Depending on how you look at it, the all-new Camp Tonneau Tent could be called an integrated, fast-pitch truck tent, an ultralight, affordable pop-up pickup camper, or a tonneau cover that doubles as a truck-back shelter. Or, you could rightfully consider it all three. Weighing less than most rooftop tents and taking up far less space than a camper, the simple, no-frills solution is always at the ready for a camping trip but stows completely out of the way for unencumbered everyday commuting and cargo hauling. It sets up into a hybrid hard/soft-walled shelter in about a minute and a half.
The creator of Camp Tonneau Tents (CTT), Derek Milligan is far from the first to have the idea of a simple pickup tonneau cover that lifts and expands into a tent camper. Beyond the similar wedge-shaped homebuilt projects scattered around the likes of YouTube, Reddit and Pinterest, we know of past commercial builds based on the same general concept. Looking around the current marketplace, we also see a couple of tonneau covers that lift into cab-height caps (i.e. camper shells).
Camp Tonneau Tents
Heck, even Elon Musk once sketched out a very similar idea designed for the unique dimensions of the Cybertruck.
Milligan’s design essentially rolls a wedge-style body similar to those common on pickup camping toppers like those from Go Fast Camper or Catapult AV into a hinged, lift-up tonneau. It’s essentially a pop-up pickup topper that uses the truck bed as the entire living area, rather than squeezing in a sleeping platform over top it.
By dropping its roof down to tonneau height, CTT saves on materials and weight while offering a product it plans to retail at less than half the price of those taller alcove-style toppers. The design is also meant to improve aerodynamic performance, covering over the pickup box for smoother airflow, unlike toppers and RTTs that add drag by sticking out above the truck cab.
Camp Tonneau Tents
The Tonneau Tent itself is rather simple, storing a pair of fold-out sidewalls, extension tent fabric and frame poles inside the hinged hard cover. This keeps the bed free for using as a pickup truck during work hours, weekend projects, and when hauling coolers, duffels and gear to the campground.
When it’s time to pull off the road and spend the night, the Tonneau Tent sets up in a claimed 90 seconds. The cover itself lifts up into wedge form with the help of struts, and the tent fabric with integrated poles then pulls out and up, standing in place atop the open tailgate. The hard sidewalls swing out and secure inside tracks mounted atop the bed rails. As Milligan points out in a prototype demo, the tracks feature drainage holes on the outside to keep the water moving outward instead of pooling and potentially leaking inside.
Camp Tonneau Tents
The inclusion of an outer extension tent ensures there’s plenty of room to sleep inside the pickup bed, even if it’s a 5-foot (1.5-m) short bed. It also takes advantage of the highest roof point to provide enough space to bring a pair of chairs up onto the truck bed and sit inside the tent, enjoying a shaded lounge area. The fabric extension tent walls zip to the hard walls over the truck bed, and the doors open and swing to the sides as needed.
If the Tonneau Tent looks a little rough in CTT’s materials, that’s because it’s still in the prototype stages. Milligan has validated that the design works as planned and is now moving to make a few alterations and finalize materials and specs. Plans call for the addition of features like an HVAC port, extended door awning, load-bearing tonneau construction with available crossbars, refined hardware for faster, smoother setup, and improved sealing. CTT wants to keep total weight between 80 and 100 lb (36 and 45 kg), about the same as a lightweight two-person rooftop wedge tent.
Camp Tonneau Tents
That’s a pretty significant list of to-dos that need doing and estimates that need finalizing, and some of the specs may ultimately get cut or altered before CTT is ready for production. Because of that, we wouldn’t be inclined to jump on a Kickstarter for a product at this early of a stage, but plenty of folks seem to disagree. CTT’s campaign has already glided past its US$30,000 goal after launching just a few days ago.
As far as pricing goes, CTT will need to walk a fine line. It’s ultimately offering the equivalent of a deconstructed rooftop tent that doubles as a tonneau cover. At the lowest $1,899 Kickstarter super-early bird base pledge, it fits right toward the middle of the two-person wedge RTT market – cheaper than premium-priced products like the iKamper BDV Duo or Mars Aeroblade but more expensive than lower-priced alternatives, including the Topoak Galaxy 2.0 and Naturnest Polaris 2.
If you add in a few hundred dollars on top of those RTT prices for the tonneau cover, the $1,899 for the CTT combo seems a solid deal, comparable to what you might spend on a two-person RTT and separate tonneau cover, minus the cost of a roof rack or pickup bed rack. And that’s how CTT bills it: cheaper, lighter, simpler and lower profile than buying an individual pickup bed rack, rooftop tent and tonneau cover, more comfortable than sleeping below your average truck shell.
Camp Tonneau Tents
But then again, we’re still looking at a super-early-bird Kickstarter pledge, not the estimated $3,149 to $3,599 retail price, which varies depending on truck/bed size. That might still end up cheaper than buying the roof tent, pickup bed rack and tonneau cover all separately, but now you’ll want to really look more closely at convenience vs. price across a variety of product options.
Is the Tonneau Tent that much more convenient than carrying a basic $100 to $600 pickup truck tent and installing a standard tonneau? Is moving your cargo out and sleeping in the truck bed between wheel wells really worth the couple hundred bucks you might save versus buying a truck rack + RTT setup? Could you just mount the tent to the cab roof and cut the price of the rack out entirely? Could you skip on the tonneau cover? Would a new or used truck shell, with or without a tailgate tent extension, make more sense?
Camp Tonneau Tents
As always, there’s no right answer for everyone. Plus, CTT does advertise a few additional advantages like the ability to sit inside the Tonneau Tent on a camping chair, which you wouldn’t have in a standard RTT, and the lack of a ladder for easier access in and out, particularly good for camping with a young child or dog. The low profile means it’ll be less cumbersome when you’re not camping. Compared to a ground tent, you’re up off the ground on a more level surface, surrounded on three sides by hard walls.
With that in mind, we wish Milligan and Co luck in getting this solution to market and maybe knocking retail price down with volume production. There’s still a ways to go, though, as the company’s plans call for a delivery start a year from now in January 2027, which will sadly fast-forward right past the three most comfortable seasons for camping in the back of a truck.
Source: Kickstarter
