Roof tent

You can tell your insurance you have a roof rack / tent fitted just as you can for body / tyre / suspension lifts.
Then if it's lying on its side due to the tent or the 4 inch lift it's simply between you and your insurance.
Both are a modified vehicle in Suzuki's eyes.

I love the concept of a roof tent - who wouldn't want to sleep high up and have their accomodation always available? However in reality it does limit what you're able to do.

Once you've parked and pitched the tent, you're stuck in that location and can't drive off without packing the tent away, so it's a bit of a rubbish solution for holidays where you want a basecamp to visit sights in a given area.

You really need a rack to take the weight of a tent - bars will give too much flex in the tent base. Weight combo of rack and tent will probably be double the recommended roof load of the Jimny.

People see the large overland rigs and want to replicate that, but the Jimny just isn't suited to that kind of setup.

A set of lightweight roofbars is probably the best bet for most people. I can strongly recommend the Yakima flushbars, as they're light (3kg each) and the adjustments can be locked into place, so it takes about 5 minutes to fit them when needed.

This is a 3 man rooftent we use on our (1999) Jimny but we have a custom roof rack.

Total weight probably close to 60/70kg but no way would the original roof bars hold just the tent (50kg) and me and my girlfriend (+ another 180kg ish).

Maybe somewhat naively (or stupidly!) I’d never considered advising my insurance about adding a tow bar, adding a roof rack or changing the tyre size, on Jimny’s that I’ve owned in the past... I suppose I just thought of them as accessories... anyway as a result of this thread I’ve just asked my insurance company, Direct Line, via their online chat... this is what they have replied..

“None of those are classed as mods for us so you can change them at will with no effect on the insurance.”

Needless to say I have taken screen shots of the conversation, which I will keep for later reference, should the need arise.

Obviously this may not apply to all insurers!

PJ

Yep tell them everything, if they choose it ignore it that's their call.
My insurance know I have aftermarket roof rack, tow hitch and stereo. Like you it makes makes no noticeable difference to my premium.

Bill Portland wrote:

Soeley wrote:

Bill Portland wrote:

Busta wrote: The same limit applies to the gen 4.

No it doesn't.

Please explain.

I haven't found any Suzuki stated roof load limit for the gen 4, only a limit for the Suzuki brand roof bars.

Confirmation from Suzuki: