Why Internal Struts Beat External Gas Struts on a Hard Shell Rooftop Tent
Headline options:
- Why Internal Struts Beat External Gas Struts on a Hard Shell Rooftop Tent
- Internal vs. External Gas Struts: What Actually Matters on the Trail
- The Hidden Design Choice That Decides How Long Your Rooftop Tent Lasts
Primary keyword: internal struts rooftop tent Meta description: Internal vs external gas struts on a hard shell rooftop tent — which design holds up better on corrugated tracks, in salt air, and after years of use. Here's the case for keeping it internal.
Introduction
Most rooftop tent buyers compare canvas weight, floor space, and price — and skip straight past the one part of the tent that takes the most physical abuse every single time you open and close it: the struts. Whether those struts sit inside the shell or hang off the outside of it is a genuine engineering decision, not a cosmetic one, and it shows up in how the tent performs three years and ten thousand kilometres later.
Here's the case for internal struts, and why it's the design choice we'd back every time.
The Job a Strut Actually Does
A hard shell rooftop tent relies on gas struts to lift and hold the heavy top shell open, then control its descent on the way down. That's a lot of repeated mechanical load on a handful of cylinders, and where you mount them changes what they're exposed to for the life of the tent.
Why External Struts Get Criticised
External gas struts sit exposed on the outside of the shell, in the airflow, the dust, and the weather. The common complaints aren't theoretical:
- Snag risk. Mounted on the outside, struts and their brackets can catch on low branches, scrub, or anything you brush past reversing into a tight camp spot.
- Corrosion exposure. Even good stainless struts sit directly in salt air, mud spray, and UV with no shell protecting them, and the mounting hardware is the first thing to start showing surface rust.
- Constant load mismatch. If the strut's lift force doesn't match the shell's weight over time as seals wear, a tent that's hard to close (or one that slams) is a known external-strut complaint — and it's the kind of thing that gets worse, not better, with age.
Why Internal Struts Hold Up Better
Move the same struts inside the shell and the job they do doesn't change — but everything they're exposed to does:
- Protected from the elements. Mounted inside the shell, the struts and their pivot points are shielded from direct UV, rain, and road grime, which matters a lot over years of regular use.
- No external snag points. Nothing protruding off the side of the tent to catch on a branch, a roof rack accessory, or your own gear while loading the roof.
- Cleaner aerodynamic profile. A shell with no external hardware sits flatter and tighter, which helps highway stability and reduces wind noise at speed.
- Still fast to deploy. Internal struts open and close a hard shell tent in well under a minute, the same as an external setup — you're not trading speed for durability.
The Honest Trade-Off
To be fair to external strut designs: they're often slightly easier to service or replace in the field, since you don't need to open panels to reach them, and some buyers prefer being able to visually inspect the struts at a glance. If you're the type who carries spare struts on a long expedition, that accessibility has some value.
But for the way most rooftop tent owners actually use their setup — regular weekend trips, corrugated tracks, salt air near the coast, years of ownership rather than weeks — protection beats accessibility. A strut you rarely have to think about is doing its job better than one you can easily reach.
The Bottom Line
Internal struts trade a small amount of field-servicing convenience for meaningfully better protection against the things that actually wear a rooftop tent out: UV, corrosion, and snag damage. If you're comparing hard shell tents and the spec sheets look similar everywhere else, ask where the struts sit — it's one of the better predictors of how the tent will hold up once the new-tent shine wears off.
Call to action: Browse our rooftop tent range to see the strut and shell design up close, or get in touch if you want a hand picking the right model for your rig.
