It's often the biggest, most feature-packed gear that's celebrated. But what about the elegant simplicity of a product that's designed to do one thing perfectly? That was the starting point for the LT-50 rooftop tent. Our lightest rooftop tent, ever! In creating the LT-50, it wasn't about adding more, but instead we wanted to strip away everything that wasn't essential to a single, focussed goal. To create the lightest rooftop tent, ever!

We sat down with Isma-eel Ariefdien, the lead engineer responsible for the LT-50, to unpack the philosophy, the challenges and the genius that makes this tent a gateway to adventure for a whole new audience.

The Brief

The mission was clear from the start. “We wanted to fit it to smaller SUVs,” Ish explains. “Something that could fit in a regular garage and in tight city parking spaces. This wasn’t for the dedicated expedition rig. This was for someone living in the city who wanted to go camping on the weekend.”

These core insights dictated Ish's design. A profile low enough to fit into a standard garage. With a weight that could work with a compact SUV's dynamic roof load limit of around 75kg.

An Obsession with Strength-to-Weight

“My goal was to be the lightest,” Ish states. But not at any cost. “The whole trade-off is always strength-to-weight. You could make it lighter, but weaker. You could make it stronger, but heavier.” The holy grail was finding the perfect balance.

The target was a sub-6.5-inch profile for garage clearance and a final weight that felt like nothing on the roof. “We didn’t want to compromise on strength and durability,” Ish notes. This led to a key innovation: roller forming. “It’s basically adding shape and form to the sheet metal to stiffen it up. You eliminate flex and noise. The plus side is it looks good, but structurally it adds more strength without costing more weight.”

The Manufacturing Puzzle

Perhaps the biggest challenge wasn’t the design, but actually making it. “The biggest challenge on the LT-50 was the manufacturing chain,” says Ish.

The design uses incredibly thin, lightweight materials. “We’ve got 1.2mm aluminum sheet metal… welding that to a hard, high-grade aluminum frame was a bit of a challenge.” It required meticulous precision in welding placement to ensure strength without distortion, and the team eventually got it to where it needed to be: incredibly light, yet remarkably rigid.

The Details in the Design

The LT-50 was aimed at the weekend warrior. Some of the details that went into the design include:

The Designer’s Pride

When asked what he’s most proud of, Ish points to the constraints he faced. “We didn't create new tooling and worked with what we already had. I think that’s what makes us better. We are flexible. We are not married to a design.” This approach allows rapid adaptation. “We can adjust to what the market needs immediately.”

Who Is This Tent For?

Ish sums it up as: “It’s for someone who doesn't want to start out investing a lot of money into a dedicated overland rig. Someone who doesn't have a big space too park their vehicle. And someone who's using their daily driver to go camping on occasion. A perfect weekend warrior product.”

It’s the tent for the young couple, someone new to car camping, or the city slicker living in an apartment and parking their midsize SUV in underground parking. It’s for the person who wants to say “yes” to a Friday night idea, who can set up camp with ease, and who values an effortless drive without noticing a change to their fuel efficiency.

The LT-50 isn’t trying to be everything to everyone. It’s precisely what it needs to be for someone looking for the simplest, smartest, most accessible path from city streets to a comfortable sleep in nature. It’s engineered not for extreme overland travel, but for the simple, repeatable weekend use. Where most adventures actually live.