➡ The author has used an Alucab expedition three rooftop tent for five years and over 340,000 miles of travel across the U.S. Despite harsh weather conditions and heavy use, the tent has held up well and the author has no plans to replace it. The tent is easy to set up, comfortable, and can store a lot of gear. Despite a few minor issues like a torn screen and a leak caused by a damaged seal, the author highly recommends the Alucab tent for serious travelers due to its durability and functionality.
➡ If you need a durable tent for outdoor adventures, the Alucab is a great choice. Despite rough use over five years, it’s still in good shape and works perfectly. It can even carry a bike or kayak, but be careful with these on tough trails. Despite a few minor issues, like a replaceable rubber part tearing, it’s a reliable, one-time purchase tent that’s worth the cost.

So this is a video you’re not going to see every single solitary day, because it’s not too often people stick with anything for five years, but it has been five years since, since I bolted an Alucab expedition three onto the top of my Toyota. And in the meantime, that Alucab has seen over 340,000 miles of highway, off road, etcetera, use all across the United States. It’s been in some of the worst blizzards, rainstorms, windstorms that you can possibly imagine.

And after five years, I’m still not looking to replace it, believe it or not. And I’m going to show you why. I have a reputation in the overland community of being fairly hardcore. I heavily modify my vehicles myself with my own tools in my driveway for the specific tasks that I’m going to do with them. Unlike others, I spend a large amount of time on the road. And when I first got my forerunner, the very first thing I did was swap the alley cab from my land cruiser over to the four runner.

I built a rack and then incorporated my lights, my solar, my roof rack, and my tent into one unit on top of the truck. And it’s held up for 100,000 miles on the Toyota forerunner so far. But on the Land cruiser and the four runner combined, this tent has taken an absolute beating. Think about it. I’ve slept in this thing over 1000 times. I’ve been on the road right now for over seven months straight.

So, over 300,000 miles from the east coast to the west coast, north to south, every trail in the United States, this tent has been there for me. And a lot of people are going to ask, why would they spend as much as they’re going to spend on an Alucab when there’s so many other variants out there? Well, I’ll tell you, first off, Alucab has been around for a long time.

In 2000, Alucab Cape Town opened its doors and the journey began. These guys had their own travel experience in South Africa and Africa, and it taught them that space and weight were the two greatest challenges facing an overland traveler. So they addressed this. They developed the first ever aluminum canopy specifically engineered for adventure travelers. But the development didn’t stop there. And the more they refined it, strengthened it, and accessorized the canopy, the more they realized it had boundless potential.

The company’s grown into the very first aluminum canopy to full swing manufacturing plant catering to the world market. Long story short, these boys have been doing this for a long, long time, and Africa is probably one of the harshest areas you could possibly need a rooftop tent for, and they had to have all the different little conveniences in place to make this thing effective. And for what I do, it works out incredible incredibly well.

Before I tell you about how great my alucab has been for me, bear in mind I’ve got a playlist up where I have reviewed over a half dozen different rooftop tents that I have owned over the years, and this is the only one that when I bought it, I was fairly certain it would be the last rooftop tent I would ever buy. Or if I ever did replace it, I would replace it with another Alucab.

I’ve owned all the top of the lines and I’ve reviewed all the top of the line rooftop tents in my capacity as a youtuber. I’ve had the opportunity to sit down with some of the best and brightest in the overlanding genre and see all the different designs and creations and rooftop tenting that was available, and I chose to stick with the Alucab over all of them, and I’m going to show you why.

Every manufacturer of rooftop tents has their own mechanism of actually deploying the tent, and I’ve dealt with every single solitary variation that’s available. And to be perfectly honest, as strong as they may be, or as intuitive as they may be, or whatever you want to call it, the Alucab blows them all away by a lot because you simply jump up on the bumper, unlatch two latches, and it deploys, and for five years and over a thousand times over a thousand times easily sleeping in this thing.

I’ve never had an issue with the struts or any of the mechanisms that secure it or deploy it. So that’s a huge win. The only problem I ever had with it, ever, was the weight. It’s about 180 pounds and forever I wanted a go fast campers tent. That is, until I actually saw one in real life. First of all, the price is the same as an alleucab. Second of all, the construction isn’t made for someone like myself, someone that’s actually going to sleep in their tent dozens and dozens and dozens of times over an overlanding trip, as opposed to someone that’s going to sleep in their tent once in a while.

It’s very well made. It looks really great, but it’s tiny. There’s no protection from the elements, and the sleeping surface is leaves a lot to be desired. The alucab is completely comfortable. I weigh 240 pounds and I still have the original mattress that came with the Alucab. No problem whatsoever at all. And I’ve never once had a wind storm, even at 13,000ft, even threatened to close the tent because my biggest concern was always sleeping and the wind closes the tent on you.

