The rooftop tent tries to offer the best of both worlds. They offer the ease of camping offered by a ground tent, but without having to deal with flooding or wildlife. Most of them are still like ground tents, too, offering soft walls and vents for windows. Mammoth Overland, the makers of some of the craziest campers on the market, thinks it has something for people who don’t like soft walls. The Mammoth Overland SKL is not so much a tent on a roof, but a riveted all-aluminum pop-top camper that’s on your truck’s roof.
Mammoth Overland is easily one of the craziest RV companies on the planet right now. Back in 2023, the company, which is a subsidiary of rugged plane builder Vashon Aircraft, launched a camper constructed with the very same techniques it uses to make planes to create what’s more or less a rolling fortress. The Mammoth Overland Extinction Level Event, or ELE, remains one of the wildest campers I’ve ever slept in. The crazy trailer has cannons filled with bear spray, an air filtration system, a gun port, a Geiger counter, optional bulletproofing, and submarine-style doors that completely seal the interior off from outside air. That’s just the top-line features!
The folks of Mammoth Overland started strong with that trailer, and yet, somehow, they’ve managed to keep the madness going with subsequent weird campers like the big Tall Boy and the extreme weather-prepped Wooly. Now, Mammoth Overland has something completely different, but still in its comical, yet strangely endearing style. This is the SKL, or Skull, and it’s like bolting plane parts to your truck’s roof.
Built By Plane People
A lot of camper manufacturers like to say that they build their RVs like planes, but Mammoth Overland is one of a few manufacturers that actually makes planes. Vashon Aircraft makes the Ranger R7, a durable utility aircraft meant to be an affordable option for pilots on a budget, flight schools, or anyone else who wants to have fun in the sky.
The people who run Vashon and build its aircraft also love camping, which is why the Ranger R7 has fold-flat seats that turn into beds. I got to tour the Mammoth Overland factory last year and was pleasantly surprised to see that Mammoth Overland’s claims aren’t just marketing speak. The Mammoth Overland people really do build their campers out of the same aluminum and use the same rivets that they use to make planes.
Mammoth Overland’s newest product, the SKL, is no different. It’s made entirely out of huge aluminum panels riveted together like the company’s other campers and the company’s parent’s aircraft.
There’s a sort of newer kind of rooftop “tent” out there, and it’s called the rooftop camper. The idea here is to provide the same mobility and ease of setup advantages of a roof tent, but with the sturdiness and security of a hard-sided camper. There are a few of these sorts of designs out there from firms like Antishanty and Redtail Overland. The rooftop camper from Antishanty is made out of aluminum, while Redtail Overland’s (below) is made out of carbon fiber. Some other concepts I’ve seen are plastic.
The Skull
The Mammoth Overland SKL is really trying to lean into the “camper” part of the term “rooftop camper.” It wasn’t enough for Mammoth Overland to build a rooftop camper from riveted aluminum. The team also decided to fill it out like a basic teardrop camper.
The concept SKL shown here sports R5 insulation, which Mammoth Overland claims is better than the R0 rating of most campers and rooftop tents. From there, the SKL sports built-in interior and exterior trail lighting, a roof fan, and a pair of 104 Ah Renogy Rego solid-state lithium batteries, adding up to 208 Ah of capacity. The build is capped off with a 500-pound capacity roof rack built into the roof of the camper, and it’s also pre-wired for solar panels.
Mammoth Overland says the SKL is 89 inches long and 59 inches wide on the outside, and about 80 inches long and 54 inches wide inside. That’s about the length of a king-size bed, but somewhere between a queen and a full bed in width. There should be more than enough room for two people. Setup should also be pretty easy, as the roof of the camper uses struts to assist in opening it. The walls also fold into place.
No other specifications have been revealed just yet. The biggest question here is going to be about how heavy the whole thing is going to be.
The Renogy batteries weigh 56.4 pounds together, and Mammoth Overland expects you to haul up to 500 pounds on its roof. The closest thing that’s currently in production is the Antishanty RTD-C, which is slightly smaller but is all-aluminum and weighs 290 pounds. However, Antishanty doesn’t have any electrical system. I would expect the Mammoth Overland SKL to be a bit heavier than this unit, but I’m not sure by how much. Either way, the SKL plus heavy cargo on the roof rack is asking for a lot of weight to be held above your vehicle, so keep that in mind.
We also don’t know about any pricing yet. Mammoth Overland says that what you’re looking at is a concept and that you should see the production version and a more filled-out spec sheet later this summer.
