Thule  Foothill 2 Rooftop Tent

Very light and streamed lined tent and the slimmest on the market, helps with my mileage and wind resistance it’s like having nothing on my roof which is primarily why I choose to buy it. I have not officially used it yet but plan too soon I am sure it will not disappoint. If it does REI accepts a full year return for any reason another key factor on why I purchased it.

Overall I am very impressed. The setup is qk and extremely easy and plenty of room for one, maybe two. My three "dings" against it woulbe: 1: the optional locking mounting assembly should be part of the package, like the locking assembly on Yakima Racks are. Especially given the cost of this tent. 2: The mattress, even with the condensation pad, is extremely uncomfortable. Thule should either include, or offer as an option for this exact model, a comfortable blow up air Mattress or self inflatini air mattress. 3: I feel the rain tarp was an afterthought. It is extremely awkward and clumsy to remove and makes packing / closing the tent up, a bit challenging.

I purchased this tent due to its size and design. But I quickly learned after installing it that was much more difficult to set up the previously thought. You have to climb inside the tent in order to extent the arms that make the tent taut. The tent material is very good quality but the mattress falls short with only 1.5” thick. The size is also concerning as it barley fits 2 average size adults. If you are more on the plus size or have pets, I would not recommend this tent. Additionally the telescoping ladder that is supplied does not seem safe or latch properly. The rain fly polls are difficult to install all around the tent, especially if you have a tall vehicle. Over all this tent is good for 1 person with a short vehicle and short trip. I wouldn’t recommend this tent for long trips due to its mattress and setup time. In my personal opinion this tent is overpriced.

I have had a few RTTs and was looking for something mainly for myself on Jeep trips. Lighter is better on the roof. Picked it up for a weekend in Death Valley. Here are my initial thoughts: *Form factor excellent - allowed me to have my roof box and tent on the roof together - important to carry more bulky items outside of the jeep. *Weight - also excellent. The lower weight is appreciated. Was able to take it off the roof myself after the trip. *Materials appear high quality. *Length is good, at 6'1" I have plenty of room to stretch out. Head touches the roof but its not an issue, always some compromises if you want a smaller tent. *Mattress - not the greatest. Again, compromises for a smaller tent. Supplemented with a camping pad after the first night. *Cover zipper should be reversed - part of this is because it is on a tall jeep. Having the zipper go around the inside (center of vehicle roof) of the tent makes it challenging to open. Have to put up the ladder fully, lay across the tent, and unzip, as well as zip when packing. Being off road much of the trip the cover has a lot of dust and that transfers to you. Would be much better to be able to zip to the opening side from the ground, or at least set up the zipper so the user can switch as needed. Doesn't appear that you can do that. If you have nothing else on the roof it is less of an issue. *Tent poles - one side will not move to the second click, but guessing over time the fabric will stretch enough so likely in the long run this is good. Time will tell. *Last one :) - but the big one in two parts. the tent doors. The weighted ends do not secure. Heavy winds first night and the tent was sturdy, however, the weighed ends flapped non stop against the tent. Also, you can have a door awning or a door, but not both? If camping in the rain it would be nice to have the flap up as an awning and an actual door flap separate.

We surf and camp in the Pacific Northwest and this has been a complete game changer for us! Love the overall footprint, ruggedness, and ease of setup overall. I think there are some key design features that could be improved for a version 2.0 (zipper on cover, mattress thickness/quality, cover material - little details throughout. But for the price and considering there is no comparable alternative for toppers that free rack space for boards - we are stoked!

Before this tent, I had the larger 4 person Thule explorer with the annex. Had some issues with water leakage on that tent and also ladder malfunctioning. Then got this Foothill model which is obviously smaller but has been enough space for the 2 of us. We’ve used it for 20+ nights this far and the best feature is that it takes up half the space on your roof. I’ve keep it there for 4 months now, and prob will only remove for winter months. The cover is a new version than the rubber style from before, and it seems to be less durable. A couple holes have already appeared and would like the option to buy a more heavy duty cover. The actual tent itself has been flawless. I like that the ladder is removable and not fixed with bolts. It’s an east mechanism to add and remove, takes just a few seconds and can be done solo. The rain cover works very well. Have already been in some torrential and windy rain storms and haven’t had any issues whatsoever. It would be nice to have a little more of a gap between the rain co we and the main tent as this would allow for some ventilation. Currently the top part of the rain cover is just flush against the main tent. Otherwise, a lot of ventilation all around you and you do have some vents/zip outs on the top which are nice for warmer nights. The 3 telescoping frame poles for the tent work well and is east to put up and down. I would suggest making it a few inches taller, as this would allow you to sit more upright in the tent. Prob just needs 3 more inches all around. Wind noise is almost non existent on the roof since I have the tent sitting further back on the top. Way less noisy then my previous RTT. The mattress is OK. We use an additional memory foam for longer trips. The overall construction seems to be an improvement vs other Thule tents. including the base boards. This one seems stronger than my previous RTT which would get little dents. Overall very pleased and just one request for the ability to purchase a more durable travel cover.

