Barn Door for JK factory hardtops

[akpostal]

That kitchen would be pretty snappy on the front of my Kwik Kamp.

 

[jscherb]

That kitchen would be pretty snappy on the front of my Kwik Kamp.

I don't know much about Kwik Kamps, but the Trax Kitchen is self contained and designed to be easily installed on the tongue of most trailers with only a few bolts. With that in mind, Tentrax and I met with several other trailer companies at the show today and there was good interest from a few of them about offering the kitchen as an option on their trailers too.

 

[jgaz]

Great design!

 

[MattJ]

Heading into the Maine North Woods next week! Got my cellular boost antenna mounted (yes, a 200% boost of zero is still zero, I know). With my MORryde fuel can brackets! And of course my favorite adventure shirt.

 

[jadmt]

Got a quick answer from MORryde - the Power Panel is through engineering, tested and ready for production. The Charging System is done and has been in test in a Jeep for a while, just a few details to get it ready for production but nothing major. Holdup right now is pricing, a couple of the components have come in a bit higher than expected at the last minute making it a little challenging to hit the aggressive price targets I suggested to them.

No technical issues, the products both work great. The prototypes I built have been in both my JKU and LJ for over a year and they've worked perfectly; MORryde basically took my prototypes and did some production engineering on them to ready the design for manufacturing but they're basically copies (electrically at least) of the prototypes.

So a month or a year or any approximate eta? I want one but like anything I want it now lol. I tried contacting morryde but never any luck. thanks

 

[jscherb]

Great design!

Thank you very much. It got a lot of attention at Overland East - it's not like any other kitchen on the market and there was a lot of interest in it, both from other trailer manufacturers and from people who built their own trailers. It's a 4-bolt installation on the trailer and it's self-contained - no further engineering required.

It'll be on display at the SEMA Show in 3 weeks too.

 

[jscherb]

So a month or a year or any approximate eta? I want one but like anything I want it now lol. I tried contacting morryde but never any luck. thanks

Unclear. I discussed it with MORryde at Overland East, and we're meeting at their engineering facility in two weeks so we'll discuss it again then. Hopefully I'll have an update after that meeting.

 

[jscherb]

I came across a product on walmart.com that inspired me to come up with a "Budget RTT Changing Room" idea. Here's the product:

What's interesting about this product is that it's two walls for a 10 x 10 canopy and one of the walls has a zipper down the middle to form a door. Two walls of a 10 x 10 means the running length is 20'. A typical RTT is 4-5' on a side, so this product could form four walls of a changing room for a roof top tent.

Many roof top tents have a channel around the platform that the tent canvas attaches to. Here's a photo of my RTT; the canvas attaches to the top edge of the platform and there's a channel on the bottom side as well (and you can see my canvas needs a little adjustment at the corner):

The channel is designed to accept "Awning Rope", which has a round "bulb" edge that slides into the channel, and a flat edge that can be sewn to:

The concept is this: take the $32.95 Canopy Wall Set product as found on walmart.com, sew Awning Rope to the top edge and you've got a changing room that'll slide right into the channel on the bottom of the RTT platform.

It's almost that simple, although there are a few small details to pay attention to, such as where the channel passes the ladder, in most cases the ladder brackets would cause the fabric to go outside of the ladder when you'd really want it inside the ladder. Not a hard problem to solve though. Also the edge of the platform that hinges when the RTT folds typically doesn't have a channel, so if the changing room is to have fabric on the side against the Jeep you'd need to add channel there. Channel is available and not too expensive so that's easily solved as well:

I think I'll order one of the awning wall sets from Walmart and some awning rope (sailrite.com) to put a changing room together. The first question to answer is... which color? The canopy wall set comes in black, white, and these 3 colors (I wouldn't mount the RTT so the changing room is over the back of the Jeep as shown below because it would interfere with the kitchen, but this photo was handy to do the concept drawings so I used it):

None of these colors match my RTT, but they're not too bad. What color do you guys like?

