Rooftop Tent Mattresses

Over the last five years I have gone through a lot of roof top tents, and I have had just about every style that you can have. Clam Shell, folding tents with storage pouches, and pop-ups all have their distinct advantages and disadvantages regarding ease of set up and putting the unit away, interior space, and amenities like lighting, ladders, and accessories.

While adventuring all across the western United States I have spent a lot of nights up off the ground away from bugs and bears.  I feel like I’ve experienced all the major weather events that we must get used to out here from snow and hail in Colorado to ferocious winds in Utah that literally broke parts off of the tent while we were trying to sleep inside of it.

It’s impossible to say for sure which tent I have enjoyed the most. It would be pretty easy to pinpoint which ones I liked the least but that is not what this rant is all about.

No matter how difficult a tent is to set up or put away the ultimate reason that we use these things is to rack out after a long day and get a good sleep in so that we can be rested for the next day. If you have a rough night sleep it will impact your trip. I don’t know about you, but I get grumpy.

I am here today to talk about tent mattresses and more importantly the fact that as tents start to eclipse the $4-5K price points the mattresses seem to keep getting worse. It seems that most manufacturers have gotten so consumed with low profile tents that they have completely thrown in the towel when it comes to what I feel is the most important thing about a roof top tent. Am I going to be able to sleep in this without waking up the next day feeling like I just went 3 rounds with Conor McGregor? Unfortunately my experience with stock tent mattresses across the board is……..No. Not even close.

We were very excited to bring on iKamper as a premium product offering to pair with our roof and bed racks. These things check all the boxes, right? A ton of space. Easy to set up and tear down. Built to last a very long time. I was super excited to use mine for the first time. Until the next morning. As much as I like to sing praises during a product review I think it is more important to give an honest take on my experiences.

The iKamper SkyCamp 3.0 is probably the closest you are going to get to five-star accommodations under the stars. Set up takes about a minute. Putting it away the next morning is about the same. The ladder is great. You get a big window at the top of it to stare at the stars. Almost perfect. The mattress, like all the others had me wishing I had just slept in the truck instead of on it. I came home tired, sore, and irritated.

I also came home determined to figure out how to solve this issue once and for all. If you have searched around at all you already know it is almost impossible to find a replacement mattress for a roof top tent that will be comfortable, leave room inside the tent for sleeping gear, and actually fit the tent floor plan.

I started on Google and after about two hours I had found a couple of options that touted dual stage memory foam and washable covers but nothing that really fit my tent. Is it really this hard?

Before I admitted defeat I sent an email to the customer support over at iKamper and I  asked them flat out if I am just being bougee or do other people have the same issues? Not surprisingly I got some great information from them on why the stock mattress is the way it is as well as what they have engineered and released as an option for my situation.  

To get to the bottom of the problem you really do have to step back and see it from their side of the fence. iKamper produces and ships thousands of tents every year. They send them all over the world to people who live in different climates, with different sleeping habits.

When you are in the market for a new mattress for your house there are hundreds of options. For back sleepers, side sleepers, toss and turners, or on the tummy people there are countless brands and options available for you to choose from. There is no perfect one size fits all solution.

Now let’s take a look at roof top tents. The people that design these things have a lot to tackle to stand out in the crowd. They are also in a constant battle to be as low profile as possible while leaving the maximum amount of space in the tent when closed for sleeping bags, blankets, and pillows.

If they produced the perfect mattress for a side sleeper that camps in sub zero temperatures it would not be the best mattress for someone that sleeps on their back staring up at the stars after a night on the beach.

As frustrated as I was with the situation - I had just never given any of them the benefit of the doubt and thought about it from that viewpoint. So, what do you do?

Well, if you are iKamper you design and produce an optional mattress that can be dialed in to fit just about everyone. Just like all of your other truck parts you can buy them, use them, and upgrade them. This is exactly what they have done with the RTT Comfort line of products.

Your iKamper tent has been designed from the beginning to be rugged, user friendly, and durable. That is what you are paying for when you buy a tent from them. The mattress they have provided is the best common ground solution available because they know that if you love everything else about the tent, upgrading the mattress is an easy decision to make.

I spent my first weekend trip on the RTT Comfort mattress for the iKamper Skycamp 3.0 and I can tell you with one hundred percent confidence that is the best nights sleep I have ever had in a roof top tent. The inflatable air bladder lets you tune the mattress to exactly what you want it to be and the foam top adds just the perfect amount of “floof” that you don’t feel like you are sleeping on an air mattress at all. I was even more impressed that we slept through a night where the outside temperature was right around zero degrees (F) and I never felt a cold spot on the mattress. I’m blown away with how awesome this thing is. It is important to note that the mattresses are somewhat self-inflating but I grabbed a little cordless air pump off Amazon to take along with me. If you want some info on the pump I used, feel free to email me at micah@uptopoverland.com.

So I guess the point I am trying to get across to you is that if you are going to step up and spend the money on one of the best roof top tents on the market you should definitely add the RTT Comfort to your cart at the same time and find out what it all about to be excited to go camping knowing that you will sleep as good in your tent as you do in your house. I will never spend another night on a foam mattress again. After five years of struggle I am finally sleeping the way I dreamed I would. 😉

Here are the RTT Comfort Mattress options depending on which iKamper Tent you have:

Click here for the Mattress Application Guide 

Below are links to the iKamper Tent Models and required mattresses.