I love this thing! I have had it two months and have slept in it around a dozen nights so far, in various conditions ranging from dreamy to VERY strong winds (no rain yet). I have used it with the rain fly and without (pictured below without). It has been a great performer through and through. It fits me (6’ tall man) and my wife OR me and my two kids perfectly (ages 8 & 9). It leaves room on the rack for other equipment and is beautifully made & simple to use. We like to couple it with our Thule Atlantis pod. It's a good idea to buy a collapsible step stool to make setup even easier. They can be had for $10 and make an easy setup even easier. Literally the only thing I don’t absolutely love about it is the cover. It started to show noticeable fading after only 3 weeks on my truck and it’s not even sunny or super hot yet. In my eyes Thule blew it big time by not using the weatherized rubber-feel cover they use on practically every other tent. My only hope is that they make a replacement cover out of the superior rubberized material for when this one inevitably breaks down and falls apart. If they make a better cover option, I will happily change this review to a 5/5.

Have been camping out of my outback for about 2 years when I decided to make the leap to a roof tent while on sale at REI. Chose the foothill as I want to leave some space on my roof for other things (road shower, awning, cargo box, etc) and this leaves plenty of room! I share this with my girlfriend and we both have plenty of space, and we love how every panel can be opened for fresh air. I recently used this solo and got caught in a very strong thunderstorm. With the rain fly buttoned up I didn’t experience any issues of leaks and the strong winds didn’t do any damage. Highly recommend if you have a smaller vehicle or are looking to put other things on your roof!

We love this tent design! we've had a couple other rtt's and this one was our favorite to use. there were a few issues which is why I put 4 stars. First, the mattress was just terrible! it was stiff and firm, really firm. We slept 1 night and immediately went for a memory foam mattress topper. We can usually deal with uncomfortable sleeping but this was beyond tent camping. Second, after some moderate winds(around 25mph for 24hours) the canvas became "stretched" and started flapping with any wind which was kinda annoying. Third, why is the big opening on the roof side?? i imagine the ladder could be mounted on the other side but no factory option to have the big opening for the main door. We spent 9 nights in this on a 3000 mile road trip. We enjoyed our time and the mattress was WAY more comfortable with the 3" memory foam topper but this also made closing the tent more difficult but it does close up really easy without the topper.

I was so excited for this purchase …yet ultimately decided to return it. It’s heavy …and I can deal with heavy. I routinely remove and install my roof basket systems, roof pod, kayak racks, kayaks, bikes, etc., myself without too much trouble. The tent is a beast (weight-wise) and actually does require two people to get it on/off the vehicle. It’s general shape and the fact that the rails are metal which can easily damage or gouge paint/accessories if you’re not careful make it a 2 person mandatory job (without a hoist). The attachment system is literally ‘the worst’. It’s 8 long carriage bolts [absolutely not] held in place by them fitting into a track while you tighten. When you push up to engage the wrench on the nut to tighten, you push the head of the bolt out of the track (on the sliding system) and routinely turn the whole bolt & head …so doing nothing. The washers are locking so they can’t be hand-tightened then wrenched down; they require a tool for every painstaking quarter turn. If you’re installing this rack on a factory crossbar system; you’ve got about 4” to get you entire arm under the tent to tighten all 8 of these bolts. After about 35 minutes of tightening with my arm out of reach of my eyes; I laughed and started to consider just returning it. I know I literally just complained about how hard it is to get on/off; so I hear the contradiction here but it’s worth the point. The mounting system doesn’t lock to you car …in any way. Anyone with a wrench & [too much] free time can just go ahead and take it off your car and enjoy it in their own vehicle. It is an expensive piece of ten-bling, after all. The material is a nicer, thicker material then a typical tent, sure. At $2k price tag, and the weight; it feels super basic. No real hard-hitting complaints here, just my general distain at having held its delivery in such high-hopes and feeling dismayed. If you switch rack-systems based on activity, this system will drive you crazy (unless you have a truck bed rack system with enough room below to use a deep-socket on on a power tool - but that makes it easy to steal). If you live in a metropolitan area with metropolitan rates of theft at overnight trail-heads (I.e., the Seattle area), I would be concerned leaving this on your vehicle for extended periods of time.