Hard Shell Rooftop Tents with James Baroud

James Baroud build premium hard shell roof top tents that are both designed and handcrafted in Porto in Portugal. These tents are designed to fit on the roof rack car or 4WD quickly. It all started when co-founder Tony Partenio set out to create a roof top tent that could offer resistance to travel on harsh off road terrain, perform well under extreme weather and in extreme temperatures, and provide a sleek, streamlined, and aesthetically appealing tent that was built for a for hard core adventures.

Ready to use in less than 30 seconds and packed away in less than 90 seconds, the James Baroud hard shell roof top tents are some of the quickest ones to set up on the market. All hard shells models feature gas strut assisted opening, solar fan, a five year warranty and are also waterproof and tested in 74mph winds.

The origins of James Baroud can be traced back to Portugal in 1997 when the James Baround co-founder Tony Partenio was using various types of rooftop tents which were mostly fine only that he believed the quality could be improved significantly. In the mid late 90’s there was room in the market for a high quality rooftop tent that could survive the elements and so the success story began.

In recent years these hard shell tents have equally become very popular in both the USA and in Europe , they are distributed in Europe under the Genesis Import banner in Germany. The quality of these tents is one of their unique selling points, not the cheapest but these tents are built to in accordance with the ISO world standards and underline everything you’d expect from a quality‘European build’, so you are paying for a high quality product that is build to last.

 

In Focus – The Explorer

The ‘Explorer’ features the popular design of the ‘Evasion’ but adds an integrated storage tray on the upper shell, with six tie-down points to assist in securing your cargo. The luggage rack on top of the tent gives you more space inside your vehicle by allowing you to store those large, bulky items (like camp chairs or tables) on top of the tent instead of inside the vehicle. In addition to the 360 degree windows, similar to the Evasion tent that we have been using, ventilation can be assisted by the solar powered ventilation system in extreme conditions.The tent opens in less than 10 seconds, through two hydraulic cylinders, mounted on bearings, actuating the articulated arms that are protected by a canvas cover.

The tent can be closed by only one person and in less than 25 seconds. An incorporated elastic band around the canvas assures its inclusion inside the tent during the closing.The grey canvas consists of six aluminised layers that reflect the solar rays. This canvas is UV light resistant, water-resistant but permeable to air. The canvas is fitted under cabling in curved aluminium guides towards the outside of the shell, ensuring perfect waterproofing.

The shell has two air slots, equipped with a dust filter that improves the ventilation inside the tent. The top streamlined shell is equipped with a rear aileron. The shell locking is ensured by quatro tailor-made locks. Having used a James Baroud tent in the past one of the real attractions for us is how easy it is to open and close these tents.

Every time we use our James Baroud tent we are always amazed at how quickly it is to set up, this is a real advantage particularly when you arrive into camp late or when it is raining and the last thing you want to do is spend time getting your camp set up.

Unlike the James Baroud Explorer the down size of some of the other hard shells are that they can take up a lot of room on your roof rack but with the clever design of the Explorer this is overcome with the designed integrated storage tray on the upper shell.