Super Epic - Super Pacific Road Trip - Day Five: Bro! Is that a rooftop tent?

No.

No, it's not a rooftop tent.

Depending on where you're from, you call it either a platform camper or a truck camper.

Because even though there's a tent on the roof, it's absolutely, 100%, and without question, still not a rooftop tent.

That's my story.

And since I've been giving everyone I know with a rooftop tent an absolute rash of shit about how silly they are for the last four or five years, I'm sticking to that story.

Anyway, yesterday, we picked up our platform camper from Super Pacific, a small company in Portland, OR, and it turned out to be a pretty damn cool experience.

When we talk about American manufacturing, we often think of the big players.

General Motors.

Boeing.

Johnson & Johnson.

But we forget that small business drives nearly 50% of our economy, and there's no doubt that Super Pacific is an American small business at its finest.

These campers are 100% handmade right near the airport in Portland.

The cut & machined components arrive from the local CNC shop on pallets and are riveted together before being sent down the street for powder coating. Meanwhile, the [not rooftop] tent's fabric is laser-cut on-site and stitched by hand at large sewing tables. From there, it's assembled into the final product and installed onto the vehicle.

After the installation, we stopped by Pro-Tek #protekauto in Portland, where they did us a solid favor and got the truck right in to fix an issue preventing us from reinstalling the skid plates after the transmission fiasco. If you're ever in the area, I can't recommend these guys enough.

Then we headed east to Walla Walla to spend our first night with the 2nd story at Last Chance Farm. It was a nice, easy spot to try the new setup, which did not disappoint.

Today we're heading to Missoula, MT, to see Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit go their thing at a pretty great venue along the Blackfoot River. I've been grinning all morning, and as I head down the road this fine Independence Day, I'm pretty damn stoked to be hauling this pretty damn cool example of American ingenuity behind me.

Maybe rooftop tents aren't so bad after all.