A new twist on bed mounted RTT's

[pray4surf]

Figured rather than hijacking the RTT Rack thread in the Tacoma sub-forum, and because I wanted a wider audience/peanut gallery, I better start this projects own thread....

Like others, I fought with where to mount my CL RTT - above cab height, you raise the COG and wind resistance - below cab height has it's own drawbacks.

My first stab was a compromise, Couldn't take full advantage of the changing room, but still rode higher than I'd like and was still a brick in the wind

I want the best of both worlds; stowed at/below the roofline during transportation, but raised to deploy (take advantage of the changing room).

So I need a way to raise/lower the tent - and came up with this idea.



Just two hoops front and rear of bed, connected with the horizontal bar. When stowed, the tent 'rests' (and is secured) on the rack.

When ready to deploy the tent, the closed RTT is lifted up and back. As soon as the RTT get over TDC (of the arc it is following), the base of the RTT settles onto the back crossbar.



I've left out a lot of the detail in these sketches. And wanted a healthy debate over the merits of the design and suggestions...

I have an idea using a torsion spring to assist with the raising/lowering of the tent. With the right spring, you could reposition the RTT using just a finger - LOL

 

[pray4surf]

To complicate matters, I want to remove the tent from the rack when not in use. I stow it strapped below the rafters in the garage and use a block&tackle setup to raise lower - worked well when I had Trumps rack... With that rack, two crossbars span the pipe running the length of the bed, to which the RTT is bolted - unbolt the crossbars and the tent is free of the truck.

Here, I plan on constructing 4 of these - cardboard mockup



Spanning the two forward (and to rearward) hangers runs a 1" dia pipe. The struts that connect to the bottom of the RTT are attached to this 1" dia pipe. This pipe rotates as the RTT is raised/lowered (full travel < 1/2 a complete rotation). At each end the pipe is supported by 2 bearings.

Here is a sketch of that thought - End View



Top view



And here is a rough sketch of the entire assy



So when I wish to remove the RTT, I'll unbolt the four hangers from the rack tube and lift away...

PS - I apologize for the hand-drawn sketches and then taking a picture of the drawing - LOL

 

[pray4surf]

Raised/deployed pic fixed in first post

As the RTT is raised, it also moves rearward (or if desired, it could move forward - just needs to be mounted towards the aft end of the bed/rack.)
I only need to raise the RTT about 12", so the forward -> aft motion is also ~12"

I thought long and hard about how to simply raise the RTT and hydraulic rams had crossed my mind - nixed because I didn't want another 'system' to maintain and I fear losing valuable bedspace. Also considered rams powered by compressed air (because I already have an OBA system).

I want this to be as simple as possible.....

 

[007]

I've been thinking about this for a while (since I copied and built a rack just like you have ) I'll add detail to explain why you want to do this so people see the reasoning.

A couple inches of height makes a huge difference in the handling, because the rack is like a cheater bar for the tent to pitch your truck side to side. Dropping the tent even 6" will have a huge impact on handling.

The problem with a shorter rack is that it limits the use of the t-top tents which have a lower room - you need head room with this design! It is also very nice to have the tent above the bed rails so you can access gear from the sides easily. One consideration is that setting the tent too low in transport mode might mean you can't get to the gear very well. All my gear is in boxes, I would need smaller boxes so the lids could fully open, and I would have to reposition my fridge so that it could open.

I think your plan is awesome and I'm very impressed - get to work!

 

[Ford Prefect]

I think that one of the reasons you may want to go with Jack's idea is the strength of the tent.

With your illustration, which is a neat idea, you have two choices. Either in the DOWN position you have nothing supporting the rear HALF of the tent while driving (could lead to breakage) or the other choice is to put the actual support bars running lengthwise along the truck, and have those be what mounts to the lifting mechanism. This will still leave those bars vulnerable to damage and metal fatigue. I think the straight up and down lift would suit your purposes much better. You can pick up a set up hydraulics/air lifts for about 100 each if you only need to go up about a foot and a half, heck even less if you only go up 6-12 inches.

With the straight up lift you can do a sliding track, that you can pin in place once up, then you would really only need two lifters, in cata-corner, the tent does not weight that much, and once it is up the weight would be on the pins.

Heck come to that you can even skip the lifters, put in the sliders, and just maually raise the tent one side at a time, put in the pins, and you are done.

