AT Overland Habitat
Hey, it's Josh Carter, one of the co-directors of SMOR. Just posting a review and blog with images on the AT Overland Habitat.
The habitat is a wonderful camping system for a truck. It is the perfect hybrid between a roof top tent, camper top, and a 4wd camper. It allows you to customize the back of your truck as little or as much as you'd like, but still giving an awesome sleeping platform and living area that is weather proof. Since getting it installed this past May it has traveled all over TN and Western NC, and made it all the way out to Colorado and back.
This is what everything looks like all folded up on my truck.
In the back of my truck I added a drawer slide. This is what it looks like when the tent is closed up.
Everything in the back is on the slide, including the Snomaster Fridge.
The slide is a Joey bed slide that was originally made for an 8 foot bed full size truck. A buddy of mine helped me cut it down so it would fit the back of my truck. It's super sturdy and makes it very easy to get everything out quickly when setting up camp.
Every habitat has these two poles. They serve two functions: opening and shutting the tent, being the supports for the sleeping platform.
The poles connect together like this.
The eyelet opens up and attaches onto the support point on the back of the lid.
Like this
The rubber holds on the front are popped off and then the lid is opened up.
Finally the pole is attached on the base of the habitat as shown here. One pole on each side makes up the cantilevered platform rated to safely hold 600lbs.
Set up takes me about 1.5 mins from start to finish.
Here's some pictures of the inside of it.
This board comes with every habitat. It serves to keep the tent from falling into the bed, but can be used for plenty of other things and storage. AT Overland also makes bed inserts that go over the back of the truck which expands the sleeping capacity to 4 adults.
Plenty of room to stand up. I'm about 5'10" and I can't even reach the center of the tent standing up in the truck bed. It has 92" of standing room in the center. Even where the tent is at it's lowest near the truck cab there's still 81".
Closing the habitat is just as easy. It starts by removing the supports, then connecting them together. The tent is then pushed back to where it started.
From there I use a ratcheting bar clamp to speed up the process. While the lid is being clamped down I walk around and make sure the fabric is tucked in.
Then once it's tucked in I pull the rubber holds in, move the clamp to the other side and do the same.
After some practice I can have the whole tent packed up in around 3.5 mins.
The next greatest thing AT makes for this is the awning. It can be configured many different ways to protect from rain and sun. It makes for a great addition, one I would highly recommend.
This is what it looks like before it comes out of the bag. Dimensions close are approx: 27"x 8"x 8"
The back of the awning can be slid into a track that AT can mount anywhere on the Habitat for you.
The poles are slid into place
The awning is then popped up. There are 3 poles on the top of it that give it the dome shape and then two poles that come with it to support it.
There's one eyelet on each corner, so the awning can actually be set up free standing. I'm currently waiting on two more poles to arrive and will post pictures when I set it up. However, the awning can be configured so many different ways and can be attached to the truck whether there is tract for it or not. I had some fun seeing how many different configurations I could come up with.
Please ignore the poles leaning, I didn't have time to steak and tie the awning down when I was taking these pictures.
The corners of the awning can be tied onto any rack or other anchoring point.
This is what gives the awning its' versatility. While awnings like the Sunseeker are good, the Nemo is better because it isn't limited to its mounting point on a rack. The awning is sold exclusively by AT overland and you don't need a habitat to order one.
I added some lighting to the back of mine as well. Below is an RV dome light.
The rest of the lights are LED strip lights wired to a panel in the back.
Here are a few pictures I've taken traveling with the habitat.
I would highly recommend the Habitat. It's quick to set up and take down and turns the truck into a livable space. Plus at only 330lbs it doesn't add very much weight to the bed of the truck, and doesn't change the ride quality either.