Jeep And Dometic Develop A Carbon Fiber Rooftop Tent Concept

The Jeep Wrangler Sunchaser concept, which debuted at this year’s Easter Jeep Safari, showed up at Overland Expo West today wearing a rather unusual high-roof accessory. Developed by Dometic, it’s called the Awning and Rooftop Tent (ARTT), and as its name suggests, it integrates two popular camping and overlanding accessories into one. Better yet, the ARTT’s lightweight design means it can be mounted directly to the roof of the Wrangler 4xe Sunchaser without the need for a rack system, meaning it’s lower-profile and more aerodynamic than other rooftop tents.

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The ARTT, a concept developed in partnership between Dometic and Jeep Performance Parts, aims to solve a few of the problems that face overlanding enthusiasts. Most roof accessories are bulky and heavy, meaning worse acceleration around town and worse fuel economy at higher speeds. The added height also means a worse center of gravity, made doubly bad by the amount of weight at the vehicle’s highest point. The negative effects extend to tippier on-road handling, reduced clearance under tree branches, and worse side tilt performance in hardcore off-road scenarios.

The ARTT concept solves many of those issues. Designed specifically for the four-door Jeep Wrangler, it actually mounts directly to the roof with no need for a separate rack. Dometic made this happen by letting the ARTT’s forward section completely replace the Jeep’s removable “Freedom Panels” over the first row of seats, meaning the leading edge of the tent concept is securely attached to the windshield header and hardtop. The integration makes for a cleaner appearance and sleeker aerodynamics, and by ditching the roof rails and making the shell from lightweight carbon fiber, there’s less weight up high than there might be in a conventional tent/awning situation.

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Of course, the most important aspect of a rooftop tent is, well, the tent, so the Jeep Performance Parts ARTT concept pops open sideways to reveal a Dometic sleeping quarters that easily deploys toward the passenger side of the car. There’s enough floor space in the tent for a queen-size bed, with about 60 inches of headroom at its tallest point as well. One cool feature is that because the ARTT replaces the Jeep’s Freedom Panels, Dometic was able to install a floor hatch in the tent right over the front row of seats, with a carbon fiber step to protect the center armrest.

A hatch on the left side of the ARTT hides the awning, which deploys 270 degrees to wrap around the Jeep. In conjunction with the deployed rooftop tent, there’s more than a hundred square feet of shade under the awning – a huge boon when crossing the desert under the baking sun.

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The Jeep Performance Parts/Dometic ARTT is a concept for now, so there’s no word on pricing. But given its custom design and carbon fiber construction, we don’t expect it to be cheap if and when it reaches the market. Considering Dometic’s other rooftop tent and awning combination costs in excess of $3,000 and similar hardtop-style rooftop tents demand $4,000 or more, the ARTT could easily be a $6,000 proposition. That kind of money could buy a lot of nights at a national park cabin, just saying.