 

[borison]

I like your idea, I came up with something similar with HF tarps and some poly rope attached to the top edge. It would have worked perfect except the ladder for my smittybilt tent is attached under the tent and behind the channel. As I made it, the tarp would have to go on the outside of the ladder. I’m thinking of splitting the tarp to go around the ladder. I’ll be interested to see what you come up with.

 

[jscherb]

I like your idea, I came up with something similar with HF tarps and some poly rope attached to the top edge. It would have worked perfect except the ladder for my smittybilt tent is attached under the tent and behind the channel. As I made it, the tarp would have to go on the outside of the ladder. I’m thinking of splitting the tarp to go around the ladder. I’ll be interested to see what you come up with.

Most tents are that way, it's not just a Smittybilt thing. My Mombasa tent is the same way.

Here are two ways to solve the problem. Both involve notches in the side wall to clear the ladder.

The first method has awning rope sewed in three pieces, avoiding the notches.

This method is a little finicky to slide all three pieces of awning rope into the channel because two sections go behind the ladder and one goes in front (it may be easier to remove the ladder, slide the awning rope in and then replace the ladder), so this next method makes it easier to hang the panel.

In this second method, Velcro is sewn to the three pieces of awning rope and those are threaded into the channel separately. Then the panel is hung with the Velcro; Velcro is also sewn across the top of the panel in three pieces.

BTW hook & loop (not brand-name Velcro) can be found at Harbor Freight, this is double-sided (hook on one side, loop on the other), but that doesn't matter for this application and it's fairly inexpensive for a 35-ft. roll ($6.99, $5.59 with a 20% coupon): https://www.harborfreight.com/3-4-quarter-inch-x-35-ft-roll-hook-and-loop-cable-strap-96215.html

 

[borison]

That’s more or less what I was thinking of doing, cutting a shallow “u” shaped section out of the tarp and just relying on the pieces either side of the ladder to keep it secured.

 

[jscherb]

I ordered a set of the canopy walls in green from Walmart.com and some awning rope from Sailrite.com so when those arrive next week I'll assemble a changing toom.

Another thing that could be made with the awning rope, if you don't need a changing room, is shoe storage. What do you do with your dirty shoes when you climb up into the tent? How about leaving them just outside the tent door?

Here's how a shoe caddy could be easily made. Start with one of these closet door shoe organizers:

Cut one or two rows of show pockets off of it, and sew a length of awning rope to the top...

The awning rope can then be slipped into the channel on the bottom of the tent platform and the organizer positioned next to the tent door:

Some similar products cost $70 (https://offroadtents.com/products/shoe-rack-ikamper-for-roof-top-tents); the one above can be made for less than $10.

My local Walmart has a shoe organizer for $5.67 that could be used: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Mainstays-24-Pocket-White-Shoe-Organizer/173566787 and Target has one for $10.00: https://www.target.com/p/15-pocket-...anizer-gray-room-essentials-8482/-/A-50387790. I'll probably pick up one of these and make a shoe caddy for my RTT as well.

 

[jadmt]

I found hanging the shoes outside was nearly impossible because barefoot on the ladder was similar to torture and awkward for an old guy like me lol. I ended up leaving them down and having a clean pair of flip flops to wear up to the tent worked best.

 

[jscherb]

I found hanging the shoes outside was nearly impossible because barefoot on the ladder was similar to torture and awkward for an old guy like me lol. I ended up leaving them down and having a clean pair of flip flops to wear up to the tent worked best.

Hanging the shoe caddy next to the ladder like I pictured should make it easy to sit in the door of the tent with feet hanging down, remove the shoes, put them in the caddy, and swing your legs into the tent, no?

 

[jadmt]

Hanging the shoe caddy next to the ladder like I pictured should make it easy to sit in the door of the tent with feet hanging down, remove the shoes, put them in the caddy, and swing your legs into the tent, no?

Not for me but if you are flexible and taller than I am (5'10") it will probably work fine. Probably works for the younger crowd as well who are still limber. Oh I don't know why you did not use the other set of shows to paste that would have made people do a double take