Who has a RTT mounted on a FrontRunner rack?

[eatSleepWoof2]

Curious to hear how your like your setup, which FrontRunner brackets you used (normal or high version), whether you have any issues.

FrontRunner folks have mentioned that some people experience tent "bowing" a little and have resorted to putting an extra slat across the tent-mount kits, as in this photo:

I'm assuming the tent's original hardware would then "wrap" around the slat, like a u-bolt.

Any thoughts on this setup?

 

[outdoornate65]

I have a small Autohome Maggi mounted on a FR rack. The tent sits nicely on the perimeter of the rack. I did cut/mount a couple wood filler pieces just for piece of mind.

The only issue I ran into was the bolts supplied with the FR Maggiolina Kit were too short and had to be replaced.....something others here on the forum have run into as well.

Nate

 

[eatSleepWoof2]

I have a small Autohome Maggi mounted on a FR rack. The tent sits nicely on the perimeter of the rack. I did cut/mount a couple wood filler pieces just for piece of mind.

The only issue I ran into was the bolts supplied with the FR Maggiolina Kit were too short and had to be replaced.....something others here on the forum have run into as well.

Nate

Thanks, Nate.

Curious to hear others' feedback, too.

 

[Crazy Schooner]

I had a Rocky Mountain Outdoors hard shell mounted on a FR rack with the regular brackets. Base of the tent was curved slightly which lead to four pressure points on the fibreglass. So I sold the tent before any damage can be done. Beyond that I had the bed rack kit with load bars on my other truck. Regular tent brackets with two load bars, and the tent was fine. No bowing on the ARB tent at all after almost two years of use.

 

[eatSleepWoof2]

I had a Rocky Mountain Outdoors hard shell mounted on a FR rack with the regular brackets. Base of the tent was curved slightly which lead to four pressure points on the fibreglass. So I sold the tent before any damage can be done. Beyond that I had the bed rack kit with load bars on my other truck. Regular tent brackets with two load bars, and the tent was fine. No bowing on the ARB tent at all after almost two years of use.

Thanks. I'll be installing a hard-shell too (James Baroud Explorer), so I think I'll need to go with the setup shown in the photo. Might even double-up the amount of cross bars.

 

[jacobconroy]

Baroud Espace

I had a Baroud Space installed on my Slimline II for a year. My solution was to order two Yakima Aero bars (slightly bowed up in the middle) and install them on the "short" tent install brackets from Frontrunner. This held the tent about 1 inch above the lip of the Slimline and the weight of the tent nearly took the bow out of the Yakima crossbars. No sagging. I also used the "tall" tent mount racks and installed them under where the ladder attached (directly to the bottom of the fiberglass. There was a little height difference between all these and it bend the bottom of the tent just a little bit and locked everything in place. The tent was solid when crawling around in it, and I weight 250. No rattling on the road either.

It was an expensive solution and involved a bit of messing around, but in the end I bought a trailer for the tent. Couldn't live with the weight on top of the Jeep.

Hope that helps.

 

[eatSleepWoof2]

I had a Baroud Space installed on my Slimline II for a year. My solution was to order two Yakima Aero bars (slightly bowed up in the middle) and install them on the "short" tent install brackets from Frontrunner. This held the tent about 1 inch above the lip of the Slimline and the weight of the tent nearly took the bow out of the Yakima crossbars. No sagging. I also used the "tall" tent mount racks and installed them under where the ladder attached (directly to the bottom of the fiberglass. There was a little height difference between all these and it bend the bottom of the tent just a little bit and locked everything in place. The tent was solid when crawling around in it, and I weight 250. No rattling on the road either.

It was an expensive solution and involved a bit of messing around, but in the end I bought a trailer for the tent. Couldn't live with the weight on top of the Jeep.

Hope that helps.

Definitely helps. Interesting solutions.

I hadn't considered additional support at the door/ladder area. Will think about this.

 

[Gabex35]

I have a soft shell RTT on mine (one on vehicle and one on trailer) and wish I had bought two sets of high mounts. installing and removing is SO much easier with the extra space...just my $.02

 

[eatSleepWoof2]

I have a soft shell RTT on mine (one on vehicle and one on trailer) and wish I had bought two sets of high mounts. installing and removing is SO much easier with the extra space...just my $.02

I'll be leaving the tent on the truck permanently, so I actually want it to be hard to remove. Less inviting to thieves.