Questions Remain
I really hope that Mammoth Overland doesn’t overcook the price, as Redtail Overland arguably did with its carbon fiber Skyloft rooftop camper. How much are we talking here? The “cheap” model was $20,000 while the fancy one with solar panels and such was $31,500. Unsurprisingly, Redtail has since stopped trying to disrupt the rooftop tent market. Instead, now it sells that rooftop camper bolted to the roof of a ridiculously expensive $530,000 camper van.
You should also know that you can get a basic rooftop tent for under $2,000 and a pretty darn good one for under $10,000. Antishanty wants $9,500 for its all-aluminum hard-sided rooftop camper thing, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Mammoth Overland lands somewhere around there.
Unknown price and weight aside, I like that Mammoth Overland has kept the madness going here. Can you get by just fine with a traditional rooftop tent? Absolutely. But this thing, much like Mammoth Overland’s camper trailers, is made for the kind of people who might put “Zombie Response Team” stickers on their Jeep rather than just another angry grille. It’s a little silly and a bit overkill, but that’s sort of the point.
Top graphic images: Mammoth Overland
I camped (in a normal tent) next to a guy in a 4-door Jeep with a rooftop tent and a telescoping ladder to get into and out of it. You really have to contort yourself to get up and down off that ladder – super awkward. The whole thing was bulky and probably quite expensive and I was wondering where I would store it all the 95% of the time I wasn’t using it. It just seemed like the answer to the question that no one asked. And as far as “wildlife” goes, if a bear wants the food you shouldn’t have in your tent, he/she is not going to let a little thing like your tent being on top of your car serve as an impediment to enjoying a snack.
Personally, I always wanted an old van where I could gut the interior and camp inside of it – long before “van life” became a thing.
And I’m so tired of seeing the term “overhanging” like it’s a thing. It’s not a thing, it’s still just called “camping”.
There’s no fucking way that Chevy Colorado is within its payload rating with the tongue weight of the trailer, the RTT and all the broverland crapola stuck to it.
Never understood this kind of “tent”. In what situation is this better than a standard $400 (being generous here) amazing, standard ground tent. Are you parking your truck in a lava field?
I get the draw but, as with the vast majority of the RV industry, it only makes sense under fringe use cases. If you’re out there on BLM land every other weekend it makes sense as setup is super easy and you don’t have to worry about drying out after rain but aside from that, it makes absolutely zero sense for the casual camper.
RTT’s make far more sense mounted atop small trailer so you’ve got a heap of space for gear/toys/etc and somewhere to sleep – eg
https://topgalvanisedtrailer.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Roof-top-tent-Bush-cruiser-Trailer.png
https://offroadtents.com/cdn/shop/collections/Smittybilt_Trailer_2.jpg?v=1730390010
https://d2wvcs3smy517k.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/08151752/rustic-mountain-overland-1-e1695396237302.jpg
Mounts like this that lower it into the Ute tray are also good outcomes
https://i.imgur.com/LJihV9d.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/pC9QvvS.jpg
It’s wild to me that people will strap this much weight to their roof and drive both on and off-road. I just helped a buddy with his 180 lb hardshell tent and I can’t imagine the extra sway that would induce in a panic situation.
I was hard against the RTT idea until I found one that weighs under 80 lbs that I can add and remove by myself. Bonus, it was well under $1500.
The Red Tail tent was laughed almost out of existence. $20k+ and you can’t even stand up to put your pants on.
Those Renogy batteries are $1500 each retail. Bet this thing is at least $15k.Edit: Didn’t see the pricing was for a 2 pack on the Renogy site, so $1500 for the pair.
I’m not a trailer or camper expert but I have a few questions.
1. Why do they not mention the floor, I want to know what I’m going to be sleeping on.
2. Why are these tents/campers triangular? I assume they fold flat when driving why can’t they be a box?
3. Aren’t all mattresses the same length and it is the width that determines the size?
Good questions!
Fun fact, All mattresses are not the same length. Twins and fulls are shorter than queen and kings. Unless you get the xL varieties then they are the same length.
Like so many things, this thing is goofy as hell if you don’t fit the use case, and wonderfully functional if you do. If you are planning on doing multi-day off-road trips for hunting / photography / exploration in places with large predators thing thing seems pretty fantastic.
If you are not doing those things, this is a silly bauble that will do a worse job than its $2000 equivalents with the extra downsides of weight, large size and low usable space.