that will fix the problem.