Napier Outdoors SUV Tent Review

Tuesday June 27, 2017 / By Collin Guernsey from ‘Explore Gear Co.’

The Napier Outdoors Sportz SUV Model 82000 has been a huge adjustment to camping for us. Camping has always been:

Pull up to the site
Set up the tent.
Take trips to and from the car.
Lock the car and camp.

But with the Sportz SUV tent, that has changed and will continue to change. SUV camping is different. And Napier Outdoors makes it different and fun too. Connecting a tent to our Jeep Commander is a big adjustment, but it allows for new improvements to our camp setup that we never thought about before.

NAPIER SUV TENT IN NUMBERS

5 People: With it’s huge floor space. It holds 5!

7.25ft: Headroom, you can stand up!

9ftx9ft: Edge to edge. It is big!

10 Minutes: To get it setup. It is true!

We were able to set up the tent within the 10-minute time frame initially. But just barely. It was a bit complicated at first, but once I/we got the concept, it went up quickly and relatively easily. I enjoyed the process and was quite amazed when I saw how large the footprint of the tent was in reality.

PROS

The majority of the setup is straightforward to handle. And the directions are clear and easy to follow.
The tent is perfectly large. Most tents I feel are always a bit smaller than expected and always require a bit of back breaking to get into. That is not so here. It is a fantastic SUV Tent and easy to stand up in.
The tent attaches very firmly to the SUV. This allows for no rain or bugs to get in which is appreciated. It was certainly well thought out when they designed the attachment.
The tent also can function not attached to the car, which is priceless. You don’t always have room or the ability to take your vehicle camping, and this allows for that flexibility.

CONS

Slow to set up compared to many industry tents.
Hard to set up with one person. Though with a five person tent, this should hardly ever be the case
Very heavy when packed fully away.
Attaching to the car is easy, but not 100% intuitive as there are a couple of levels of straps needed to make sure it is secure
You have to be careful with the vehicle that you don’t burn yourself or attach the tent incorrectly around the tailpipe of the vehicle if you set it up soon after arrival

EXPLORER GEAR CO RATING

Napier Outdoors has really knocked it out of the park with this SUV tent. We really loved it, and minus a few small issues, it makes for a fantastic and user friendly tent that is perfectly situated for the SUV camping family. It is on the pricier end at $349.99, but when you consider all that you get with the package you will quickly find the the value far outweighs the price of the tent.

9.5/10

Delight Meter

We enjoyed the unboxing, arrival and use of the tent. It was a thrill to try something new like this and for it to have so many benefits we hadn’t thought of before.

7.5/10

Design

The design of the tent was good, but not great. We wished it had been lighter and a cinch easier to setup. But it was still better than others we have tried.

3.124

Durability

We had no question of the durability of the tent as it heavily built and seemed ready to handle anything. The materials all felt secure and nothing cheaply fell apart.

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