That would freak you out. And with the alucab, I can keep eight sleeping bags, my pillows and all sorts of other stuff in the tent while it’s closed. The other ones just can’t do that, period. So after five years, what is, what is wrong with the alley cab, if anything? Well, a couple of times I’ve had the alley cab leak and that’s because the rubber seal that goes all the way around it got hit on a tree while four wheeling.

You got to remember this rooftop tent has been on two trucks 300,000 miles over a thousand times. Opening and closing it, sleeping in it, etcetera, in all sorts of weather. Rain, sleet, ice, wind, super hot nights, etcetera. And it’s held up incredibly well. The only issues that I’ve had whatsoever at all, Alucab has addressed. Fortunately, I bought this tent through okay four wheel drive in New Jersey. And after it leaked the first time, they said, bring it in and we’ll give you a brand new tent.

And I did. I drove all the way there and then I chickened out at the last minute. I said, you know what? I’m about to hit the road. I just built this four runner. The way I tied everything together, the awning, the lights, the roof rack, etcetera. It’d be a lot of work to take this apart. Let’s just keep running it and see what happens. But Alucab absolutely stood up to the plate and offered to give me a completely brand new tent for free with free installation from OK four wheel drive.

If you ever have to deal with anybody for off roading gear, hit up Richie over at OK four wheel drive in Jersey. Tell him I sent you or don’t. Your call. The only issues I had are your usual wear and tear. The screens. You have to unzip the screens because there’s a screen and then there’s a protective flap that goes over it. And the screen has torn over the years and I’ve replaced it numerous times.

But the beauty of this setup is Alucab built this entire thing so that you can take the entire fabric out and replace it with new fabric. Something that I have yet to do. It hasn’t stopped me, it hasn’t caused any issues. It’s just something that’s worn out. The screen is definitely a weak point. After being opened and closed over a thousand times. You see what I mean? Most people will never use this thing.

A thousand times I have. The interior is still good to go. The pockets that they give you, the organizers on the inside, still work out really, really well. No issues with this whatsoever at all. There’s the rivets on the bottom that hold the fabric to the actual base of the rooftop tent. A couple of them have become loose, but again, over a thousand times, I expect it to happen.

And it has happened, but it hasn’t. It hasn’t hindered its performance in any way thus far as of yet. One thing that came out after I got this tent was the new telescopic ladder. This ladder is the shit because not only does it hold my fat ass up, no problem, without snapping in half or breaking, but they put extra wide treads on it so that if you have to come down in the middle of the night, you can do it in bare feet and it won’t kill your feet.

That was a huge score, in my opinion. And I grabbed one and I’ve had it for two and a half years, I believe. So. All in all, after five years, 300,000 plus miles, over a thousand nights, opening and closing, sleeping in this thing and every type of weather the United States has to offer. I would highly suggest this as a tent. If you’re a serious overlander, if you’re looking just to have a tent in case your baja run goes long and you need to crash for the night, go fast.

Campers, or any of the other campers that are available are pretty much good to go. I got the alucab because I was literally and regularly smashing my rooftop tents while four wheeling off of trees, etcetera, and breaking them, or the lift mechanisms would fail, etcetera. This thing has the normal wear and tear that you would expect, but overall, it’s in the exact same condition as when I bought it five years ago.

The struts haven’t even failed. I mean, that’s amazing. Everything about it is pretty much good to go. You can put racks on top of it, carry a mountain bike or carry a kayak, etcetera if you wanted to. But the places I go off roading, I would rip those things off like a bad old crusty band aid. So I don’t do it. My mountain bike stays on the back.

Or if I’m doing a really hard trail, I drop the mountain bike in the trailer altogether. Or I don’t. One of the two. But after five years, you’d never hear a review. After five years, it still looks badass, it still works badass, and it still basically is badass. So if you’re looking for a tent that you can have one and done, this is it. Because the prices everyone else is charging are in the exact same ballpark.

They didn’t used to be, but they are now. Even the hinges, all the mechanicals on this thing still work perfectly. Zero issues. I had a leak in it a couple of times, but that’s because when I was wheeling, I managed to tear the rubber that can be replaced, and I never replaced it. So it is what it is. At any rate, if you want to see the other rooftop tent reviews that I’ve done over the years, I’ll leave a link for you below.

If not, I’ll leave a link to Alucab, tell them I sent you or don’t. Your call hit that like share and subscribe. I am out. .

See more of JailBreak Overlander on their Public Channel and the MPN JailBreak Overlander channel.