Why I DON'T Have a Rooftop Tent (Living in my 4Runner)

Hey guys, and welcome. If you are brand new, my name is Grace, and since May of 2021, I have been living full-time in my Toyota 4Runner. Now, one of the top points that I get whenever people see that I live in this 4Runner and have about this much space to sleep, inevitably they ask, why don't you have a rooftop tent? Or why don't you build your drawers just a little bit smaller so that you can have more sleeping space? And to me, that is not a huge issue because I am able to roll over. I'm able to starfish. I have all of this real estate to work with. I'll move out of the view so you can see the full thing. And simply, I'm comfortable. So no need to change it for me. But I did wanna dive into the rooftop tent point just a little bit more today to hopefully offer some more insight on why I personally don't use a rooftop tent and why I don't want a rooftop tent. The number one reason that I do not use nor want a rooftop tent is the same reason why I bought the 4Runner. And that is for safety and security purposes. So to go to bed, I just have to climb from the front seat to the back seat. It's really simple. I don't have to get out of the vehicle. And that makes me feel a lot safer. I do spend quite a bit of time in town, which makes a huge difference for me because I would constantly be needing to get out and climb into the back and people would see me. And that is just not something that I really would like. This brings me to point number two, and that is stealthiness. A rooftop tent is not stealthy. Have I seen people put up rooftop tents at Walmart? You betcha. Do I wanna do that? No. I do not want to make myself a target, not that they are or aren't. However, I much prefer being stealthy. So between safety and stealthiness, those two reasons are reason enough for me to not want to buy a rooftop tent. However, there are a number of other reasons why I don't want a rooftop tent, so I'll dig into those now. Another reason that I do not use a rooftop tent is purely out of convenience or ease of use. So although rooftop tents have come quite a long way, they are fairly easy to use, especially set up. The breakdown process still is a bit clunky, in my opinion, for most tents out there, even the easiest of them to use. I watched my friend grab onto his rooftop tent, grab the straps, wrap them around the wrist, put his feet on the rails on the side of his car, and pull and lean back as hard as he possibly could to get that tent to close. It is a very popular tent that he was using and a very expensive tent, and that is simply not something I want to do every morning. I wanna be able to climb into the front seat and go. Another thing that I noticed is that rooftop tents collect quite a bit of condensation, and you have to wait for that to dry out, which means that you have to wait for the sun to come out, and I am typically up and moving by 4 a.m. in the morning, and that just simply would not work with my lifestyle. So convenience, ease of use, questionable. This brings me to the next reason, cost. Everyone knows rooftop tents are fairly expensive, ranging from a couple thousand dollars all the way up to, I think I saw one that was $30,000. So although the rooftop tents do come in a wide range of prices, I simply don't think I would use it enough to justify even the least expensive rooftop tent. Moving on to the next reason, and that is roof space. Rooftop tents do take up quite a bit of real estate on the top of a vehicle, and in a perfect world where money grew on trees, I would already have the roof of my 4Runner outfitted with a roof box and a couple of solar panels, which means I don't really have space for a rooftop tent. Knowing that that is where I wanna go with the roof means that it just doesn't even make sense to buy a rooftop tent, even though I could put one on the car right now. Next on the list is lifespan or durability. Although rooftop tents are durable, they are not quite as durable as this setup right here. Since I would be using a rooftop tent almost every single day, naturally it would wear out rather quickly. And if I had to replace that rooftop tent time and time again, that would get to be very expensive. So I find that this setup works out very well for me. And last on the list is probably the number one reason why people tell me I need to get a rooftop tent, and that is comfort. Don't you want more space? And honestly, a rooftop tent is for sleeping, right? So although there's not a lot of space in the back here, I can roll over comfortably, I can starfish, I can stretch completely flat, and I have more than enough space. On top of that, I actually use the same mattress that a lot of my friends use in their rooftop tents. So given the fact that I have enough space and I'm using the same mattress, to me, it's pretty much the same setup then. So why would I spend an extra $5,000 if I could just sleep back here? All right, so as a quick recap, the reasons why I don't personally use a rooftop tent, safety, stealthiness, convenience or ease of use, cost, roof space, comfort, and lifespan. So my intention for making this video was not to convince you to not buy a rooftop tent. I think they are great options for some people, and you really have to weigh, personally, what are you going to be doing with it? How much do you wanna spend? How much are you going to be using it? All of those options really come into play. And for me and my situation and lifestyle, it just didn't really make sense to buy a rooftop tent. That wraps up today's video. If you enjoyed it, please consider liking and commenting down below. If you really enjoyed it, maybe subscribe and turn on post notifications. I would really appreciate it. And thank you as always, and I will see you in the next video.