Last year I had a chance to meet Brad Self from Hi-Vis Overland at the Blue Ridge Overland Gear Rooftop Tent Rally. Brad and I instantly bonded, and it wasn’t over our shared love of overlanding and adventure… but because he has an orange Jeep decked out for adventure. I love seeing other orange Jeeps, and other overland equipped orange Jeeps are one of the rarest breeds.

In the months since we first met, Brad and I have become friends, so when he offered a chance to beta test the new Hatch Roof Rack, which is also compatible with other rooftop tents, like my Area BFE tent, I jumped at the opportunity.

After much anticipation, the rack arrived this week, and I’ve enjoyed diving right in to setting it up. This rack also will be a great compliment to other upgrades planned this year, so stay tuned…

Background

Last year I built my own DIY roof rack for my tent, which worked perfectly for holding lightweight items like my ARB recovery boards. I wasn’t comfortable putting anything too heavy on the roof rack, but it definitely did the job for smaller items. If I never needed to carry anything more, it would have been a done deal.

This year, the rig is getting a number of upgrades, including a solar panel attached to the roof to power my Dometic CFX35 fridge. With a solar panel in place, I’ll also need to route wiring, and I may have occasion where I want to put heavier gear on the roof. Time had come to upgrade the rack. Brad also offers upgraded struts to replace the Made in China ones that come stock with the tent, and this was a good time to upgrade those as well.

Packaging and Unpacking

Hi-Vis Overland is run by a tinkerer and a veteran, so keeping things safe and secure is a specialty of theirs. There is also a level of attention to detail in Hi-Vis Overland gear you won’t find other places. Case in point, the packaging. The roof rack arrived wrapped in miles of plastic wrap and foam padding to protect all the finishes and components in shipping. Seriously, so much plastic wrap that I could barely see the orange finish of the rack. This is fantastic! As someone who had a hole punched into her tent by careless shipping companies, I appreciate a product that comes with top notch packaging to protect my investment. Don’t get annoyed that it takes 20 minutes to unspool all that packaging, as that’s the difference between a cheap Chinese knock-off and some high quality American engineering.

Packed and ready to withstand nuclear Armageddon!

Components

At its core, the rack is a series of simple components with near endless upgrade options. Included with the roof rack are the following items:

2x large side mounting brackets
2x small side mounting brackets
4x extruded aluminum cross bars
All hardware (bolts, threaded inserts, etc)

Hi-Vis Overland offers the rack in a few sizes to fit other brands of rooftop tents, which is awesome. I mean really — it’d be so easy for them to sell and market the rack as only fitting their tent, called the Hatch, but they recognizes the importance of offering the best products available to everyone, and don’t hoard the goodness. Just make sure you order the correct size for your specific tent!

There are a number of additional accessories that Hi-Vis Overland offers for the roof rack, and more are coming. No spoilers, but Brad’s got some really cool stuff cooking up in his secret nuclear lab. I got a few items to help with the install of the solar panel — wire routing clips and cables to keep everything clean and out of the way.

Install

The installation of the Hatch Roof Rack is pretty straight forward, but there are a few things to consider before jumping in… otherwise you’ll end up like me, backing out a few parts to do it again.

First, take a few minutes to plan out the series of nuts and threaded inserts that need to be slid into the tent tracks before you start shoving stuff in. The fitment of the threaded inserts for the rack is very tight, so you’ll appreciate it if you don’t have to do more work than needed to get everything in properly. To that end, if you are thinking of doing the HD strut upgrade, now’s a good time to do it. Otherwise you’ll be cursing when you have to take the rack back off later to add two more nuts to the mix.

With a plan in place, start adding the required nuts to the track. I started by adding two small nuts to hold the upgraded strut brackets. Then I slid…. sorry, banged…. the threaded inserts for the roof rack into place. The threaded inserts are a tight fit. I found it easiest to move them around by using a small rubber mallet and a flat head screwdriver to tap, tap, tap them into place along the rack.

Adding the threaded inserts to the track. I laid the large supports along the top of the tent to help get the inserts into approximately the right spot. Note the blue painters tape — I used that to measure how far in on the tent the side pieces started so that I could line up each side

I setup the passenger side first. One tip to make it easier to line up the threaded inserts: place the long side mount bracket on the top of the tent so you can space the inserts along the track into their almost perfect position. Once I mounted the passenger side, I measured the rack placement and used some blue painters tape to mark guides on the drivers side. This will make it easy to attach the cross bars later.

