Skip to main content

The Manual may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site.

This rooftop tent kit will turn your van into a pop-top camper for about $12K

Transform your two-person rig into a legit, four-person, family-friendly chariot

Camper van outfitted with Super Pacific's CloudCap pop-up roof tent parked among a stand of trees.
Super Pacific

Van life usually means sacrificing comfort and living space for maximum portability. There’s no denying that it’s tight packing most of the amenities of home into the back of a hollowed-out work van. So, anything you can do to make the space feel a little roomier feels like a luxury. Super Pacific’s clever CloudCap does just that by converting the unused space on your camper van’s roof into a legit two-person “bedroom” with a view.

Recommended Videos

The details on Super Pacific’s CloudCap pop-up rooftop tent for camper vans

Side view of Super Pacific's CloudCap rooftop camper van tent.
Super Pacific

Super Pacific bills the  as “a private bunk house for the kids, a guest room for friends, or a panoramic Crow’s Nest for you.” Bottom line: It expands the living space of many two-person camper vans into four-person road-trip wagons. The simple kit includes the rooftop tent itself, plus all the instructions and mounting hardware you need to install it on the most popular Mercedes-Benz and Ford Transit vans on the road.

The tent features a streamlined, low-profile design that adds minimal height to your van rig. When you’re ready to make camp for the night, it pops up in seconds into a wedge-shaped sleep space. It’s all accessed via an internal pass-through hole from your van’s cabin, so you don’t even need to step foot outside to climb “upstairs.” The design features three storm doors, built-in insect screens, and passive venting for an airy, breezy feel. Inside is an Exped Megamat Duo LW+ — one of the best camping mattresses we’ve ever personally tested. It’s compact, lightweight, self-inflating, and way more comfy than almost any other camp sleep surface you’ve slept on.

What further sets the design apart is that it’s not just a pop-up rooftop tent. Super Pacific thought to add universal T-slots and mounting points all around, so you can customize your CloudCap however you like. Add solar panels, an awning, a vent fan, a lightbar, and even cross-bars for stashing all your favorite outdoor adventure gear. Buyers can also option the interior with a “hammock-style” gear loft and a Therma Puff liner designed for cold-weather camping. The latter makes the CloudCap a true all-weather solution for year-round van camping.

Buy your own CloudCap pop-up rooftop tent

Young man with a child inside the Super Pacific CloudCap pop-up rooftop camper van tent.
Super Pacific

The CloudCap is available now for Mercedes Sprinter (178″ and 144″) and Ford Transit (148″) vans, which covers a large portion of the modern van life market. Super Pacific promises a dead-simple install that anyone with a few basic tools and a little DIY know-how can complete for their own van. The base price is just $12,200, and adding optional accessories like the Therma Puff liner, Gear Loft, and awning brackets will push the total price a little higher. But can you really put a price tag on an all-in-one kit that transforms your two-person camper van into a legit, four-person, family-friendly chariot?

Mike Richard
Mike Richard has traveled the world since 2008. He's kayaked in Antarctica, tracked endangered African wild dogs in South…
Topics
Zipper pull camping hack: Exit your tent and disturb no one
Don't wake up your partner while camping with this tent zipper pull hack
Man at a campground stargazing

Camping overnight comes with a bunch of challenges, but if you're like me, one of the worst ones ever is needing to exit the tent before dawn to use the bathroom or grab something from the car. My husband is a pretty light sleeper, so any excessive rumple I make is going to wake him up. Worse, I've also had the misfortune of startling wildlife. Fortunately, I've found a great camping hack that solves the problem — glow sticks!

Yep! You heard me. I've found that creating a glow stick ring through the holes in my tent's zipper pulls solves the issue. Not only does this make your zipper visible, but it also gives you something bigger to grab on to. With this camping hack, I am able to open my tent's zipper slowly and quietly, minimizing risk of startling anything inside or outside.

Read more
Two-story Trail Dog camper sleeps four with room for all your powersports toys
The rugged, go-anywhere rig is built to take you and yours far afield with ATVs and motorbikes in tow.
Mission Overland Trail Dog powersports camper trailer parked in a grassy field.

Versatility is the name of the game for many of today's trailer-towing overlanders. The best off-road-ready towables transform effortlessly from gear hauler to toy hauler to microcamper and back again. So, too, with Mission Overland's Trail Dog camper trailer — a rugged, convertible toy hauler with room for four and plenty of powersports gear, too.
Get the details on Mission Overland's Trail Dog overland-ready toy hauler

There's a growing number of versatile gear-hauling trailers/campers on the market today. But what sets Mission Overland's Trail Dog apart is the dedicated rear ramp. It's a functional design element pulled from the best full-sized toy hauler RVs, allowing campers to stash ATVs, dirt bikes, mountain bikes, or any other adventure gear safely inside for transport.

Read more
Orion’s 365 Ford XL camper van has room for five and all your outdoor gear
Live, work, sleep, play — this compact Transit van is one of the smartest camper van builds we've ever seen.
orion 365 ford transit camper van

Ford's Transit van has been a favorite for van-life customizers for years and with good reason. The largest model is like a perfect blank slate: Roomy enough to pack everything you need for life on the road, yet versatile enough to customize every last cubic inch. And that's exactly what Milwaukee's Orion Motors has done with its flagship Orion 365 camper van.
Get the low-down on Orion Motors' 365 Ford XL camper van

At its core, the Orion 365 is "the only camper van on the market that can drive 5+, sleep 5, and still have the space of a cargo van." That's according to Orion Motors, and it's a distinction that clearly separates its flagship build from every other on the market. Every custom Orion 365 begins life as a high-roof, 264-inch Ford Transit Extended Length van — one of the roomiest of its kind, making it a perfect canvas for building out a seriously capable van-life rig.

Read more