A look at why heavy roof tents are the single biggest friction point in the P2P rental model — and the British-built handling kit that’s quietly solving it.
The handling problem nobody talks about
If you’ve ever helped a friend wrestle a 70kg roof tent onto an estate car, you already know the punchline: roof boxes and roof tents are fundamentally different rental propositions.
A modern aerodynamic roof box weighs 15–20kg. One reasonably fit person can lift it overhead. Hand it over, take a deposit, done.
A hard-shell roof tent weighs 65–90 kg, is the size of a single mattress, and has an offset weight bias toward the ladder side. It is a genuinely two-person job, with real risk of dropped tents, scratched paintwork, and strained backs.
For the peer-to-peer rental model to scale beyond roof boxes into the much higher-value roof tent category, that handling problem has to be solved. The good news: it largely has been, most owners just don’t know the kit exists yet.
Two problems, two different solutions
It’s worth separating two jobs that often get bundled together:
- Storage — getting the tent off the car and out of the way when not in use.
- Handover — getting the tent on and off the car safely and repeatedly, ideally without a second person.
These need different tools, and the most popular off-the-shelf option only really solves one of them.
Storage: the Thule MultiLift
The Thule MultiLift (572004) at £149.99 is the default answer most people land on. It’s a ceiling-mounted winch hoist that lifts your roof box up into the rafters when not in use. For roof boxes, it’s excellent, it’s the product Thule designed it for.
For roof tents, the picture is less rosy:
- Rated capacity is 100 kg. That’s tight against a 75–90 kg hard-shell tent, with no published safety factor.
- Thule’s own compatibility list is roof boxes, kayaks and surfboards. The compatible models named in the spec sheet are Thule Vector, Motion 3, Force XT, Flow, Touring, Pacific and Ocean — all roof boxes.
- It’s a storage tool, not a handover tool. It only helps when the vehicle is parked under it, in a garage tall enough to clear the lifted tent. It doesn’t solve handing the tent to a renter who’s just driven over to collect it.
Owners on r/rooftoptents do use it with lighter RTTs, but invariably with caveats: ceiling-joist anchoring, supplementary ratchet straps, staying well under the rated max. It’s a fine answer for owners with lightweight soft-shells and tall garages, but it isn’t built for what we’re talking about.
Handover: the Adventure Equipped lifting system
Bristol-based Adventure Equipped, an independent specialist run by people who actually use this kit themselves, have quietly built something more interesting: a purpose-designed roof tent lifting system that’s UK Intellectual Property Office registered (Design No. 6457824).
It’s a three-part setup:
Component | Price (ex-VAT) | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Ton Hydraulic Folding Crane | £216.67 | A full-size 2,000 kg-rated engine crane with a patented double-piston pump. Folds for storage. Six heavy-duty casters. Lifts 25–2,450 mm. |
| Roof Tent Lifting Arm | £175.00 | A cranked extension arm with strap-securing lobes and two 1-tonne rated round-slings. Lands the tent level, every time. |
| TentBox StorageTrolley | £162.50 | Wheeled, padded, brake-locking trolley to receive the tent off the car. Compatible with all roof tents. |
Bought separately that’s £554.17 ex-VAT. Bought as the Roof Tent Storage and Installation Bundle it’s currently £541.67 ex-VAT (down from £595.83).
The crucial difference: this kit doesn’t need a tall garage, doesn’t depend on ceiling structure, and most importantly, turns a two-person handover into a one-person operation.
The economics for a peer-to-peer host
Here’s the maths that matters if you’re listing your tent on Rent My Roof Box or considering doing so.
A typical UK hard-shell roof tent costs £1,800–£2,500 new. P2P rental rates for the same tents are running at £55–£85 per night during peak season. At an average £65/night:
- The £541.67 bundle pays back in 9 nights of rental.
- After that, it’s pure margin protection for every subsequent handover.
- Two avoided drops (a scratched roof panel, a damaged tent shell) likely pay for the kit several times over on insurance excess and write-down alone.
There’s a softer benefit too. Renter reviews are heavily influenced by the handover experience. A solo host wheeling a crane out and lowering the tent onto the renter’s bars in three minutes is a very different five-star moment to four people sweating in a driveway.
What about security?
Once you’ve solved handling, the next obvious P2P question is theft. Roof tents are high-value, conspicuous, and unattended for nights at a time during a rental.
Adventure Equipped’s Roof Tent Security Bundle at £108.33 ex-VAT bundles three sensible deterrents:
- Anti-theft replacement security nuts/bolts (£33.33)
- A Datatag forensic marking and registration kit (£41.67) — registered to the national database, aids police recovery
- A battery-powered tamper alarm (£25)
For a host renting out a £2k asset, none of those line items are optional in our view.
A note: they hire too
Worth flagging that Adventure Equipped isn’t just a supplier, they also run their own roof tent hire operation out of North Bristol, hiring TentBox Lite 2.0 units at £132.50 for 3 nights, £166.67 for 4 nights, or £250 for 7 nights, with professional fitting included.
That 7-night rate works out at about £35.71/night with fitting, which is genuinely competitive against P2P pricing, particularly for a first-time renter who’d benefit from the hand-holding. The trade-off is collection-only from Bristol, no live availability calendar, and a 3-night minimum, so it suits planned trips from the South West and South Wales rather than spontaneous weekends from elsewhere in the UK.
If they’re near you, they’re worth knowing about. If they’re not, this is exactly the geographic gap P2P platforms exist to fill.
A few smaller items worth knowing about
A handful of other Adventure Equipped products solve common P2P friction points:
- Professional Roof Tent Installation Service (£104.17) — for new hosts who’d rather have it fitted properly first time, at their Bristol or Chester locations.
- Ladder standoffs (£62.50–£70.83) — push the ladder away from the vehicle body. Reduces renter complaints about awkward access and door-edge scuffs.
- VentLuxe Roof Tent Extractor Fan (£82.50) — condensation is the #1 driver of bad-weather reviews. Worth thinking about.
- Summit Dehumidifier Bag (£10) — for between rentals, especially in winter.
All prices ex-VAT; UK VAT at 20% applies.
The verdict
If your roof tent never leaves your driveway and you have a tall garage, the Thule MultiLift will do for storage, with appropriate caution at the weight limit.
If you’re renting your tent out, or seriously considering it, the Adventure Equipped bundle is the answer. It’s the only purpose-designed, IPO-registered handling system we’ve come across that’s actually built for the weight, shape and frequency of use the P2P model demands, and tellingly, it’s the same kit Adventure Equipped use in their own hire operation.
For the wider sharing economy, this is the unglamorous infrastructure that quietly unlocks the next category. Roof boxes are already a healthy P2P market. Roof tents, bigger ticket, longer rentals, higher margins, have been waiting for someone to solve the lift.
Have you used either system?
We’d love to hear how it has gone — drop us a line via the site or share your setup with the community.