Buyer guide

How to Mount a Roof Top Tent on Your Roof Rack

Mounting a roof top tent is a half-hour job when the preparation is right and a frustrating afternoon when it is not. This guide follows the mounting logic of the range in this catalogue — the SRT14E's listing states universal mounting brackets suitable for most roof racks and after-market roof bars — and flags the points where the answer depends on your exact model and your exact rack. For any other model, treat bracket supply and rack fit as an open question to settle in your enquiry. Retailers can hand this sequence to customers; importers can use it as the checklist behind their own instruction sheets.

Step 1 — Check the Rack Before the Tent

The tent is only half the system. Before anything is lifted, confirm three things about the rack. First, that the vehicle actually has a rack or roof bars rated for a roof load — a roof top tent should never be mounted to a bare roof or to decorative rails. Second, the bar spread: the mounting rails under the tent base need two bars at a spacing the base can bridge, so measure the distance between your bars and compare it with the mounting rail spacing of the tent. Third, the load question, which has its own guide in this series: read roof top tent weight limits before you assume any rack and tent combination works. The rack manufacturer's rating governs; the tent catalogue does not set it.

Step 2 — Unpack Against the Parts List

A complete mounting starts with a complete box. The fully specified model in this catalogue, the SRT14E, lists its included parts explicitly: one tent, one travel cover, one aluminum ladder, two bars and one set of mounting parts. Lay the mounting parts out before the tent goes up — brackets, bolts and plates — and check them against the model's parts list. If your model is a different one, its included set may differ; the parts list on the model record is the authority, and anything missing is a question for the supplier before installation day, not during it.

Step 3 — Lift and Position

Roof top tents are a two-person lift even when they are a one-person operation afterwards — the SRT14E record lists one-person fold-out operation once mounted, which is about daily use, not about the initial lift. Set the tent on the bars and position it before tightening anything. The usual decisions: centre the tent laterally so the ladder side matches where you want to climb; fore-aft, place the base so the mounting rails sit fully on both bars with the overhang balanced. Opening direction is a per-model check on the hard shell side: the ALU101-130 is listed as a popup foldout model and the SFRP-82 is listed as side-opening; for any other hard shell model, confirm the opening direction of the exact model — and check it against the vehicle's rear door and your awning side before final tightening.

Step 4 — Fix the Brackets

On the SRT14E, the listed universal brackets clamp the tent's mounting rails to the roof bars. Work corner by corner: start all four fixing points loosely, confirm the tent has not crept off position, then tighten in a cross pattern so the base pulls down evenly. Those brackets are listed as suitable for most roof racks and after-market bars — most, not all. Unusual bar profiles (very wide aero bars, very thin factory rails) are the exception cases; if a bracket cannot seat fully on your bar profile, stop and confirm the correct adapter rather than forcing a partial clamp.

Step 5 — First Opening and Ladder

Open the tent fully for the first time in daylight, at home. On a soft shell model, fold the tent out and check that the base sits flat and the fabric unfolds without catching on the rack ends. Fit the aluminum ladder — it is structural on folding models, supporting the folded-out half of the base — and adjust it so its feet are flat on the ground with the tent level. Check the travel cover's fit and straps now, not at the first motorway stop.

Step 6 — The 50-Kilometre Recheck

Every clamp settles. After the first drive — fifty kilometres is a sensible interval — stop and re-check every fixing point for tightness and every strap for tension. This recheck is the step that separates a mounting that lasts the season from one that works loose, and it costs five minutes. Repeat it after the first off-road day; corrugations find loose hardware faster than tarmac does.

What to Confirm for Your Exact Model

Three confirmations belong in writing before you rely on any of this for a model you have not mounted before. The mounting rail spacing and bracket type supplied with that model; the packed weight, which you need for the rack load calculation in the weight limits guide; and whether annex or awning hardware shares the same bars — an annex room hangs from the tent, while a vehicle awning may take fixing points on the same rack, so confirm its mounting position for the exact model and keep the two from competing for the same fixing points. Ask those questions in the enquiry, and mounting day becomes the simple job it should be.

Mounting With an Awning on the Same Rack

Many vehicles carry the tent and an awning on one rack, and the combination deserves its own planning line because the two products share fixing territory. The awning housing runs along one side of the rack; the tent's mounting rails cross both bars. Lay the layout out on the ground first: which side the awning occupies, which direction the tent opens, and where the ladder lands. On a folding soft shell, the tent opens to one side and the ladder supports that side — if the awning housing occupies the same side, the opened tent and the deployed awning will compete for the same airspace, so most setups open the tent to one side and mount the awning to the other, or accept that the awning deploys only with the tent closed. The car camping page shows how the two products are meant to work as a camp system; the mounting layout is where that system is decided.

Removal and Refitting

Mounting is not a one-time event for most owners. Seasonal users remove the tent for winter; multi-vehicle households move it between cars; rental fleets rotate stock. Three habits make refitting painless. Mark the bar positions on the rack with tape or a paint pen at first fitting, so the tent returns to the proven position. Keep the mounting hardware in one labelled bag with the tent, not in a garage drawer — the SRT14E's mounting parts are a defined set, and a defined set is only useful if it stays together. And photograph the fitted brackets once, phone-photo documentation that settles every later argument about which way a clamp faced. Retailers who teach these three habits at handover get measurably fewer "it doesn't fit any more" calls, because most refit problems are lost hardware and lost positions, not failed products.

A Note for Retailers Fitting in Store

If your store fits tents for customers, the checklist in this guide becomes your liability document. Record the vehicle, the rack make and its rating, the tent model and its confirmed packed weight, and the torque-check at the 50-kilometre recheck you instruct the customer to perform. Keep that record with the sale. Fitting is the moment a retailer stops being a shop and becomes part of the installation chain, and the paperwork should reflect it. The supplier side of the same discipline is confirming the model data in writing before you fit the first unit — bracket type, rail spacing, included parts — which is a one-time enquiry per model that protects every fitting after it.