- Howdy, folks. Ben from Snowys today
with a DARCHE Ridgeback Rooftop Tent.
So this rooftop tent is an all-in-one solution
with a hard shell on the outside,
struts to make set up super easy
and a really comfortable mattress on the inside.
So this is the Ridgeback Rooftop Tent
set up behind me here.
We're gonna run through the features today.
If you wanna know how to set it up
and a little bit on what comes with it
to attach it to your car, check out our other setup video,
but we're just talking about features here today.
Now when you buy the tent
you get all this,
it all comes together as one
with a mattress and everything inside.
You also get, just down in front of us here,
the ladder that attaches separately
or stows separately to the rooftop tent
and you also get various fixings and spanners
and a instruction manual here.
Once again, we'll go into it all there is to
in our other setup video.
If we move on to the materials
that the tent's made of here,
this exterior is a powder coated aluminium.
It's an aluminium frame,
components in there as well,
but this has got a black powder coating on it.
Underneath the top section here
there's a nice heavy duty dust seal,
rubber dust seal here
that's gonna keep the dust out
from the tent
and the bottom of the tent is also the same
powder coated polyester material.
So all aluminium frame.
All the components that you see,
the steel components, are a stainless steel.
So, good quality stainless steel there.
It's not gonna rust away.
The material in here comes in two different types.
Now this is a 280 GSM ripstop polycotton canvas.
Also comes in a 280 GSM recycled ripstop polyester.
So, if you wanna go down that recycle path
where they've used the material
that's made from recycled bottles,
you can get that in that sort of material as well.
Doesn't really make any difference to the weight.
Potentially a little bit in breathability,
but given the fabric's only on the sides
and the top here its probably not gonna make a lot
of difference to breathability.
The doors and windows,
you've got an ultra fine mesh here.
Whether it's midge proof or not, I don't know.
I'd say probably not, but it's certainly mozzie
and most of the bities proof.
You've got doors in here as well.
So, double door on the sides here.
That's also made of that 280 GSM ripstop polycotton canvas.
Inside the tents you have got
what they call a rebound foam.
It's not really memory foam,
but it kind of rebounds slowly.
So a nice dense foam.
It's got a bit of a volua top on it.
And under that you get this condensation mat
which is,
creates a bit of an air gap
between the bottom of the mat
and the the bottom of the tent,
just to reduce condensation or moisture
that might build up actually on the mat there.
One last thing I haven't spoken about
is back up the top here,
and that is,
well I guess you could call it a fly.
It only really covers half the tent.
It's sewn in here
and it comes down and is just attached via a clip here.
This is a 420 D polyester fly sheet.
If you have a look up over the top
you can see it's got a PVC panel in there
so you can actually see through it at night
for a bit of stargazing.
You got a little bit of extra light in the tent.
There are more mesh panels in the tent.
We'll climb inside and show you that shortly.
But firstly,
I will
set up
what's on the outside here
with the,
or these two brackets here are for the ladder.
So, these come pre-attached
and you can actually attach them anywhere
on the tent through these channels here.
If you have a look at the channel on the end here
you can see there's a little square section here.
The bolt fits in here.
You can slide it along.
So you can move this ladder to the front of the tent,
the other side of the tent,
or move it back and forth here if you like.
Those line up with the ladder here,
which if we just undo this,
and obviously normally you'd have this much higher
on top of a vehicle,
but that just hooks over the top there.
This ladder plays no role
in support for the tent,
which is different than a traditional rooftop tent
that folds out
and the ladder actually supports the end
that overhangs.
This just sits on the side of the tent.
Now, before I crawl in, I wanna cover off some dimensions.
So when this is folded down or packed up
it's about 216 centimetres in length,
about 136 centimetres in width.
And that sort of incorporates the bits
that stick outside here.
And about 160 centimetres in height.
Above that, you can't see at the moment,
there's a handle and some clips and stuff
which you can see a bit more detail
in our setup video,
but that adds a little bit to the height there.
And when it's folded down,
it's about 23 centimetres
to the top surface here where it sits right up.
Now the weight of this is an important consideration,
because the whole tent weighs about 85 kilos
and then the ladder is on top of that.
If you add bedding inside as well
it's gonna add more weight to that as well.
Now a lot of cars
have up to a hundred kilos maximum weight rating
for their roofs.
So check what car you've got.
Dual cabs,
some cabins on the back of a dual cab
you can have rated to much higher than that
and there are some cars
that have a much higher roof rating.
So a really important consideration
with a tent like this is the weight of it
'cause it is really heavy.
With that weight though you get a lot
of versatility and simplicity with your camp set up.
So let's crawl inside,
have a look at the features in there.
Now, dimensions inside are slightly smaller than outside.
So, we've got about 200 centimetres
of length to where the mat sits.
So from that end
to this end plus a little bit
it's a kind of a loose measurement there.
So, plenty of length anyway,
for most tall people.
And about 130 centimetres of width
from where the mat sits to where the mat sits.
And height wise, about 144 centimetres to the very top here.
Now I'm 185 centimetres in height
and I've got plenty of space to sit up in here.
The length does extend out,
probably about another sort of 1/2 metre
at this height here. So you've got a little bit more space
so it feels nice and roomy in here.
If I have a lie down just to show you how
much space you have got
it'll give you a bit of an idea on how,
me at 185 centimetres, fits inside here.
So if I lay down, my head here
is now just to the edge of the mattress now,
cuz that slopes up this way.
