Suzuki Jimny Roof Tent Camping In The Woods

Another overnighter in Brockwell Woods, this time pitch 6, one of my favourites. Finally a trip where we’ll both slept in the roof tent together.

Roof bar set up

We’ve been a bit concerned about the strength of the 2 Thule squarebars so decided to buy an extra bar to position next to the rear bar that seems to take most of the weight when roof camping. Better safe than sorry.

I’ve been getting a lot of DMs on Instagram about the roof tent on the Jimny. Here’s a video to show how the tent mounts onto the bars and where the extra bar helps provide some additional support. It also shows how the tent cover neatly rolls up into the gap between the roof and the tent.

This video shows how much clearance there is under the tent when mounted off the rear of the Suzuki Jimny.

Setting up camp

The weather was forecast to be sunny with little chance of rain so we didn’t bother setting up a tarp shelter or anything fancy. Simply choose a flat spot, flip out the tent, roll our the bedding and rig up the kitchen area. It took me around 10 minutes to get setup while my wife watched the mens tennis final with a glass of fizz ??

I’ve plans for an awning and to make an additional triangular section to mount between the tent and the awning. Creating a kind of bat wing cover. However, Front Runner are out of stock with the 1.4m awning size at the moment. I’ll post how that pans out when I can get my hands on one.

We could do with a better quality burner but this did the trick for one night and the kitchen setup is a cheap one from Amazon.

Here’s a look at the finished setup…

and another tent tour showing the additional mattress we were trying out for the first time tonight.

The extra mattress was a great buy, we’re super happy with it. Yes it’s bulky and not the easiest to deflate, but for the price it adds a level of comfort worth its downsides. The total thickness of the mattress with this extra layer adding is 12cm. It’s a huge difference and made for an excellent nights sleep. The added insulation of the new mattress also helps radiate heat back to you which is always a bonus.

Another stroke of luck… it fits great in the gap between the seats too.

Verdict on sleep quality

Regardless of all the nice photos and perfect life instagram staging if you don’t sleep well it’s been a waste of money imho.

First off, you need a decent blanket, it’s just a tent when all is said and done. If you’re cold you won’t sleep well, simple as that. Ear plugs are the next item on the list for ensuring a good nights sleep. Tents flap about in the wind and birds sound like car alarms in the silence of the woods.

With those 2 considerations taken care of we can honestly say that we’re impressed with the tent. We slept well, didn’t feel cramped and whether it’s just in our heads or not, that extra bar alleviated any worries we had about stability on the tent on the Jimny.

We’re not a bad ass overlanding experts and just want random get aways, for up to 2 nights. If this sounds like something you want then this setup and the amount of storage space the Jimny offers is perfect. Yes, there’s upgrades planned but you don’t really need anything more than the tent, bedding and some simple cooking equipment for a brilliant evening in the woods. Added to the fact that the Jimny isn’t the most expensive 4×4 on the market it gets 10/10 from us.

Will we give it 10/10 when doing longer trips? We’re not certain, but we’ll find out when we hit the NC500 later this year.

Night time & morning views

For us, this is why we do it. You can’t beat getting away from it all, seeing the stars and waking up in the trees.