It took me over a year to decide on what kind of setup to get for my future “dirt road trips”. Now lets be honest, the argument of roof top tents vs ground tents can go on for days, and for the sake of time, I won’t even bother going there (but RTT’s are better). So long story short, after doing some research, I came to the conclusion that a roof top tent fit my needs perfectly.
There are more roof top tent manufacturers in the US than I can even count, so weeding through the good and bad can be a pretty strenuous affair. After researching over a dozen brands, I decided to go with the TJM Yulara based on the quality and price of the product. Essentially, from what I could tell, the quality of the tent was similar to all of the competing brands while still costing a few hundred dollars less.
The installation was sort of tricky, because the instruction manual that came with the RTT was vague and poorly written. This led to a “trial and error” style of installation which we’ve all had to deal with at some point or another. So if you purchase this tent, be ready to improvise and figure some things out on your own.
When it came time to decided where to mount the tent, I decided to take an approach that I thought would provide the most versatility while also not being intrusive. To accomplish this goal, I installed it in conjunction with the Relentless Off Road bed rack. This rack design provides the perfect platform for mounting the tent and also keeps the tent almost even with the roof life of the Tacoma. This insures that there is minimal wind noise and drag, both of which are very important to me since I daily drive the Tacoma.
With trips to the outer banks, Savannah, and countless Shenandoah weekends, the TJM Yulara has held up very well. It’s survived a wide variety of weather conditions that range from the boiling sun at the Frisco Woods campgrounds to hurricane-like rain in Savannah, Georgia. The biggest plus to the roof top tent is that it kept us dry and warm (and most importantly off the ground) from a hellish downpour we encountered in September.
6 months after installing the TJM Yulara I would say I’m very pleased with the roof top tent. Aside from the very flimsy ladder that I had to modify/drill in order to adjust the height, TJM makes a great quality product at a reasonable price point that I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.
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