The Mars Journey Gear Cybertruck Expedition Rack & Aeroblade Tent – CleanTechnica Examined

Assist CleanTechnica’s work by way of a Substack subscription or on Stripe.

Mars Journey Gear has burst onto the scene with its horny and glossy Expedition Rack System and its extremely slim 3.5″ thick Aeroblade tent.

The mixture is probably going the lightest and best to put in tent and rack system for the Cybertruck. We reached out to Mars journey group and so they despatched over one among their rack and tent combos for us to run by way of the paces.

Disclaimer: Mars AG offered the rack and tent to the creator for the needs of this assessment

Set up

Proper out of the gate, the convenience of set up for the Mars rack is unparalleled. It is available in two items per aspect with a entrance windfaring that I extremely suggest putting in together with the rack to direct airflow up and over the rack.

The 2 items of the rack that set up on both aspect are mild and pretty straightforward to handle with one particular person. I put in it myself and aside from a couple of minutes the place I want I had had smaller arms to tighten a number of the bolts, the method was very easy and straightforward.

Professional tip: Set up the Mars AG Wind Deflector together with the rack, as it’s a lot simpler to put in with the rack in comparison with after you have got a tent put in (which is what I did).

Putting in the Mars wind deflector requires the entrance rack bar to be put in within the entrance place. The wind fairing comes with a strong rubber strip that mounts securely to the entrance of the fairing and butts up properly in opposition to the center of the windshield. It might be good if it fully sealed the air gaps, however because it stands, it does drastically scale back the noise attributable to the rooftop rack.

After getting the rack and crossbars put in, it was time to put in the Aeroblade tent. Mars touts the Aeroblade tent as a 110-pound light-weight tent, and whereas it’s probably lighter than most rooftop tents, the form is unwieldy so it’s higher to have a helper or two to get it up onto the rack.

I enlisted the assistance of my youthful son, and my spouse was gracious sufficient to assist as nicely. We simply have the tent overhead and slid it onto the rack.

From there, it was a easy matter of sliding bolts into place within the tent and clamping them to the rack. It’s a complete of eight bolts and nuts that make for a quick and safe set up. I’ll most likely search for a technique to make this safer as I don’t need anybody with a socket set to have the ability to come out and take away the tent.

Let’s Get Tenting!

With the set up out of the way in which, it’s time for the enjoyable stuff. Driving round with the Mars roof rack and Aeroblade tent on, the look of the Cybertruck is reworked. The aggressive wedge form of the rack mixed with the low profile Aeroblade tent make it appear like it’s one thing straight out of a film.

It’s aggressive and horny, although after all magnificence is within the eye of the beholder so your mileage might fluctuate on this one. The performance of the Aeroblade tent can also be extraordinarily engaging to me.

The tent comes with two aspect clamps to carry it closed, in addition to two clamps on the rear of the tent to carry it closed when underway. When putting in the Aeroblade tent on the Mars rack, they counsel eradicating the 2 aspect clamps for a sleeker set up. I did this and located the tent to be held securely closed with simply the 2 rear clamps.

It additionally makes deploying the tent a lot sooner. When it got here time to hop into the tent for my first evening, I merely opened the tonneau of the truck midway, stepped into the mattress of the truck, launched the 2 clamps, and lifted the lid.

The 2 air struts on both aspect of the tent did the remainder of the work, opening the tent to its full peak. The tent is a reasonably normal wedge design with the pivoting part of the roofline up on the entrance of the truck.

Hopping contained in the tent, doorways on both aspect have a second layer that may be zipped down to permit mild and air to go by way of a mesh display. Equally, the principle door on the rear of the tent will be zipped closed with a mesh window that may be opened to let mild and air in.

An built-in awning on the rear of the tent will be arrange shortly with two steel holes that match properly contained in the tent when it’s collapsed. These two poles hook onto the highest of the awning and mount securely to the decrease half of the tent, offering shade and safety from the weather over the door.

