Tents

Tentbox Lite XL | Review

Will Renwick weighs up the pros and cons on the Tentbox Lite XL – and rooftop tents in general – after a French road trip

I was given the chance to borrow a Tentbox Lite XL recently, taking it across the English channel to tour for a week around Brittany in north-western France. With my partner, Hannah, we covered over a thousand of miles of road, slept in the Tentbox every night and cooked all our meals alongside it. We had a mix of weather with some hot evenings, one night with strong winds and we also got a bit of rain – luckily only a touch of it though. My overall opinion on the tent? It’s top notch. I absolutely loved it.

Pros: quick to pitch and pack up, comfortable and spacious, fun details
Cons: expensive, a little wobbly, noisy when driving

Prior to using it, I’d say I didn’t really get rooftop tents. OK, they’re handy for keeping you somewhat safer from lions when you’re on safari, but in somewhere like the Lake District, Brecon Beacons or Brittany, why, I wondered, wouldn’t someone just use a normal tent and sleep on the ground?

I’d say I’ve been brought around to the concept now though.

Pitching and Packing Away

First of all, pitching and packing away the Tentbox Lite XL was much faster than I thought it would be. In fact, I found it to be more convenient in that regard compared to most normal camping set ups. By the end of my trip, I could have the whole thing set up, ready to sleep in in as little as 5 minutes.

Packing it away took about the same time too. You know that dread you feel at the end of a camping trip when you know you’ve got to deflate the sleeping mats and then try to roll up your tent and all your gear to fit into the undersized stuff sacks? There’s none of that with the Tentbox. It really is surprisingly faff-less and. can be done by one person alone.

Tentbox Lite XL Comfort

That brings me nicely onto the other thing that the Tentbox Lite XL had me sold on and that’s comfort. The 6cm dual-layer mattress is more comfortable than any camping sleeping mat I’ve slept on – in fact, it’s more comfortable than some of the double beds I’ve slept on in some airbnbs over the years. It’s wide enough to accommodate four people altogether, which definitely seems possible, while for my partner and I it felt absolutely cavernous.

With the Tentbox we were able to camp in some spectacular locations, including this spot on the coast near Le Touquet.

I’m 5 foot 10 and found that I had space to sleep in any direction within the Tentbox Lite XL. It’s 180cm by 240cm so anyone under 6 foot will have that same benefit. It handily means you don’t have to be careful with how you orientate your car if you’re pitching on a slope – or you don’t have to sleep with your legs pointed uphill and your head downhill!

I also liked the climate that the design creates inside. The canvas material keeps out both the early morning light and heat, so I found I could comfortably lie in a lot longer than I’d expected and would normally be able to in a standard tent. I also found that it felt much drier inside it; I never got that clammy feeling you can often get in a ground tent. This is obviously down to the fact, first of all, that you’re not on the wet ground but also I think the number of ventilation points makes a big difference too.

One aspect that was super nice to have was the ability to open up the top ‘skylights’ to get a view of the stars at night. We found ourselves going to sleep with the skylights open and closing them up early in the morning before the sun came up. Fortunately, the smooth zips and large zip pulls that are easy to locate in the dark made this pretty effortless.

We also borrowed a Kitchnbox, an expensive but very useful bit of kit.

Drawbacks

I did find there were some drawbacks though. On our first night in the Calais area, the campsite we had aimed for was closed by the time we got there. We considered just camping in a lay-by down a quiet lane but the Tentbox just didn’t feel inconspicuous enough to do this. With a van, we would’ve been fine because we would’ve felt more subtle and actually more secure too. I found myself wishing we’d brought a separate two-person tent as with that we could at least venture off the road to sleep in nearby sand dunes, out of sight and out of the way. In the end, we fortunately managed to solve the problem by finding an aire de camping – basically a municipal roadside carpark specifically for van campers.

The second problem we encountered was also on that first night. Our aire was located on top of a cliff and was exposed to the windy coastline of northern France. That night, we didn’t sleep too well as the tent – and the car – wobbled in the fairly strong winds. The Dacia Duster we’d borrowed for the trip is quite high and therefore the top of the Tentbox was about 3-metres off the ground, so that’s just something to bear in mind. I imagine that the higher your car is, the more wobble you’re going to get.

The height of the car also made getting the metal flysheet props into position a little harder than I would’ve liked and involved some interesting contortions and balancing acts. A car that’s lower to the ground – maybe an estate or sedan, perhaps – would’ve meant this process required much less effort. As such, if you’re considering getting a Tentbox Lite XL and you have a tall car, and/or your somewhat vertically challenged like me, I’d recommend investing in a small step ladder to accompany your adventures.

Another drawback I noticed – one that’s only a very small one – was that the Tentbox was a little bit on the noisy side when I was driving. You can hear the wind whistling between the gap between the box and the car. I personally didn’t really care about this and I could happily listen to music and podcasts without being bothered by it. I thought it was worth pointing that out as I’m sure there’ll be people reading this who like a nice and quiet drive.

That leads me onto the fuel economy. I haven’t used a Dacia Duster without the Tentbox on the top, so I can’t really make a fair comparison between fuel consumption with the Tentbox and without it. The aerodynamic drag and extra 62kg of weight to carry are undoubtedly going to cause more fuel to be guzzled, but I would say that I didn’t feel I had to fill up much more regularly than I had expected.

Roof tents, including the Lite XL, don’t offer a separate living area. However, the interior of the Lite XL is spacious enough for occupants to comfortably sit and enjoy a cuppa while waiting out the rain. Additionally, the section of the tent that extends from the car provides some shelter. For those seeking more living space, TentBox offers accessories such as an awning and a ‘living pod’ that can be added to the Lite XL.

Finally, the cost. At £1895, the Tentbox Lite XL is a pretty pricey bit of kit – considerably more than a top-of-the-range ground tent is going to cost you. Still, it is a fun, well-made and seemingly long-lasting bit of kit that, I can say from personal experience, does create a memorable, enjoyable and very comfortable holiday.

Buy the Tentbox Lite XL: £1,895 at Tentbox.com

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Tents

Tentbox Lite XL | Review

Will Renwick weighs up the pros and cons on the Tentbox Lite XL – and rooftop tents in general – after a French road trip

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Drawbacks

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