I'm currently thinking of doing the setup in the photo (first post), but with four crossbars instead of two (will require two of FrontRunner's foot-mount kits), and utilizing two or three different types of security nuts for the eight attachment spots. Should be overkill.

 

[rino]

Thanks. I'll be installing a hard-shell too (James Baroud Explorer), so I think I'll need to go with the setup shown in the photo. Might even double-up the amount of cross bars.

I had a Baroud Space installed on my Slimline II for a year. My solution was to order two Yakima Aero bars (slightly bowed up in the middle) and install them on the "short" tent install brackets from Frontrunner. This held the tent about 1 inch above the lip of the Slimline and the weight of the tent nearly took the bow out of the Yakima crossbars. No sagging. I also used the "tall" tent mount racks and installed them under where the ladder attached (directly to the bottom of the fiberglass. There was a little height difference between all these and it bend the bottom of the tent just a little bit and locked everything in place. The tent was solid when crawling around in it, and I weight 250. No rattling on the road either.

It was an expensive solution and involved a bit of messing around, but in the end I bought a trailer for the tent. Couldn't live with the weight on top of the Jeep.

Hope that helps.

We are big fans of the Front Runner racks, but never had a truly ideal way to mount our tents so we set out to create our ideal mounting solution for adding a James Baroud or Alu-Cab RTT. The design includes four .120 304 2B stainless steel brackets that attach to the Front Runner Slim Line II cross bars and allows an Alu-Cab HD cross bar to be bolted in between the racks cross slats.

The Alu-Cab HD cross bar height locates the tent base 3mm above the racks raised perimeter for a sleek low profile appearance and the HD's width perfectly allows a James Baroud tent clamp to be secured. The lower base also doubles as the bottom bracket of the James Baroud clamp for added convenience when installing your tent.

All hardware is stainless steel for maximum corrosion resistance no matter where your travels take you.

 

[Lc80series]

Just purchase a GordiGear Explorer but haven't received it yet. Got the FR low tent mounts for my SL II rack on my GX470. We'll see if there are any issues. My first RTT! Hadn't seen anything to suggest that there would be any issues (until now)....On a side note, about to go out and install my newly acquired under rack slides for my FR table. Should be cool. This stuff isn't cheap!

 

[outdoornate65]

We are big fans of the Front Runner racks, but never had a truly ideal way to mount our tents so we set out to create our ideal mounting solution for adding a James Baroud or Alu-Cab RTT. The design includes four .120 304 2B stainless steel brackets that attach to the Front Runner Slim Line II cross bars and allows an Alu-Cab HD cross bar to be bolted in between the racks cross slats.

The Alu-Cab HD cross bar height locates the tent base 3mm above the racks raised perimeter for a sleek low profile appearance and the HD's width perfectly allows a James Baroud tent clamp to be secured. The lower base also doubles as the bottom bracket of the James Baroud clamp for added convenience when installing your tent.

All hardware is stainless steel for maximum corrosion resistance no matter where your travels take you.

Really nice solution.

 

[eatSleepWoof2]

We are big fans of the Front Runner racks, but never had a truly ideal way to mount our tents so we set out to create our ideal mounting solution for adding a James Baroud or Alu-Cab RTT. The design includes four .120 304 2B stainless steel brackets that attach to the Front Runner Slim Line II cross bars and allows an Alu-Cab HD cross bar to be bolted in between the racks cross slats.

The Alu-Cab HD cross bar height locates the tent base 3mm above the racks raised perimeter for a sleek low profile appearance and the HD's width perfectly allows a James Baroud tent clamp to be secured. The lower base also doubles as the bottom bracket of the James Baroud clamp for added convenience when installing your tent.

All hardware is stainless steel for maximum corrosion resistance no matter where your travels take you.

That's pretty nice. I'm assuming you sell this kit as a standalone option? Is it on your website somewhere?

 

[outdoornate65]

This mounting configuration explains why the bolts provided by FR on their Maggiolina kits seemed to be too short.
Mounted on support slats, the hardware would be fine.


Nate

 

[rino]

Really nice solution.

Thanks man!

That's pretty nice. I'm assuming you sell this kit as a standalone option? Is it on your website somewhere?

We have a new site set to launch last month , so these will be on the new site very shortly. In the meantime, the mounting plates and hardware are $119 and the Alu-Cab 1450mm HD load bars are $179/pair.