Sleepy Time

Contained in the tent, a 1.5″ thick foam mattress gives a good quantity of consolation. Within the handful of nights I’ve slept within the tent, it has been snug and I haven’t ever introduced them right down to the purpose the place I really feel the onerous flooring of the tent under the mattress.

This setup is probably going advantageous for weekend warriors and even week-long journeys. For these wanting to make use of the tent for long term expeditions or full-time residing? You’ll most likely need to search for a mattress topper or a thicker mattress alternative.

For me, I like the short setup configuration presents and I’m simply capable of go from driving to having a totally arrange tent in round 3 minutes. The mattress itself doesn’t have a detachable sheet, so I laid out a base blanket with two additional blankets on high of it for heat.

Optimizing The Setup

On the foot of the tent, two small round baffles will be related to an exterior heater or air-con unit. There are plenty of aftermarket choices to that may be plumbed in to those baffles for additional consolation. You would additionally simply hook up a fan to the baffles to get some additional air stream.

Overhead contained in the tent, a hook and loop sort material has a Mars topographic print and emblem on it. It was designed as a base layer for purchasers to have the ability to buy equipment that may merely be pressed on to this layer to offer additional storage for his or her cellphones, toiletries, a bag with a change of garments in it, and extra.

It’s an awesome choice to have and permits Mars to maintain the within of the tent as lean and skinny as attainable. I didn’t have any of those equipment for my assessment, however I can think about having a single bag that I carry up each evening with my toiletries and room to retailer my cellphone in a single day.

Equipment

Mars additionally presents a variety of equipment to let house owners customise their set up to their precise wants. For the tent itself, Mars presents a set of roof rack bars that mount to the highest of the tent and allows you to mount issues like traction boards or kayaks to the roof with ease. These bars have a weight capability of 100 kilos / 45 kilograms per pair, which is fairly spectacular for a tent.

Additionally they provide a thermal insulation equipment for the Aeroblade tent which basically provides a light-weight zippered blanket layer to the within partitions of the tent. This gives an additional layer of insulation, defending you from warmth or chilly if you’re tenting. It is available in a slick little bag that makes it straightforward to deploy if you want it.

Extra equipment like a photo voltaic panel for the highest of the tent, a step that will help you rise up into the tent or mount extra equipment to the rack, a ladder that will help you get into the tent from the aspect, a 48 volt mild bar, eye bolts to mount to any of their many t-track rails or rack equipment, and a line of titanium cookware spherical out their choices.

Mars Journey Gear is clearly constructing a full ecosystem of overlanding gear, not only for the Tesla Cybertruck but additionally for Rivian house owners to assist them get out and journey extra. Their options are personalised to their tools, constructing out a complete system that lets house owners construct out their equipment as their wants change.

General

Mars Journey Gear has carried out a incredible job of growing a glossy but extraordinarily purposeful rack system for the Cybertruck. It’s optimized for his or her Aeroblade tent, which strikes a incredible steadiness between the load, the aerodynamic profile, performance, and luxury.

As a result of it’s light-weight, it’s one thing that you could possibly simply carry on and off of the truck for weekend warrior obligation. The tent additionally options t-track alongside the aspect the place you could possibly mount a set of eye bolts from which you could possibly carry the tent on and off of your rack from the ceiling in your storage.

All people’s configuration is completely different and I like how adaptable the Mars Journey Gear ecosystem is. The Mars AG Aeroblade tent retails for $2,999. For extra details about Mars Journey Gear’s rack and Aeroblade tent, head over to their web site.

Specs

• Exterior dimension (closed): 87 in x 52.2 in x 3.48 in
• Inside dimension (open): 82.2 in x 46.5 in x 50 in
• Built-in 3D Air-Foam Hybrid Mattress (no inflation wanted)
• Weight: ~110 lb
• UPF: 50+
• Hydrostatic head: 18890 (mmH2O)
• WVTR: 10900 ( g/(㎡.24h) )