We reckon that 99% of campers who spend a night in a roof top tent will never go back to any other way of camping! Once you’ve seen the benefits of a rooftop tent you’ll be hooked, and with good reason. We love the fact that they’re so quick to setup and pack away, and that you can store all your bedding and pillows inside the tent when you pack it away. That way you save a heap of room in the back of your 4WD by not having the rear cargo area all jammed up with sleeping bags and pillows! Plus they’re incredibly comfortable, seriously spacious and whether it’s a hot or a cold night they’ll provide the best night’s sleep possible.

You also can’t deny that a 4×4 with a rooftop tent on it just looks cool, like you’re the type of adventurer who literally carries their home around with them, ready to head bush at a moment’s notice. We’ve camped out of our roof top tents for a long time and over the years we’ve come up with some clever little modifications and upgrades to make a rooftop tent even better. Here’s six mods that will take your roof top tents to the next level!

INSTANT FAN & LIGHT
Okay, if you do no other mod, make it this bargain $20 one! Here at 4WD Supacentre we sell a beaut little 2 in 1 Fan & Light combo that runs off batteries and is perfect for hanging inside your rooftop tent. It’s headache free, and that cracking little bit of breeze the fan puts out is a godsend on stuffy nights.

LED STRIP LIGHTING
Stick-on LED strip lighting that runs along the inside of the centre alloy support pole will light up your entire rooftop tent. Run it off a dimmer switch so you can control how bright you want it, and if you want to get really fancy, put separate lengths of LED strip lighting across the head end of the bed on both sides with individually controlled dimmer switches. That way if someone wants to read a quick chapter of a book before bed, they don’t have to light the entire tent up.

ZIP TIE ZIPPERS
This is a favourite old trick that we use on awnings. Attach a long (at least 300mm) cable tie to the zipper on your rooftop tent’s bag to provide an easy, almost cost-free extension to the zipper. Particularly useful if your rooftop tent is mounted to a lifted 4WD or if you’re vertically challenged in the height department.

WELCOME MATT UNDER THE LADDER
A basic rubber welcome matt stored inside the rooftop tent’s outer bag is perfect for putting under the legs of your roof top tent’s ladder. This does two things – first, it provides a nice stable base for the ladder so that the feet don’t sink into soft terrain like when you’re camping on the beach. Secondly, and most importantly, it gives you somewhere clean to stand to take off your boots or brush off your feet before you climb up into bed.

12V CHARGING OUTLETS
In a similar vein to the LED strip lighting trick that we spoke about above, adding a couple of 12v charging sockets up under the head end of the mattress is a great upgrade that you’ll use time and time again. It could be for something as simple as USB sockets to charge your phone while you sleep, or you could even run an inverter up in the tent to power a laptop so you can watch movies on those rainy nights.

BUNGEE CORD CLOTHESLINE
When you open up your rooftop tent, you’ve immediately got a perfect amount of shelter underneath it. Use it to its full extent by securing some bungee cord across the bottom of the rooftop tent back and forth a couple of times and you have an instant clothesline for drying everything from tea towels after you wash up, to board shorts, beach towels or whatever you want. It’ll be up out of the way and you’ll be making use of otherwise wasted space!