When looking at folding style trailer / roof tent unit; one decision you’ll need to make is soft or hard floor.
The majority of tent units are made with a hard floor design using plywood or aluminum sandwich construction. One model, the Oasis II uses a soft floor design using a trampoline type material.
The first difference you notice is weight. At 50 lbs, the soft floor design is half the weight of a comparable sized hard floor model. This is an advantage when you want to build a tent trailer for a motorcycle or two seater vehicle, where every pound counts. The reduced weight is also a benefit in rooftop applications on smaller vehicles to minimize the handling impact from weight up high.
The soft floor design also allows for adjusting the floor tension to “tune” it for the weight of different people.
There are a few trade-offs. To keep it’s occupants from rolling to the middle, there is a center bar. So it’s effectively two cots side-by-side.
If you’re stuck in you tent playing cards for the afternoon due to a rainstorm, a hard floor model will be more comfortable.
With a hard floor model the platform and mattress provide insulation underneath you for colder nights. To deal with inclement weather in a soft floor design a thin pad and cold weather sleeping bag keeps you warm.
So which is right for you?