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Thu Aug 11, 2022 7:13 am

Anybody out there have a bus depot add a room tent they’d like to sell? Been looking at them for years, finally have my 73 riviera close to being on the road. Apparently bus depot no longer sells them! Super bummed, woulda bought one years ago if I had known they were gonna be discontinued! Thanks, Dan.

Thu Aug 11, 2022 7:52 am

Hey Dan,
I understand the allure of a side tent, I own one. They are super nice but they do have their downfalls. They are big and take up a lot of space when they are broken down and in the bags. It takes 2 large bags to carry the whole set up. It takes 45-60 minutes to set up and 45-60 minutes to take down. I found it very time consuming for a 1 or 2 day event.

I would recommend going with a ARB or the NAPA 8’ awning set up with walls. The awning packs away in its own area and doesn’t take up room in the bus. They only take minutes to deploy and to put away. Which makes it really nice for a day show. Surprisingly, the awnings are very sturdy in heavy winds and rains. If you drop one corner of the awning the rain flows right off it. GoWesty sells the brackets to attach the awning to the bus.

Here’s a pic of my set up from last month. It’s the ARB2500 with GoWesty brackets and 10’ Ozark Trail walls that I cut to size to fit the awning. This set up is way faster and takes up 100% less room.

Rich P

Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:20 am

richparker wrote: Hey Dan,
I understand the allure of a side tent, I own one. They are super nice but they do have their downfalls. They are big and take up a lot of space when they are broken down and in the bags. It takes 2 large bags to carry the whole set up. It takes 45-60 minutes to set up and 45-60 minutes to take down. I found it very time consuming for a 1 or 2 day event.

I would recommend going with a ARB or the NAPA 8’ awning set up with walls. The awning packs away in its own area and doesn’t take up room in the bus. They only take minutes to deploy and to put away. Which makes it really nice for a day show. Surprisingly, the awnings are very sturdy in heavy winds and rains. If you drop one corner of the awning the rain flows right off it. GoWesty sells the brackets to attach the awning to the bus.

Here’s a pic of my set up from last month. It’s the ARB2500 with GoWesty brackets and 10’ Ozark Trail walls that I cut to size to fit the awning. This set up is way faster and takes up 100% less room.

Rich P

are you talking about new or vintage tents taking that long to set up and taking up all that space? vintage sure, but i would expect a new nylon tent to be much smaller and lighter.

Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:55 am

I really like my Bus Depot side tent, but it’s a beast. It’s sturdy and well made, but does take up a lot of space and time to put up and take down. It’s not complicated, but it’s heavy, especially putting the canvas over the poles. Whenever I put it up, it seems like it’s 2pm. The sun is beating down as I am flailing around on the inside try to get the canvas to line up. The kids have long since disappeared to go swimming.

Thu Aug 11, 2022 9:56 am

I’m talking about the new nylon tents. They take up a ton of room. The tent itself takesa gigantic 3‘ x 2‘ wide bag and the polls take up a whole other bag approximately the same size.

Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:36 am

What do you know ‘bout bus camping Rich? :roll:

Well, there’s those eight pages in your travel thread.
Cheese n crackers.

Thu Aug 11, 2022 10:01 pm

While getting ready for our trip tomorrow, I came across my tent in the garage. Here’s a pic of the side in the bags. It’s totally awesome, I’ll never sell it but I don’t see myself using it anytime soon.

For $200 you can buy the Napa 8’ awning and the GoWesty brackets. IMO, there is way more useable value in that purchase then a side tent.

Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:26 am

orwell84 wrote: I really like my Bus Depot side tent, but it’s a beast. It’s sturdy and well made, but does take up a lot of space and time to put up and take down. It’s not complicated, but it’s heavy, especially putting the canvas over the poles. Whenever I put it up, it seems like it’s 2pm. The sun is beating down as I am flailing around on the inside try to get the canvas to line up. The kids have long since disappeared to go swimming.

What’s the downside?

😅

Fri Aug 12, 2022 5:30 am

Abscate wrote: orwell84 wrote: I really like my Bus Depot side tent, but it’s a beast. It’s sturdy and well made, but does take up a lot of space and time to put up and take down. It’s not complicated, but it’s heavy, especially putting the canvas over the poles. Whenever I put it up, it seems like it’s 2pm. The sun is beating down as I am flailing around on the inside try to get the canvas to line up. The kids have long since disappeared to go swimming.

What’s the downside?

