Tropical roof

[The Hueys]

G'day everyone,

I've finally had a tropical roof/tent fly made for our Tvan by ADP.

I used a similar concept that many wind up campers have for their bed ends and had a custom bag awning made up that is permanently attached to the hatch. This eliminated storage issues when not in use, the hassle of having to attach something else when needed and the need for poles/ropes/fibreglass rods etc for a quick set up.

The roll out part is made from white Canvacon (tarp like material) to reflect the heat better than other colours and can be clipped onto the back corners of the tent for a quick set up (I've previously had straps and clips attached to the tent). For longer stays, windy locations or if we want a larger air gap the it can be fitted with poles and ropes. It also has the option for fitting stiffener poles into the seams at the sides if I think these are necessary at a later date. I had it made a bit longer than the tent so it sits over the rolled up rear window awning.

We just unroll before pulling the tent out and roll up after putting it away. The bag part is slightly wider than the hatch but the curved ends don't have anything in them when the awning is packed away so they just fold around the hatch when the deck is put up. I had the bad positioned as high as possible on the hatch with the deck closed and as such it sits just below the lower edge of the deck when it is packed up.

It could also be used as a privacy screen when using the insect screen, few owners have raised this concern with me in the past but we almost never use it so haven't seen it as a problem, but it is there if we need it.

Past experience with Tracks genuine Tvan tropical roof shows that it also insulates well in colder environs and reduces condensation on the under side of the canvas roof. It should also help keep the canvas cleaner if we use it all the time.

[The Hueys]

Some more photos.

[The Hueys]

With poles.

[The Hueys]

As privacy screen where it could be occy strapped to the deck.

[ChrisN]

Nice Craig, thanks for sharing. Can you give me a hint about the cost? (I'd welcome a PM if you prefer to keep this off the forum.)

[The Hueys]

G'day Chris,

ADP and I had a bit of a laugh about the price for the rear screen being published on here because once they started making them in numbers (after the first few that were all custom which take longer to make and thus are a bit of guess work as to pricing) they realised they needed to put the price up to cover costs, which in my opinion is fair enough. They are not immune to this pricing issue, Track had to put the price of the Topaz up by quite a lot after the initial release, once all the real costs were in.

So, what I paid would not be a true reflection of any on going price for one, other than to say that it was close in price to the top spec canvas rear screen, plus I had removed the tent previously and had extra webbing sewn on in anticipation of the tropical roof which would add to the price.

I don't know what a genuine tropical roof goes for these days (might be less than mine) but it would have required the tent to be removed to have the rear storm tie downs strengthened and the catch net side zips reversed (the Southern Cross tent side zips go the opposite way) so would have been almost as much work but for a late MkII or MkIII it may be easier to go for the genuine article. My one could be made without the clips for the tent for someone who doesn't mind putting up two poles each time to save on the hassle of removing the tent.

Regards,

Craig

[turtles]

That's a good thing to use. We have been doing something similar for a while now using a tarpaulin that hooks onto the "elbows" and and use 2 poles at the rear. A little longer to set up but the same principle. We have also fitted sail track across the roof and fit a tarp ( different one, we have 3 of varying size and shape). This tarp is L shaped so it covers the tent while the long side acts as an awning along the full length of the open Tvan. The friends we travel with have nicknamed us the "tarpies".

[The Hueys]

I was originally thinking of just having a sail track to attach to each time but after our looking at other campers while away over Easter I decided to try the bag awning idea.

[Pliz]

We have a MkIII and have been thinking about a tropical roof after receiving some  "bird strike" on the roof of the tent part.
On ours there is a zip seemingly waiting for a tropical roof. Had I bought one at the time of order, it would have been around $400.
There seem to be many different ideas on this topic, this bag idea and another one around with Sail Rail.

Can somebody help me understand if there is something fundamentally wrong with the standard Track design that zips on? The first one I can think of is that it wouldn't be "scrunched up" into the rest of the canvas and therefore would need to be packed away separately.

I am guessing that I can find a reputable canvas person to make one up to match to that zipper if it worked out cheaper or used a better material that the Track one?

A question for you Craig, you mention a clip that attaches to the tent in the case of confidence of no wind. Could you describe this clip please? Also how did you attach the bag to the hatch?

Thanks
Peter

[The Hueys]

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Tracks tropical roof. It doubles as the catch net but due to the addition of fibreglass rods is a bit harder to put away than the standard catch net. It is made of mesh so isn't completely water or bird proof in this regard but does offer shade to the roof and does breath very well.

The clips are standard plastic webbing clips like you would have on a back pack waist strap where you push the sides of the buckle to release. They may be fine in wind, I just don't know yet.

[The Hueys]

The bag is attached to the hatch with sail track and so is quite easy to remove.

[Trackinabout]

H Craig
I have done a similar setup to you, except for I don't have it in a bag.
On setup I just slide my tropical roof into the sail track which is on the bottom of the hatch.
Then I either tie it to trees or place two poles out to hold it up like you have.

On a quick setup I can just Bungie strap the two corners of the tropical roof to the layout floor, giving a little privacy when only having the hatch up, no tent.

[signmaster]

There is nothing fundamentally wrong with Tracks tropical roof. It doubles as the catch net but due to the addition of fibreglass rods is a bit harder to put away than the standard catch net. It is made of mesh so isn't completely water or bird proof in this regard but does offer shade to the roof and does breath very well.

The clips are standard plastic webbing clips like you would have on a back pack waist strap where you push the sides of the buckle to release. They may be fine in wind, I just don't know yet.

We have the Tracks tropical roof and last night at Bunbury WA the wind gusts were up to 125 kph, we were in a somewhat sheltered area but the wind was that violent it was shaking the Tvan enough to constantly wake me up. The tropical roof was facing the wind and all survived well. The night before the annex started to blow away at 1:30 am, managed to just save things as the ropes were pulling out of the ground. I had a good supply of sand pegs and double roped everything. Then after reading the 125 kph wind warning pulled it down in the wind and rain the next night. The only problem with the annex is a couple of eyelets are coming out and will need reinforced. Wind only forecast at 100 kph tonight.


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[Heifer Boy]

Anyone got any close up photos of how you attached a sailtrack to the hatch?

I want to do the same thing to fit a tropical roof as shown above but noticed when mucking around today that all the various moulding shapes are at differing levels across the bottom of the hatch. Who thought that was a good idea? So to attach the sailtrack have you just packed out a couple of mount points to make it level or is there some other way? I guess the track could just be bend slightly over its length but I like things to be neat.

HB

[The Hueys]

Having now used the tropical roof while camping at Apollo Bay (not bush camping but using it none the less) over the past two weeks I can report it works very well. There is a noticeable difference in temperature in the tent when compared to under the awning on sunny days, it also withstood very strong winds for days at a time and kept the rain and bird dropping off the roof of the tent.

The sail track is riveted to the high points of the hatch just bridged over the gaps to answer Heifer Boy's question from months ago.