Roof Tent/Lifting Roof

[ollieholden]

As we use our Landy a lot for camping in England where it's always raining and cold (but we are planning to take the Landy down thru' Africa in two years or so), we would like to fit out the back for camping.

We are looking for some sort of lifting roof or roof tent which provides 1) access from inside the car and 2) extra headroom when we want to brew up in the back of the car, and 3) a sleeping platform for 2 people. Now I know about innovation-campers.de, Foley etc, but they are all horifically expensive.

Has anyone else had experience of this? I don't just want to strap a roof tent on the top, as it's impractical for England, and a lifting roof seems to be mega-expensive. What do people suggest? Has anyone done it themselves?

Radical suggestion, but has anyone converted their roof to allow access to inside the roof tent from inside the car? (ie take a tin-opener to the roof) I wondered whether this would be possible if you had one of the larger roof tents which stand out over the side of the car.