Escapees September-October 2023

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PHOTO BY GEORGIANNE AUSTIN #131681

Napier SUV Tent By GEORGIANNE AUSTIN #131681, Escapees Communications Director

While we are a club of RVing enthusiasts, there are among us members who are either still tent camping (pre- fi rstRV!) or enjoy tent camping as a way to explore more remote areas that their RVs cannot safely access. This is why, when Napier Outdoors reached out to us about trying their SUV tents, I eagerly agreed to be the guinea pig! I’ve shopped around for SUV tents before, but hadn’t yet found one I loved enough to splurge on and that fi tmy vehicle while meeting my needs. F irst things fi rst, it is a bit heavy. Their website says it’s 39 pounds fully packed, and I believe it! Even so, I’m con fi dent that I can set up this tent by myself if needed. My fi rst adventure with it was while camping with a friend, so I haven’t yet tried setting it up solo. The instructions were clear (and attached to the inside of the bag) and all parts accounted for. While I’d like to say

we took the logical approach of laying everything out ahead of time and ensuring we knew what was what, the reality was we did the exact opposite. We also didn’t watch any of the how-to videos they offer or read the instructions in full before beginning. (We wanted to go for an authentic experience…) And we still successfully set up the tent! There were some minor hiccups along the way that had us scratching our heads. For example, the hard plastic corner joints are designed to face a certain way when you insert the poles, with one end being narrower than the other. If not faced correctly, only one pole fi ts instead of the necessary two. Once we realized our mistake, the fi x was quick and easy. We also misplaced the small bag of pole caps and extra guy lines and thought maybe we were just misunderstanding the directions for the awning until we later found the plastic bag. Those pieces are now in a much more visible pouch, by the way. We set up the main tent in about 20 minutes, even with our hiccups, then backed up the Xterra to attach the hatch sleeve. Connecting the two was easy, especially with a roof rack. Within a minute or two, we had the tent attached securely to the SUV hatch and

ESCAPEES Magazine September/October 2023 8