Darche Intrepidor 1400 Rooftop Tent

G'day Nick,

We'd suggest checking out the video we've got on the Intrepidor product page, but we'd say you'll need to allow about 3-5 minutes generally, obviously depending on where you are, and the weather conditions. Each time you set it up you'll get faster though :)

G'day Anthony,

You can pop a separate mattress into the Intrepidor 2 Rooftop Tent. We sell the Roof Top Tent Mattress RTM 1400 by Darche that is 8cm thick. One thing to note is that we're not currently able to ship Darche Roof Top Tents so if you're in Sydney you might need to pick one up locally to you.

G'day Jules, 

You can fit most roof top tents to vehicles with roof racks. You will need to double check the roof load rating of your vehicle to ensure that it can support your roof racks, tents and your weight when in it. 

G'day Bill,

We haven't heard of any of our customers doing this, but that doesn't mean it's definitely not possible.

Your best bet would be to contact your local roof rack specialist and give them the details of this tent - from there they may be able to come up with a safe way to mount this tent sideways on your vehicle.  

G'day Paul, 

That's a great question! The video linked above is more of a guide to how to set up the tent, the model that they've used is the Darche Panarama 2 tent which is slightly different to the Intrepidor. 

The ladder that comes with the Intrepidor 2 is a square alloy slide ladder according to the infor provided by the supplier, so I hope that clears everything up for you. 

G'day Dave, 

We'd say that in the Intrepidor you could get away with leaving a sleeping bag or light doona flat in the tent when it's packed down on top of your vehicle.

However, pillows would probably be a stretch as they can be a bit too bulky to compress properly, so you might risk causing damage as you'd have to force it closed. I hope this helps! 

Hi Walter, 

*Since first answering this question, we've found some updated info which you can read below*

That does make sense, but unfortunately this isn't our area of expertise (and it can get a bit complicated) so we don't want to give you inaccurate information. There's a good article that's quite helpful which you can read here about roof loading and roof top tents. We'd also recommend getting in contact with a roof rack specialist like Roof Rack City - they've got several locations around VIC so you should be able to find a local store that can give you an accurate calculation. 

I do apologise that we couldn't be more helpful, but we'd rather you get the best advice about this particular topic from a specialist. 

Update:

Hi everyone, 

We have discussed this with Darche and they have pointed out there are a few things to consider here. The vehicle manufacturer’s maximum roof load generally is an understatement of what it can actually hold.

The manufacturer allows for dynamic loading (forces generated whilst the car is moving) so the safe rating for most vehicles is somewhere between 80 and 150kg, but in actual fact when the car is stationary it can hold a lot more. The manufacturer of roof racks will also put a maximum load rating on their product. Once again this is a safety rating designed to allow for extra forces when the car is moving.

Consider this rating as an understatement of what they can physically hold when stationary. It’s also worth noting that when the roof top tent is setup 1/3 of the weight is placed off the back of the vehicle and supported by the ladder.

To put it simply, if you have good quality racks that are mounted correctly you won’t have any problems holding the weight of a tent and two people.

G’day Walter,

The weight listed on our website is just the total weight of the tent (55kg) as for the maximum weight rating of the Darche Intrepidor 2, I’ve spoken to Darche - and they’ve said that that figure depends on the weight rating of your racks, and the type of vehicle that you have.