My pillow could kind of sit, I suppose, up here a little bit
although you wouldn't wanna push on this too much,
cuz you don't wanna damage the zip.
And what I do find though is
because it's a slopey,
sort of narrowest bit of the end there.
I've got my shoes on at the moment.
I've got big feet as well,
but my feet do touch the top there.
So, it's a narrow section for the feet.
If my feet are sideways
then I've got a bit of extra space,
but it is narrow for the feet.
I guess you could put your head at that end,
if your liked.
Spin around and see how that feels.
It just means you've got a..
If you sat up quickly during the night
you'd probably headbutt the top here,
but I actually feel like I've got more,
definitely got more foot room,
laying this way anyway.
So, I guess
there is room, 185 centimetres.
Probably taller than that
you're gonna find it a little bit squeezy this way.
Might wanna sleep around the other way.
We start running through the features.
We'll start at the top of the door here.
You can see there is a vent
that features up here and that lines up
with a little sort of cover on the outside
just to keep the moisture out,
but allow
ventilation,
a high level ventilation within the tent.
Moving around
from that to the back of the tent here
there is this removable
sort of organiser pouch here.
Now there's the hooks on the sides here
that you can actually take this off if you like.
It's just shock cord there
that's got this hanging in place
and there's a little clear panel there.
So you could put an iPad or something in there
and watch a movie, I suppose, if you like
and then three pockets for storage.
Behind this, this is slightly padded.
So it's just a,
like a polyester material with a slight padding in it.
So you're not against a hard thing.
It's probably good for a bit
of noise suppression, I suppose.
So it's not too echoey in here.
Down at the back here you have got pockets on each side.
It's a little storage pocket here
and on the opposite side here another storage pocket.
And on this side here there is this USB cable
and that lines up with a heap of lights
that run around the side.
Now, this power bank is not included with the tent,
but I've got it here to show you how it works.
If I plug this in
we can see that we've now got lights
that run
around
the edge of the actual hard shell here.
So that goes right around the top there.
So, will give a good amount of lighting
or sort of soft lighting
when you're sitting inside the tent here.
Coming around to the other side behind me here
we've got another double door,
which is the same as the door I just stepped through.
So this unzips,
it's got the canvas panel on the inside
and then a mesh panel on the outside.
Above that another one of those high level vents.
And then if we move around to the end here,
we've got a a light hanging up here.
This isn't included.
This is just so that we can see inside the tent here,
but bit of a skylight here.
So we can actually unzip this.
You can see, on this side here,
I'll unzip it around this side.
We can unzip that mesh
to get through to the PVC there
and actually roll that fly sheet up.
If we don't want that on there we can roll it up.
There's tabs at the top there to secure it.
Or if we want to zip it right up we can do up that mesh
to let the light in
or also
do up the
canvas panel
that sits over the top here, if we like.
So we can completely block that out,
but a good spot just for some natural light
or once again, more high level ventilation
if it is a hot and humid environment.
And very last wall that we're gonna talk about
is this end here, lots of organiser pockets.
So one,
two,
three,
four pockets,
and that's mirrored on opposite side there.
All pockets down the side here,
so heaps of storage.
And then you've got this other entry doorway
or window here, whatever you wanna call it,
on the end here.
So you could actually move your ladder mounts to the end
of the tent here and use this to get in and out if you like.
But that gives us an access point in and out of the tent
or with just the mesh done up,
a bit more ventilation.
This handle here is part of the kit.
It's for set up and pack down.
Check out our other video on how that works.
Now around the end of the tent here
is some frame that I haven't referred to yet.
So this black frame here
and underneath the light that we've got hanging here.
This by here is all an aluminium frame.
That's all just to keep all this in place.
That all folds up inside the tent here.
With regards to hanging points for a lantern,
many tents do have a hanging point.
This doesn't specifically have one,
but this bracket here
is there to secure this pole which comes off
and you could actually hang a small lantern
or something off that if you liked.
Not too heavy
although you'd have to get a pretty heavy lantern
to actually pull that shut during the night.
And that's actually pretty secure
with all this in place anyway.
Now one of the beauties of the tent here
is because you've got a bit
of extra volume in the top of the tent
you can actually pack it up
with bedding inside.
So, this is a double mat.
You see the mattress just sits just above the bottom here
and then in the top section of the tent
you've got a little bit of extra volume above that.
So you've got that space
where you can actually fit bedding inside.
So,
this is a
really
heavy duty double canvas
sleeping bag here.
We've gotta pack up and set down video
where we'll actually set this up
or pack this down with this inside
to show you that it will fit.
You know that fits nice and comfortably across here.
Looks nice and cosy.
You could probably fit a couple of small pillows.
I wouldn't fit really bulky pillows in there.
You could probably try, but most will be a little bit tight
to get it shut.
But you can certainly fit a good size sleeping bag
and a couple of small pillows inside.
I think I've covered off on all the features
of the DARCHE Ridgeback Rooftop Tent.
Comes in two different fabrics.
Pretty much do the same thing.
Just if you wanna go down the recycle path
you can get it in that recycled polyester material.
A great streamline option
for couples who are travelling around Australia.
You can check in online at snowys.com.au
where you'll find we're the lowest prices every day.
But if you do have any questions
let us know down in the comments below.
Subscribe to our channel
for all of our latest information
or check out some other videos like these ones too.
(upbeat music)