Take your time getting the threaded inserts into place, and don’t be afraid to tap them along the track with a mallet and flathead screwdriver. Just be careful NOT to place the screwdriver head into the threaded holes, or you will damage the holes. I just tapped the very end of the inserts.

Side components in place and ready for the crossbars. There are three different mounting height options to choose from based on your application and needs. Clever!

A close-up view of the three different mounting hole heights to choose from; switching heights is an easy enough process if you re-configure later

With the threaded inserts in place, you can now attach the side pieces and cross bars — it’s actually very easy. Getting the inserts lined up and evenly spaced is the only tricky part, but once you’ve completed that, the rest is a breeze.

Attaching the crossbars to the top of the tent

Pro-tip: you may scuff some of the paint inside the tent as you move all these little nuts and threaded inserts around. You can take some matte black Rustoleum paint to the scuffed up pieces afterwards to give a nice clean and polished finish.

Painting the scuffed up components so everything is nice and protected from rust…. plus it looks better

HD Strut Upgrade

If you are taking the time to install a roof rack, presumably it’s because you intend to haul some gear. And if that’s the case, you’ll quickly find that the stock struts just aren’t sufficient to lift and support the weight of a few extra pounds of toys. The stock struts on my tent were only rated at 400N.

Thankfully the rocket scientists at Hi-Vis Overland have us covered again! They offers an HD strut upgrade that includes the hardware and two Made in ‘Merica heavy duty struts.

Installation is actually super easy, but you’ll want the help of a friend. Here’s how this goes:

This is the front bevel that you will measure from. All measurements are from this edge back towards the rear of the tent. Photo by Brad at Hi-Vis Overland.

Measure out the mounting locations for the two triangle shaped brackets.
From the front edge of the tent (where the bevel starts), the bottom bracket should start at 20.25” back
From the front edge of the tent (where the bevel starts), the top bracket should start 39.5” back
If possible, mount the brackets in the correct location. I was able to put the bottom ones into place, but the stock strut interfered with placing the top bracket until the stock strut was removed.
Mark the location of the top strut bracket. Assuming that you encounter the same situation where you cannot mount the top strut bracket, take some tape and mark the edge of where the top bracket should start (reminder, it is 39.5” from the front bevel of the tent)
Ensure the two nuts for the top strut bracket are in the track and in the right place before proceeding.
Find a friend. Give them a beer for agreeing to help. Have the friend climb into the open tent and be prepared to help support the weight of the tent.
Remove the old strut from one side. Only do one side at a time. Removing the strut is pretty easy and done quickly with a simple wrench.
With the stock strut removed, line up and attach the top strut bracket in the right spot. Tighten into place. Ensure the bottom strut is in line and tight.
Remember your friend? They are supporting the tent right now, so try and work at a good pace. Don’t forget to thank them frequently.
Attach the strut onto each end of the bracket after removing the securing pin. The strut should pop into place with a light pressure. Once in place, secure it with the pin. Your friend may need to push up on the tent roof to help you get everything lined up.
Repeat the process on the other side.
Test close and open the tent. Marvel at your work.

Measuring to the front edge of the bracket. Take your time and measure often to get the placement correct

With the HD strut upgrade complete, I immediately noticed that the tent took far less effort to open, and I’m confident it will do a better job opening when loaded with some extra gear. The entire install took less than an hour, but planning ahead for the install is key.

Strut installed and ready to help hoist extra gear

Conclusion

I have only had the rack for a few weeks, so I haven’t had a chance to mount lots of heavy gear yet. However, it is immediately obvious that this rack represents a significant upgrade from the DIY job I’d built last year. Even more importantly, I am now confident that not only is the rack I am using prepared to carry the extra weight and safely secure extra equipment, but the struts on the tent are also ready to lift that weight safely.

The crew at Hi-Vis Overland are a top-notch professionals, and one of the best parts of buying from an American company is the customer service. They answered dozens (maybe hundreds) of questions and helped me whenever I got stuck. You don’t get that from China! On top of their customer service, they actually uses this gear and design (and re-design) it around the features that are most useful to us on the trail. Expect a Hi-Vis product to not only be durable and well designed — expect it to be functional beyond your wildest imagination.

I am very excited to see what sorts of upgrades are coming next. We’ve been talking about a few items that would be great to put on the rack, and I’m excited to see those pieces come to the market. I’ll update this review as I have more time to use the rack. The next step, which starts next week, is installing a solar panel with wiring that is routed along the rack. Stay tuned!

Hi-Vis Overland Rooftop Tent Rack (And HD Strut) Review