So, made a command decision today. Had the money ready to go, and was going to order a Superwinch X9 and a set of Sway-Away Tbars to handle the increased load, but then I started thinking a bit more. The winch and Tbar install won't take too terribly long, maybe a day. So if I were to leave it until just before the camping/traveling season, it wouldn't be too big a deal.
Lately, I've been thinking about how much weight the rear springs will have to bear with the rear bumper and, eventually, a RTT. I'm pretty sure the rear leaf pack will need to be a bit modified. I've got the stock leaf packs sitting around waiting to be pulled apart to add leaves to the OME packs (should have gotten the HD set). In order to get the height set correctly, I'll need to spend some time trying various ideas. In order to do that, I need to have all of the constant weight on the truck already.
So, I pulled the trigger on a CVT Mount Bachelor RTT. I haven't heard a single bad thing about Cascadia tents, and they're made right there in Oregon. Price is great too, considering most similar size RTTs are quite a bit more expensive. The Mount Bachelor tent is exactly the right size for my needs, being roughly the size of a queen bed, just a bit longer. All folded away it will fit nicely above the bed in the back. This clears up the storage space a bit too, because we can keep sleeping gear in the tent itself, which also doesn't take up any storage space. Good solution for my needs I think
To mount the RTT to the truck, I ordered the Front Runner "pick up truck bed load bar kit," more commonly known as the Bakkie rack. This is an extremely simple rack that acts like an elevated set of Thule/Yakima load bars and lifts the tent above the bed of the truck by 11". This keeps the space underneath open and, in my case, will allow the tent itself to act like a sort of awning when it's folded open. I can also clamp stuff to the verticals of the rack if I need to (think fishing poles/skis).
:wings:
