etrailer | A Closer Look at the Thule Approach M Rooftop Tent

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Click for more info and reviews of this Thule Tents:
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Check out some similar Tents options:
www.etrailer.c...
Click for more info and reviews of this Thule Tents:
www.etrailer.c...
Check out some similar Tents options:
www.etrailer.c...
Click for more info and reviews of this Thule Tents:
www.etrailer.c...
Check out some similar Tents options:
www.etrailer.c...
Click for more info and reviews of this Thule Tents:
www.etrailer.c...
Check out some similar Tents options:
www.etrailer.c...
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Full transcript: www.etrailer.c...
Hey everyone, it's Evangeline here at etrailer, and today we're going to talk about the Thule Approach Rooftop Tent. We're gonna go over some of its features, compare it with some other tents, right here at etrailer.com. So I've been trying out different rooftop tents. In fact, I took this one camping just a week ago. So, we do have a bunch of different features we're gonna talk about and look at. Why would you get the Thule Approach Well, where it really excels is three main features, very easy to set up, very comfortable mattress.
The main downside, though, to the Thule Approach Rooftop Tent is it's price point. It is priced pretty high up for a soft shell tent. Now Thule justifies this by saying it has more modern design features and systems in place, so we're gonna take a look at that and decide for ourselves. Now this tent is available in three different sizes and three different colors, small, medium, large, and then you can pick whichever color matches your style more. My favorite feature is how easy this tent is to set up, and that's why its name is Thule Approach Tent.
This is what it's gonna look like when you get to the campsite, when you get to your spot in the woods or in the mountains, where you wanna set up camp. Now from experience, I've had this on during a rainstorm, during a snowstorm, and it's held up very well despite being a soft shell cover. So the material for the travel cover is durable. Now setting it up will involve taking that cover off. Unzip the cover, (zipper clicking) with your zipper.
If you choose so, you can completely take the cover off. I like to leave it hanging by a corner so I don't have to redo the zippers. But from here, this just lifts off of the tent. (material rustling) Next is to unbuckle. So there's three touch points.
One is the buckle between the hinge, the other one is the buckle for the ladder, and finally there's a hook and loop strap holding the ladder together. So with those three undone, you can then extend your ladder. Grabbing the ladder legs, extend them out to its furthest position. (ladder clattering) Once everything locks, you can then use the ladder as a hinge. I like to bring it close to the car, and then use the ladder as support to bring our platform down. (tent rustles) You may want to also adjust the height of your ladder. So we're gonna lift our top rungs up, like this, make sure we're stopped where we still have an angle downwards for our ladder but we're also not pushing our platform up. (ladder clattering) Give your platform a good pull. And that will help you determine whether your ladder is at the right height, or not. (ladder continues clattering) Right there is good. So this is the Thule Approach M that we have, which is the medium size. Now this can fit two to three people, technically three people, but in reality, maybe two people and a dog, or a child. Your sleeping footprint is gonna be 95 inches by 51 inches. (zipper hisses) The canopy is made of two important layers. The first layer is gonna be a canopy fabric. This is gonna be a 600 D polyester, which is a bit thicker than most ground tent fabrics. It holds up well to the rain. You also have a rain fly, if you have extreme thunderstorm, but I had some, just a little bit of water sprinkle throughout the night, and it was totally fine. Now the other layer is beneath that canvas fabric, and that is gonna be your mosquito screen. (zipper hissing) So if you want to stay inside, and you want a bit more breathability, but you also wanna keep the bugs out, that's gonna be an option for you. In my opinion, the second most important feature of the Thule Approach is the mattress

[@davidogle9247]

What a nice video introduction on this. Thank you.

[@etrailer]

You're very welcome, we're glad you liked it! www.etrailer.com/Tents/Thule/TH22XE.html

[@JoeBuck-uc3bl]

I mean let’s be realistic here, if you have an SUV instead of a more substantial vehicle like a 4Runner then you can only get a lighter hard shell anyway. And BEING a soft shell makes this light enough for an SUV. And it looks like this soft shell is much larger than a hardshell that must not exceed SUV weight. So although there will obviously be better options for a substantial truck considering that you can go with very large hard shells, for an SUV this might very well be the best option. Personally I’d rather have something that’s much bigger and easy to setup, at the expense of having to put up with some noisy soft tent noise while driving. As opposed to having a hard shell that’s a lot smaller.

[@emetzgrr]

Such a good point! With my little SUV, roof weight is pretty important, especially not wanting to 'feel' top heavy when I'm driving around. Having this tent on there, I noticed about 2mpg deduction and not that much roof tent noise. At least not more than having a roof rack up in general which is already kind of noisy, unless I keep the sunroof closed and covered. The biggest perk here is that it's so speedy setting up the tent. It takes 2 minutes to remove the soft cover, but about 30 seconds to unfold it with NO having to reach in the tent to lift up struts. Kind of evens out with a hard shell of similar size.