NEW iKamper Skycamp 3.0 Mini Review! Is it worth the Price Tag?

What's going on Forge Nation? Carter here sitting on the ladder of our SkyCamp Mini 3.0, brand new from iCamper. Stay tuned as I go through the ins and outs, the benefits, the disadvantages, and a full review of this awesome rooftop tent. I think you're gonna like it. I'm a big fan of rooftop tents that are light and this only weighs 125 pounds. For a hardshell tent that's pretty impressive. Now that's going to make sure that you're not top heavy when you're going on trails because this thing with 40 inch tires and four and a half inch lift can do some heavy-duty rock crawling especially with those bead locks. Now when we first got it I didn't know what to expect. This is my first iCamper that I have installed and used and tried out in person and I was extremely impressed. The second you open it up the quality of the materials is definitely sets itself apart from other RTTs in the past. Now you may be asking yourself, hey Carter didn't you have a different rooftop tent on Kronos before? And yes we did and let me tell you why we switched it up. Badass Tents is an awesome rooftop tent that only weighs 90 pounds. Hardshell pops straight up but the issue with Kronos and that is our rack is relatively wide and with that Overland Rough Racks, you know, this antler system you have a ton of space to mount furniture and other things if you actually need to use the truck to do truck things which I'm a big fan of. So the Badass Tent RTT was just a little bit too narrow and it didn't quite work with this rack so we had to go with that new new. Now off the start I love the look of the iCamper. The black rock material on the outside I'd recommend that finish over the gloss because it's going to last longer, scratches won't show up, it's a little bit easier to keep clean, so that's why we went with that. All right starting with the ladder we've seen a lot of ladders. This is that telescopic ladder that I'm sure you're all familiar with but what makes this different it's automatically connected to the tent already which may not seem like a big deal until it's rolling around all over the place in some other RTTs that we've had it breaks it falls off this is really secure which I like but just like other telescopic ladders really easy to set up and hold down it folds up nicely and is really easy to put away. I like that it's all compact the whole entire system was really thought out and is thoroughly put together which is rad. Now the exterior on here you have the rain flap which is going to protect you from the elements with the skylight on the inside and one thing that I do like it's a little windy right now so we didn't put the awnings up but you could actually put the awnings up that will give you additional shade or pull a couple levers and they will come right in as you can see right there. Running right now is around $3,900 which as far as RTT goes is definitely on the higher end about mid-range for a hard top but I think what you're paying for is the mattress, the high quality craftsmanship, the resale value on these is actually really good if you end up wanting to sell it after a couple years and not liking it. So you have the Mini or just the SkyCamp 3.0. We went with the Mini because I wanted it to fit on the truck bed. The SkyCamp regular one that fits four people is huge but that would end up going over the cab which again I didn't want to do with this build. You could always sell this and get a bigger one if you really wanted to but my opinion this is the right way to go. Also when this thing is folded over it is really aerodynamic. We actually gain MPG over the other hard top tent that we had because of the way that it's mounted. It's mounted right at the bottom there and the air just flows right over it. I guess. I don't know. Science. I'm not a physics guy. All right so that's enough about the exterior. Let's check out the interior. All right so now that we're inside don't need the dead cat anymore because this is completely protected from the wind. With this hard top facing the wind you create a little barrier which is awesome. I love the full 270 degree views plus you have this skylight right here that also has a little bug shield or you could close it up but it's really cool when you're laying in bed and you can see the stars. There are a decent amount of RTTs like that but if you have a clamshell obviously you don't get that so that is a huge benefit. Now check this out. Your awnings here which again I'm not going to put up right now just because it's a little windy but one thing I like you could actually pull these in by just doing that. Also a big difference between the 2.0 and 3.0 is your ability to store your sleeping gear in here. What we do is we put it over on the end and I was able to close it relatively easily which some RTTs claim that you could do that but it still won't really fit. This one actually fits which is awesome. The mattress. So there's two pieces to it which I'd say my one thing that I