Low profile RTT mount with roof mounted batwing

[Biscuit1980]

I have a 2nd gen 4 door Tacoma and I want to add a low profile bed rack for an RTT and a roof rack to mount a bat or fox wing awning so that the RTT will open to one side and the awning wrap around the other. Does anyone know if the height difference would be an issue? I have googled but can’t find anyone doing this so it makes me think it’s a bad idea. I don’t want to mount the awning to the low profile bed rack as it will be to low.

Any thoughts or work around?

Thanks

 

[OmegaMan73]

I have done pretty much this exact thing on my truck. The rtt is on mid height kb voodoo rack and I've made my own brackets to mount the batwing awning about 2" above the cab. There are a couple issues you will need to figure out. First and probably the most important is where you will tie off the awning tension strap. The batwing awning requires a strap to be pulled taught so it can hold its shape. You will have a height difference of awning strap and tie off location. This isn't a deal breaker but you will need to address it. Second will be that you will not be able to open up the large window on the rear of the tent because your awning will block the rods that hold out the built in window awning of your tent. You can fix this by bending the bars to make it work. It's kind of difficult to describe here and unfortunately I dont have any pics of these specific things to show you here. But if you've got any more questions let me know!

Edit: After re reading your post I dont rhink the setup you're looking to accomplish will work. Here's my thought- the pivot point of the awning (where it hinges open) needs to be at the rear corner of your truck so the awning can actually make the turn and cover the rear of the truck. If you mount the awning to a roof rack it will not have the length to reach this rear corner of the truck.

 

[roving1]

Depends on you goals. If you want to stand upright under your Batwing and have rain slope away from the vehicle it will have to be mounted higher than the RTT anyways. I have my RTT and Batwing on a Thule bed rack but had to use big L brackets to raise up the height of the awning. At the same height as the RTT the lowest batwing pole is pretty low and all the water would slope back towards the vehicle if you adjust the end of the awning to be able to walk under or walunder with a little ducking. I also stand and cook at my tailgate and it was too low for that. I set mt RTT up to be able So if your awning is on your roof and your RTT is lower in your bed it might work very well. You might have to cantilever a mount from the roof or have a bar come up from the RTT rack for the rear mount. The RTT in the middle will help block wind, rain and light as well.

At any rate here is a bunch of pics with my batwing mounted maybe 6 inches higher than the RTT. The strap to tension the last pole is closer to the middle of the pole so securing it somewhere lower on the RTT rack should not be an issue.

 

[wallygatoresq]

I have done pretty much this exact thing on my truck. The rtt is on mid height kb voodoo rack and I've made my own brackets to mount the batwing awning about 2" above the cab.

I have the mid-height KB Voodoo rack on my Tacoma and am trying to figure out how to mount an awning off the back - do you have pictures you could post of your brackets and how they mount up? How did you make them? Did you weld something or was it components from Lowes that you bolted together?

 

[OmegaMan73]

Sorry for the late response! I am in the process of making more of these and selling them to people like us who have an awning and need a solid mount. I took 1/8" steel and formed it to match the corner of the rack, then took longer carriage bolts to replace the existing ones on the rack and bolted the bracket to this. There are 2 brackets per corner, they sandwich a vertical piece of 1x3" 80-20. The awning is mounted to the 80-20. There are 2 bolts that are drilled through the 80-20 and secure the brackets to the vertical upright. Its tight and has no lateral movement at all. Please excuse the rustyness and cheap hardware. This was put together as a prototype to see proof of concept. The revised brackets will be shorter and not have the tab extending horizontally. It will end at the gusset. This has been the best solution I have found to awning mounting that I have come across so far. If you've got any more questions let me know!

 

[wallygatoresq]

Sorry for the late response! I am in the process of making more of these and selling them to people like us who have an awning and need a solid mount. I took 1/8" steel and formed it to match the corner of the rack, then took longer carriage bolts to replace the existing ones on the rack and bolted the bracket to this. There are 2 brackets per corner, they sandwich a vertical piece of 1x3" 80-20. The awning is mounted to the 80-20. There are 2 bolts that are drilled through the 80-20 and secure the brackets to the vertical upright. Its tight and has no lateral movement at all. Please excuse the rustyness and cheap hardware. This was put together as a prototype to see proof of concept. The revised brackets will be shorter and not have the tab extending horizontally. It will end at the gusset. This has been the best solution I have found to awning mounting that I have come across so far. If you've got any more questions let me know!

That looks great - I am looking to run a 4 foot awning off the back so I could just orient the 80/20 the other way I guess, I don't see why there would be much more lateral movement then how you have it mounted.

Sign me up, when you are ready to sell, I will take one.

Sadly I recognize the KB Voodoo rust - was just looking at Harbor Freight sand blasters and thinking about how to get the rust off mine and spray it with rust inhibitor and then some rattle can bed liner or something.

 

[OmegaMan73]

You would need a larger spacer to accommodate the gap if you turned the 80/20 the other way, but I agree with you that there would be very little if any lateral movement. You could even keep it the way I have mounted mine and just drill 2 holes vertically on the 1" face to mount the awning to. This way you wouldn't need to make new spacers and all the hardware in the kit would still work. I won't be including the 80/20 because it would be easier to have you buy the length you need. I'm not sure what your specific requirements would be. But i found the best place to get 80/20 cheap is the 80/20 garage sale page on ebay. I'll keep you informed on when the brackets are finished. When do you want to have them?

 

[wallygatoresq]

Good recommendation about the mounting.

I will look at eBay for the 80/20 thanka for telling me about that.

I still have a foot of snow at my house so no hurry, I need to take off the rack and get it repainted too soon whenever you get around to it would be fine with me.

Thanks for doing this. Travis


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[Biscuit1980]

Thanks for all the replies. I like that set up on voodoo rack but it appears they are all sold out of them on their website. I was planning on buying a CVT mt. Shasta extended this weekend and when I went to their website I saw they were having a sale and I saved about $350.00! If you are in the market for any CVT gear or tents the sale ends today.

I think I will end up buying this rack. Looks pretty similar to the voodoo. RCI BED RACK. once I get the RTT mounted I’ll have a friend fab up an attachment to mount the awning higher. I’ll add some pics of whatever we end up making.

Anyone use the RCI rack? Thoughts?

 

[Biscuit1980]

So I ended up buying the All-Pro Rack Pack for my tacoma and I have the RTT mounted on it and everything is working great but I do have two issues. I am going to search the forum after I post this but thought one of you all may have ideas as well.

1. I bought a rhino rack batwing awning at overland expo last week and need to figure out how to mount this to the all pro rack pack. It did not come with any hardware for mounting to a tubular rack and the guys at the expo were too hung over to help much.

2. Even on the top of the pack rack the awning for the RTT hangs low and I'd like to be able to cinch it up a few inches so it doesn't have so much slack in it. I was thinking of ordering more of the loops and pins the CVT provides for securing the windows in place and then just super glueing them in place along the inside so I could lift up the walls a bit and remove the slack in the awning. Any thoughts?

 

[tangomandango]

Warrior rack is super low pro. That’s what I use


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[KB Voodoo]

Thanks for all the replies. I like that set up on voodoo rack but it appears they are all sold out of them on their website.

Our new and much improved racks are here: https://www.max-modular.com/shop-max-modular