For the second night with the Roofnest, I had been sold out. I could easily see the game-changing capabilities a rooftop tent has when it comes to camping in a car. It was easy to install, configure and disassemble, and it was extremely comfortable. Plus, being on top of your car is fun and offers great views.
A roof top tent takes camping to a whole new level. Roofnest's Falcon is one of the best, but you'll pay for the privilege. Camping with a hard top tent on the roof is a very different experience compared to a soft-sided roof tent. With a little help from Nickles, my friend and I were able to easily align, secure and mount the tent on top of my car.
Roofnest's line of tents (they make two others, in addition to the Falcon and Falcon XL) are presented as premium products, and they certainly look and feel good, from the sturdy exterior to the thick layer of waterproof canvas and the surprisingly comfortable memory foam mattress. Another benefit of the rigid tent is that it gives you the ability to store your bedding and pillows inside the tent. Because you sleep perpendicular to the vehicle, turning around doesn't cause the car to sway too much (this will vary from car to car, but I had the same experience with a similar competitor's tent mounted on the platform of a pickup truck). We also enjoyed a night in the store from the comfort of the driveway at my parents' home in Catalina Foothills.
I must admit that, despite some drawbacks, the roof nest falcon is an ingenious device that worked exactly as advertised. Most expressed how much simpler it was to set up the Falcon than their old pole and stake tents. The ladder is easy to assemble and fix, as are the side pockets that can be attached to the outside of the tent or inside. And even though it's relatively light, the roof docked us at about three miles per gallon on the highway; for a full-size SUV that barely gains 25 mpg anyway, that's not insignificant.
I was excited and a little skeptical to see this new way of camping, but overall, the Roofnest didn't disappoint. As part of the roof sparrow review, here is a detailed description of each component of the sparrow. From what I'd heard, rooftop tents changed the camping game, and I wanted to see what all the fuss was worrying me about.
