I read this article when it first came out and appreciated the last paragraph... Wife and I are still dragging our feet on a RTT since we have a fine travel trailer for glamping and three ground tents for various purposes (2 person REI Half Dome for backpacking & motorcycle camping, 4 person generic tent I've had for about 20 years, and a recently procured Costco 3 room 12 person for whenever we have the space). I have found that using some Nikwax to strengthen waterproofing and making sure things are well dried out after trips have met our needs. The RTTs look cool and I have tested some comfy mattresses in them, but you can buy a lot of Nikwax for $3k!

Thule’s challenges with Tepui are almost an exact microcosm of the challenges overlanding faces as it attempts to reach a wider audience. At its best, overlanding enables more people to better enjoy the outdoors. Products that add genuine utility enable people to do more with their vehicles, more safely. Maxtrax come to mind as a good example of a functional product with wide applicability. And products that add comfort make going camping with your vehicle easier and more fun. Portable fridge-freezers have taken my camp cooking to new levels.

But, at its worst, overlanding is just one more way to charge people way too much money for something they don’t need. I’d argue that rooftop tents are currently the worst example of overlanding’s excesses. They offer nothing but negatives over a well-chosen and expertly used ground tent, and are primarily sold to novice campers who don’t know any better. If overlanding is going to stick around, then it needs to focus on enabling adventures, not simply selling people on an image. And, if Thule wants to be successful at selling people rooftop tents, it has to find a way to make its newly acquired product range more functional.