This is the Thule Outset Hitch Tent, it’s essentially a rooftop-style tent designed to attach at your tow hitch, offering all the same convenience with none of the added aerodynamic drag or ladder climbing.
Once the tent is attached, you deploy it by folding it out and adjusting the four legs to get it level. It contains a high-density foam mattress, it has mosquito netting to keep the critters out, and it can be detached from the tow hitch and left set up when you want to explore the area and leave your campsite without packing everything away.
Once it’s set up, the Thule Outset Hitch-Mounted Tent can be detached from the tow hitch and left set up when you want to explore the area and leave your campsite without packing everything away.
History Speedrun: Thule
Thule was founded in 1942 in Hillerstorp, Sweden, by Erik Thulin, who started out producing fishing gear. The company soon shifted toward car-related products, making ski racks in the 1960s, which helped establish its name in an industry that it would soon become a big part of. By the 1970s, Thule expanded into roof racks and boxes – products that became synonymous with the brand worldwide.
In the 1990s, Thule began acquiring other companies to broaden its offerings, moving into bike carriers, water sport racks, and later into luggage and child seat/transport systems. A major step came in 2007 when the private equity group Nordic Capital bought Thule, later floating it on the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 2014 as Thule Group AB.
In 2018 Thule bought Tepui Outdoors, a US company specializing in rooftop tents, as a way to rapidly enter the fast-growing overlanding and outdoor living market sector. Thule now employs thousands of people globally, with products sold in more than 140 countries worldwide.
The Thule Outset Hitch Tent
The Thule Outset is part of a new chapter for the Swedish company better known for its roof racks and car cargo systems. It was launched in the early 2020s as the first hitch-mounted tent developed by a major outdoor gear manufacturer – designed to bridge the gap between rooftop tents and traditional ground tents.
By shifting the platform to the towbar, Thule sought to address common frustrations with rooftop tents – namely the awkward ladder access, added roof weight, higher center of gravity, and increased aerodynamic drag.
The Outset’s design is straightforward and cleverly engineered. It mounts directly to a 2-inch hitch receiver, unfolding into a three-person tent elevated above the ground. The hitch platform keeps the tent low enough for easy entry yet raised high enough to avoid mud, rocks, and uneven surfaces. Unlike rooftop tents, the Outset can be detached once deployed, allowing campers to leave their tent at the site while using the vehicle elsewhere.
When not in use, the tent folds up into a compact box-like shape ad stays well out of the primary airflow, causing far less aerodynamic drag than a traditional rooftop tent.
The tent body is made from ripstop polyester with weather-resistant coatings, supported by an integrated frame and adjustable leveling legs. When folded, the system becomes a compact, box-like unit at the rear of the vehicle – far more aerodynamic than a roof-mounted alternative.
The Thule Outset is now available to buy direct from the official Thule Amazon store here, it comes with Thule’s limited lifetime warranty.
Images courtesy of Thule
Articles that Ben Branch has written have been covered on CNN, Popular Mechanics, Smithsonian Magazine, Road & Track Magazine, the official Pinterest blog, the official eBay Motors blog, BuzzFeed, Autoweek Magazine, Wired Magazine, Autoblog, Gear Patrol, Jalopnik, The Verge, and many more.
Silodrome was founded by Ben back in 2010, in the years since the site has grown to become a world leader in the alternative and vintage motoring sector, with well over a million monthly readers from around the world and many hundreds of thousands of followers on social media.