wasn't quite stoked on is this kind of slides around a lot. I would say putting some sort of like material on the bottom to get it from sliding could be important but it's really not that big of a deal. This comes up whenever you pull it in and stacks right here and then that folds up and the whole entire system collapses on itself. I'll show you that in a second. A little storage pocket right here. Your awning holes are actually in this little storage case which is really cool because other RTTs that I've had in the past the issue is this little like case ends up going everywhere. It gets under a mattress pad. You can't find it. It's kind of annoying. Seems like a small detail but it's one of those things that like they thought about everything. I'm a big boy. I like eating burritos. They're delicious. But when I lay back in here I got plenty of room. Fits two people comfortably. It's about the size of a big full-size bed which is awesome and if you're by yourself it's even better. Now if you wanted to sleep a whole family I'd maybe recommend getting just the SkyCamp not the SkyCamp Mini but I was thoroughly impressed and how much space there is. You could sit up. You get change in here if you want and one thing that I really like is if you end up mounting the Roam storage box right here on your Pioneer rack you could access everything that's in there just from this little access window or throw your shoes over there. Really cool. The quality of this fabric is heavy duty. It feels premium. This world map does more than just look cool. It's actually insulated and padded so that's going to protect you from the elements and also den the sound with this high quality fabric. I noticed this morning when everyone was waking up everything was kind of deadened and you could still sleep soundly if you wanted to. It kind of reminded me of a shift pod in that sense but the quality of the craftsmanship, the quality of the materials, everything really shows and is really functionally designed. So that's the interior. Let me show you how this thing folds up. All right putting it away is just about as easy as setting it up. I'm gonna undo all the brackets on the ladder. Camping in wind is the worst. But what's crazy is look even with that huge gust obviously if this awning was out the sides of the tent are barely moving. That big shell is just blocking that wind which may not seem like a big deal but if you're camping somewhere that's exposed and there's nothing that you could do parking that into the wind is going to be a huge benefit. Okay so after the tent is in I'm simply going to collapse this. I'm going to pull all three in at the same time let all that air get out tuck in the sides and someone probably leave a comment below but one of my biggest gripes is the fact that you have to use a key to open and close the locks. It may not seem like a big deal but I have a feeling that if I own this I would probably lose the key at some point. It is what it is. So I'm going to come up here put a little bit of pressure down. All right so after it is on that little cable I'm gonna lock it and lock it. So honestly like that's biggest gripe. The fact that you have to use the key to up and close that it kind of gets in the way it's a little bit of a pain but grand scheme of things that is like being super nitpicky. Now you can see what it closed when it's closed up that is crazy aerodynamic but overall I am really happy with iCamper. Now the question is is a rooftop tent for you? There's a hundred youtube videos going through the benefits costs and minuses of it. I put it this way if you are camping more than two times a month then an RTT probably would be the way to go because of the ease of setup the fact that you can have a really comfortable bed anywhere and it's like a clubhouse being able to park on a cliff like this and see Sedona from one of your windows is crazy. People pay hundreds of dollars for a view like that. This is a national park that you could park anywhere BLM land there's so many great places that you could camp for free that having RTT and a rig that can get you there far beyond any minivans or anything else is one of the coolest things that I love about overlanding. So if you're only camping once a month or three four times a year RTT might not be the best route I'd maybe recommend going with a shift pod or even a gazelle tent or a regular tent. The reality is it's going to come down to whatever your budget is and what your interests are. If you love it get it if you don't then may not be for you but I hope you liked our full review on the iCamper SkyCamp Mini 3.0 check them out at iCamper.com they are not a sponsor we paid full retail for that. I wanted to give you our honest review I'm very impressed. If you like what you see hit that like and subscribe it helps us get motivated to create new content and that bell icon make sure you never miss out on one of our videos. This bad boy plus 20 grand in cash is going to one lucky winner so go to Forge4x4.com to get into the win.