- Roof tent
A roof tent is an accessory which may be fitted to the roof of a motor vehicle which allows the users to sleep in relative safety and comfort above the vehicle.
Roof tents are particularly seen on expedition-prepared
four wheel drive vehicles such asLand Rover s, but can be fitted to almost any vehicle. They are particularly popular inItaly and one manufacturer advertises them using photographs of their devices fitted to cars as small as theFiat Panda .Roof tents have traditionally taken the form of a conventional ridge-pole
tent which can be folded into a compact package, resting on marine ply wood, and mounted on aroof rack . More modern tent designs such as Autohome's Maggiolina roof tent are housed in a moulded plastic orcarbon fibre box, and are erected and taken down more quickly using a simple lever or cantilever arrangement. In 2003 a French manufacturer introduced extremely simple and lightweight tents, resembling modern sprung-pole types of ground tent.External links
* [http://www.autohome.it/file_gb/index_gb.html Italian inventor & manufacturer of roof tents since 1958]
* [http://www.cartopcamper.com Example of an affordable roof top tent for the US market]
* [http://www.arb.com.au Australian 4wd accessory company that sells the Simpson II roof top tent]
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.