😅

Not much really. It’s great when we go to the white mountains to hike for a few days. We stay at a small KOA, leave the tent up and drive to trailhead to hike for the day. The add a room inside fits a double sized inflatable mattress and zips closed for a mosquito free sleep. For certain trips it’s worth the space and time it takes up.

Fri Aug 12, 2022 8:33 am

Thanks for all the info! Looks like I’m going with the awning way. Ironman 4x4 has an 8ft awning and an included add a room for $499 on line, that way I have the best of both worlds. You can purchase additional poles for it and quick release brackets so it can be stand alone as well!

Fri Aug 12, 2022 12:16 pm

orwell84 wrote: Abscate wrote: orwell84 wrote: I really like my Bus Depot side tent, but it’s a beast. It’s sturdy and well made, but does take up a lot of space and time to put up and take down. It’s not complicated, but it’s heavy, especially putting the canvas over the poles. Whenever I put it up, it seems like it’s 2pm. The sun is beating down as I am flailing around on the inside try to get the canvas to line up. The kids have long since disappeared to go swimming.

What’s the downside?

😅

Not much really. It’s great when we go to the white mountains to hike for a few days. We stay at a small KOA, leave the tent up and drive to trailhead to hike for the day. The add a room inside fits a double sized inflatable mattress and zips closed for a mosquito free sleep. For certain trips it’s worth the space and time it takes up.

I was poking fun at the kids vanishing…..

Fri Aug 12, 2022 2:46 pm

richparker wrote: It takes 45-60 minutes to set up and 45-60 minutes to take down. I found it very time consuming for a 1 or 2 day event.

How crazy is your setup Rich?
To be fair, we rarely install the floor or the extra front awning on our Add-A-Room. But I don’t think it’s ever taken longer than 10 or 15 minutes tops to get it set up. And that’s holding a beer in one hand the entire time.

I have 2 Army style duffel bags - 1 holds the tent, the other holds the poles and usually a couple of cheap camp chairs since there’s room for them. It is a big bundle of shit for sure, but the extra sleeping and storage space makes it worth while.

We’ve also had awnings on several Busses. They are great too depending on your needs.

I like having lots of options so I’ll never sell the tent or awning. We seem to swap back and forth on them pretty often.

Sat Aug 13, 2022 6:34 am

15 minutes to fully build and set up a add a room? Damn…

Sun Aug 14, 2022 7:44 am

Another option:

https://www.rei.com/product/187881/rightline-gear-suv-tent

Everything breaks down into one bag, about 1' x 1' x 2'.

I just bought it and wanted to try it out for the first time this weekend.
But Chloe had other ideas...

Sun Aug 14, 2022 12:03 pm

Nice job Kent!

Sun Aug 14, 2022 6:50 pm

As stated, the BD side tent is huge, weighs a lot and takes a lot of space. It does not take an hour to set up. 20 minutes after your initial setup is all it takes.
If I were to do it again, I'd look hard at the Fiamma/ARB/NAPA setups with the walls. They provide 90% the value of the BD tent with little of the drawbacks.

Sun Aug 14, 2022 8:00 pm

To be fair, the older styles of BD tent are a little more complicated. Each piece has to be organized to figure out where it goes. The newer styles have wire connecting the end pieces to the long pieces. It makes it simple to put together. There are literally 11 total, so it makes it super straight forward to figure out.
I’ll also say that if you only set it up once or twice a year, there can be a lot of confusion as to what goes where. But if you do it even a couple times a summer, it’s pretty quick and easy.

Mon Feb 27, 2023 6:13 pm

I am happy to report that we have another run of Bus Depot Add-A-Rooms coming in a couple of weeks (early March 2023). We discontinued them because between supply chain costs and inflation the manufacturing cost had skyrocketed. At one point we'd have had to charge $600+ and we decided that was just too high to justify a production run. But we had a lot of people ask for them, and the supply chain improved a bit, so for now they're available again. We are even holding the original $399 price for pre-orders, but they will go up about 8-10% once they come in (which is less than 1/2 of the amount that our manufacturing cost went up). These are the newer style Add-A-Rooms where most of the poles are interconnected so setup is much faster. For those who want a cheaper and lighter weight (but less bulletproof) option, our Ezy-Awnings and side walls will also be available again in early March.

Links...

Add-A-Rooms: https://www.busdepot.com/details/addaroom/
Ezy Awnings: https://www.busdepot.com/details/awning/

Thu Jun 29, 2023 12:57 pm

I have lost my instructions for setting up my add-a-room and we want to take to the Gorge next weekend for Dead and Co. It's the older version. Anyone have instruction they can share?