Roof Top Tent Case Study: 180 Campervans Fitted for Rental

A campervan rental operator wanted to move from soft tents to hard shells across its fleet, and the reasons were commercial rather than romantic. Staff were repacking wet canvas between hires, and damaged poles were coming back with every third return. We supplied 180 roof top tent sets with free-standing awnings. Pitch time settled under three minutes, and transit damage fell by about a fifth.

Project Snapshot

The Problem: Rental Kit Gets Used by Strangers

Equipment that a customer owns is treated with care. Equipment that a customer rents is treated differently, and a rental fleet has to be designed for the second case. That is the whole difference between selling a roof top tent and running 180 of them.

Three problems pushed this operator to change. The first was turnover time. Between hires, staff had to dry and repack soft tents, replace bent poles and check the travel cover. That work sits on the critical path of every vehicle turnaround, and in a wet week it doubles.

The second was damage. Soft shells fold fabric, and folded wet fabric grows mould. Poles bend, straps fray, and the customer's own loading habit decides how the tent comes back.

The third was the fleet itself. A van has a roof load limit, and a heavy tent plus a full awning eats into the payload the operator can promise. Every kilogram has to be justified, because it is a kilogram the customer cannot pack.

Why We Chose a Hard Shell Over Soft Tents and Retail Units

Three options were compared.

Keep soft-shell tents and improve the turnaround process. Excluded. The process was already tight. The material was the problem, because fabric that must be dried is fabric that holds a vehicle off the road.

Buy consumer units from retail stock at each depot. Excluded. Unit cost, but no batch consistency, no spares line, and three depots buying from three sources, which makes fleet maintenance impossible to plan.

One manufacturer with OEM experience for the whole fleet. Selected. One shell design, one awning model, one mounting pattern and one spare parts list, shipped in three batches to match depot conversions.

The Tents and Awnings We Supplied

The fleet was built on the aluminium hard shell roof top tent. A hard shell closes in seconds, keeps the fabric inside and dry, and presents a flat surface to whatever the customer ties on top. Aluminium keeps the weight down, which matters once a vehicle reaches its roof load limit.

Alongside the tents we supplied the 270 degree awning tent. A free-standing fan awning covers the side door and the tailgate in one movement, which is what a rental customer actually wants on arrival.

We have been building overland equipment under OEM and ODM arrangements for more than 20 years, so we were able to work from the operator's requirements rather than from a catalogue. That meant a mounting pattern that matched the operator's existing roof bars, a canvas colour that matched the livery, and one specification across all 180 vehicles. Our aluminium hard shell rooftop tents case covers a similar specification decision.

Installation: How the Work Ran

Fitting ran depot by depot over ten days, and the sequence was fixed after the first three vehicles.

Each van went onto a ramp, the roof bars were checked and torqued, and the mounting brackets were positioned to the operator's pattern. The tent was lifted with two people and a sling, landed on the brackets and bolted down. The awning was mounted on the side rail in the same pass, then the whole assembly was checked for clearance against the roof and the rear doors.

The important part came after fitting. Every vehicle was pitched and stowed once with a member of depot staff watching, then the same staff member did it alone. If a driver cannot pitch the tent on the first evening, the operator gets a call, so that rehearsal is worth the time.

Crating changed after the first shipment. Tents now travel in a reusable steel frame that doubles as the depot storage rack, which cut transit damage by about a fifth and removed disposable packaging from three depots.

Testing and Quality Control

Every unit is checked before packing: shell fit and seal, hinge and latch function, canvas attachment and stitching, zips and mesh, and the complete hardware bag against the packing list. Ladders are checked separately, since that is the part a customer trusts with their weight.

On site we water tested each fitted tent at the seal line, ran the zips through a full cycle, and checked mounting bolt torque with the awning deployed.

Results: What the Numbers Show

All 180 vehicles are fitted, and the fleet now pitches in under three minutes and stows in under four. Turnaround time between hires no longer includes drying a tent, so the operator can sell the same vehicle twice in a week with more confidence.

Spares were the quiet saving. One shell model and one awning size means the fleet holds a single parts kit, and a damaged latch is a depot fix rather than a cancelled booking. Replacement canvas and hardware ship on the same part numbers as the original fit.

What This Case Means for Your Project

If your vehicles are hired to strangers, design for the fifth user rather than the first. Choose a shell that closes without folding wet fabric, keep the mounting pattern standard across the fleet, and buy one spare parts list rather than one spare tent per model.

We design and build roof top tents, side awnings and overland camping gear under OEM and ODM terms, and we work from your roof bars and livery rather than from a fixed catalogue. Send us your vehicle list and the roof load limit, and contact our team for a fitted sample and a fleet schedule.