The new Thule Tepui Foothill rooftop tent features a smaller footprint leaving room for more gear while still sleeping 2 people. Most rooftop tents eat up all your car’s roof rack, making gear-hauling tricky. The new Thule Tepui Foothill addresses this problem with a unique, smaller footprint design. The brand claims its innovative footprint on the rack results in it taking up only half the roof space of existing rooftop tents.
Rooftop tents give campers a comfortable shelter that you can unfurl pretty much anywhere. They’ve boomed in popularity in recent years thanks to the feeling of extra security, excellent mattresses and sturdy construction these tents offer. But they have one major downside: They eat up most of, if not all, the space on the roof rack of smaller vehicles.
Indeed, the Foothill is just 24 inches wide when folded for transport. That’s about half the size of most two-person rooftop tents. That should allow you to carry bikes, a kayak, a surfboard, a cargo box, or other rooftop accessories at the same time as your tent. And for those who have a lot of hobbies, this could be a major selling point.
While the big news around the Foothill is that it folds much smaller than most competing tents, it still needs to perform. As such, the Foothill sleeps two adults on a high-density foam mattress. It uses a telescopic internal frame that the brand claims allows easy setup and breakdown that can be done by one person. At 110 pounds, you’ll probably want two people to install it, though. But you can mount the low-profile, symmetrical frame on either side of the vehicle, leaving space on the other side for your gear.
Thule Tepui Foothill Dimensions
- Tent weight: 110 lbs.
- Tent capacity: 400 lbs.
- Dimensions (closed): 83” x 24” x 9.5” (LxWxH)
- Dimensions (open): 83” x 47” x 40” (LxWx
The Thule Tepui Foothill will be available in February 2021 for $1,700. With pricing at par with other tents on the market, it will be ideal for people who want to haul extra gear such as kayaks, bikes, or other gear while still maintaining an elevated place to sleep.
Thule sells a range of roof-rack tents, including the Tepui Low-Pro two-person ($1500) or three-person ($1850) options, the compact Tepui HyBox ($3000), and the Tepui Ruggedized Autana 3 ($2750) for SUVs and trucks. View the full line of Thule products at REI.