Don't get me wrong, I really do like your lift idea, it is pretty cool, I just do not personally see it as the best possible fit, and I see it with a lot of possible concerns.

 

[007]

I think that one of the reasons you may want to go with Jack's idea is the strength of the tent.

With your illustration, which is a neat idea, you have two choices. Either in the DOWN position you have nothing supporting the rear HALF of the tent while driving (could lead to breakage) or the other choice is to put the actual support bars running lengthwise along the truck, and have those be what mounts to the lifting mechanism. This will still leave those bars vulnerable to damage and metal fatigue. I think the straight up and down lift would suit your purposes much better. You can pick up a set up hydraulics/air lifts for about 100 each if you only need to go up about a foot and a half, heck even less if you only go up 6-12 inches.

It seems to me that the tent would be supported in the down position - The tent would rest on the bars running lengthwise and across, granted you would need attachment points to keep it from bouncing upward.

 

[pray4surf]

I appreciate the spoken concerns. In the stowed position, I'm calculating that the tent will rest on the 'flat' tops of the brackets/hangers. During the fab process, we'll figure out a way to secure the RTT to the rack so that during transportation/wheeling the RTT is "one with" the rack. If this requires a few bolts (4 - one at each corner), so be it... I envision the 'front' of the tent will rest/set on a cross brace on the forward 'hoop'. I'm working on a sketch of that view today - but back to Ford Prefect's comment, supporting the 'aft' of the RTT is an open question....

007 is seeing my 'vision'

Keep 'em coming!

I'll keep the vertical lift suggestions in mind

 

[Revco]

I like the idea, but don't complicate the design. Use the old saying "K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid".

Maybe use some hammer unions to secure the RTT to the rack during wheeling.

 

[Ford Prefect]

The reason I do not see the linear bars supporting the tent is that the cross bars would necessarily be higher than the linear bars. I did think of one possibility, and that would be to put a sort of bumpstop on the bars where the tent will rest. That would help I should think, but still leaves the middle hanging. Humm...

What about putting a third cross bar under the unsupported section that would like up to miss the back cross bar in the up position. This bar would do nothing in the up, but act as a rest support (attached to nothing but the tent) in the down position to give that support and replace my bumpstop idea.

An idea I just thought of if you CAN get your design to work, you could put a truck tool box up behind the cab which would be lockable, and easily accessible in the up position.


I hope you come up with a swell idea to make it all work out!

 

[78Bronco]

How much does this tent weigh?

In stead of bolts to hold the tent in the lower position you could use a cam lock similar to what the new jeeps use to hold the hoods. They are made in heavier versions for trucks as well.

You don't need heavy actuator cylinders to raise this thing. You could use a crank and a nylon strap or a piece of tube that uses leverage to roll it up and down.

If you make a tray from aluminium and mount your tent to that you can supoort the tent tray and reinforce the pivot points while having if clamp onto your rack.

Great idea with your rack.

 

[pray4surf]

The RTT is the medium size Camping Lab - weighs approx 100 lbs..

Build a rack for the rtt that has a front hoop like a light bar that sits an inch above the tent. Repeat that on the back and have the tent open to the side.

Like this?




Just about ready to start burning the metal together...

However, the RTT is not going to be hardmounted to the bed rack. It is designed to pivot around these



Qty = 4 - Been a few design changes from the cardboard mock up in the original post

Raising the RTT above cab height when ready to bed down for the night, and lowering it to cab height for transportation



Just a rough sketch...

Edit - I'm discarding the aluminum mounting channels in favor of a full frame for the lifting/rotating struts to bolt to. The RTT is narrower than the distance between the two horizontal tubes. Necessary to get the stowed RTT to cab height (without ladder attached). As it stands now, the RTT frame is free to rest on the tubes that span the width of the bed (and rotate). It would be an easy fix employing detachable cross bars that the lowered RTT frame can rest upon/bolt to...

Props to Jonny Richer @ Richer Racing for his advice and assistance

 

[bat]

You could use some gas springs like they use for lifting hoods or hatchback they come in different lifting lbs. I would also look into just a simple swing away tire latch to secure it when up or down.

 

[pray4surf]

Time to start welding:







It was another full weekend fabbing all the specific gussets

 

[Scott Brady]

I like it. You end up with a nice cover over the tailgate/kitchen. Cool!

 

[Expedition.Report]

I think this is a great Idea!
Keep the pics coming!