Interesting new vehicle features

Our son is an outdoorsy guy, and he mentioned that he’s buying a Subaru Forester and will do rooftop camping once he has it. I gulped. It sounds dangerous. Husband gave me “the eye” so I wouldn’t say anything. Later asked my other son who said they make special tents. Do you know about this?

Rooftop camping is definitely a thing! Setting up a rooftop tent is generally regarded as easier than hauling ground tent gear out of the vehicle and erecting it. Also, many such campers prefer being up higher to avoid snakes and other critters that might make their way into sleeping quarters, and you don’t have to worry about damp or soggy ground.

The tents (there are scores of brands) are affixed to the roof rack and fold almost flat when you’re traveling to where you’ll spend the night; when you’re where you want to be, you can erect it. A lightweight ladder folds down and serves, in most designs, as the weight-bearing column anchors the few feet that extend from the roof and over the ground. The ladder is also how you get up to the tent.

There are soft shell and hard shell varieties. They all have a foam “floor” — some of them are a little thicker than others, some harder than others.

It’s essential to research to make sure the tent is right for the vehicle (and that the weight is one the roof rack can handle) and also correct for the individual’s sleeping needs.

The tents generally weigh about 100 to 170 pounds and cost from $1,000 to more than $4,000.

Some are harder to “erect” than others; some have better air circulation than others. And some have “add-ons,” such as ones that turn the ladder/support into an enclosure. You wrote once a while back about a pickup that has a lockable “trunk” under the bed of the truck. I can’t remember what it is and I can’t find it. Now I want it.

The midsize pickup, Honda Ridgeline, has that under-bed lockable storage area. There’s even a drain plug, so if you fill it with ice and drinks, you can drain the melted ice.