Guides worth the reading time

Published

Four-season roof top tents in Canada

What the words “four-season” legally mean on a tent, which is nothing — against a sleeping bag, whose rating comes from an ISO standard and a thermal manikin. Covers the condensation problem that is specific to roof tents and the one cheap item that fixes it, what Canadian law actually requires of a tent, why charging a lithium battery below freezing quietly ruins it, and a province-by-province table of freezing nights that answers whether you need one at all.

The heating section is the one to read before you buy a heater. Health Canada names tents explicitly, and carbon monoxide gives no warning.

What we are writing next

In order, and only as each one is actually finished — an empty page with a title is not a guide:

• Dynamic versus static roof load — why the number that rules out most tents is not the one on the rack box, and why the people asleep in the tent are not the constraint.
• Hard shell or soft shell — the trade is setup time against weight and interior space, and the weight side of it interacts with your roof limit.
• What shipping a 70 kg crate actually costs — once we have real carrier quotes rather than guesses.

Meanwhile, the reference pages

• Will it fit? — published roof loads per vehicle, with the manufacturer source for each. Vehicles we have no figure for are listed as having no figure, rather than estimated.
• Provinces and territories — for each of the thirteen: the public-land camping rule with its source, freezing nights per month, and the real transport picture, from a ferry crossing to no road at all.
• Delivery and returns and warranty — including who pays the return freight on a 70 kg item, which is the question nobody in this market answers in writing.