Bed mounted RTT

[taco2go]

My solution from this thread.

I thought I'd post this up for anyone with a soft tonneau type cover. For a while now, I've have been mulling over several options for mounting the tent over the truck bed for solo trips; and had a few criteria that the platform had to conform to:

Be relatively easy to remove/replace. (full use of bed, when required)

Retain use of the soft tonneau cover and rails. (I have one by Truxedo)

Keep tent height below or equal to cab height (garage constraint)

Sturdy enough for prolonged, albeit moderate off road travel. (dirt trails/washboards)

Accommodate the tent within the bed's dimensions (to allow for a future bumper mounted tire carrier)

In the end I settled for a fairly simple set up that has held up very well......so far.

I found some old Thule gutter mount towers (1050) on ebay, and used three 58 inch load bars. Tent was secured using a set of RTT mounting brackets from Adventure Trailers.

The design of the gutter mounts allows the weight of the tent to be distributed along the vertex of the tonneau cover's rails, where the metal is the thickest and strongest. They clamp on viciously well- althougth if I was being redundant, I could bolt on some of Thule's fake gutters, for additional grippage. No bed stretching so far- fingers crossed.

A nice benefit is that I can still unroll and use the bed cover with tent mounted, for additional protection/concealment.

 

[soonenough]

Here's another option from a frozenground's Tacoma build (which is awesome by the way): http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50732 :drool:

 

[Box Rocket]

Homemade rack. Use it for other stuff when I don't have a tent. I don't actually own my own tent yet, so I have borrowed this one from a friend. I'm still looking at a new ARB or Eezi-Awn. When I get one, I will probably change the height of the rack to be more like the FrontRunner Bakkie rack so that a stowed tent is about the height of the cab.

without the tent

 

[RocKrawler]

Homemade rack. Use it for other stuff when I don't have a tent. I don't actually own my own tent yet, so I have borrowed this one from a friend. I'm still looking at a new ARB or Eezi-Awn. When I get one, I will probably change the height of the rack to be more like the FrontRunner Bakkie rack so that a stowed tent is about the height of the cab.

If you arent in a terrible rush, we will have an exclusive tent offering from ARB thats the same as the Simpson III except it will offer much easier side entry (much better suited for mounting to tops of trailers and truck beds so you dont have to duck down to get in) and be at least a couple hundreds less than the current ARB tent. Aside from the lack of entry cover it is identical to the Simpson in every other way, priced much lower, and available ONLY from Iron Pig Off Road!

 

[Box Rocket]

If you arent in a terrible rush, we will have an exclusive tent offering from ARB thats the same as the Simpson III except it will offer much easier side entry (much better suited for mounting to tops of trailers and truck beds so you dont have to duck down to get in) and be at least a couple hundreds less than the current ARB tent. Aside from the lack of entry cover it is identical to the Simpson in every other way, priced much lower, and available ONLY from Iron Pig Off Road!

I'm not in a rush. Sounds like an interesting option. I'll keep my eyes open for it.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

If you arent in a terrible rush, we will have an exclusive tent offering from ARB thats the same as the Simpson III except it will offer much easier side entry (much better suited for mounting to tops of trailers and truck beds so you dont have to duck down to get in) and be at least a couple hundreds less than the current ARB tent. Aside from the lack of entry cover it is identical to the Simpson in every other way, priced much lower, and available ONLY from Iron Pig Off Road!

Sounds like a neat tent, that said having spent nearly a hundred nights in my Simpson III tents on the back of my Tacoma I've come to love the veranda cover. While its a very minor pain to duck under (if that), it offers some privacy, my wife can take a nap with out having to close the door flap and I can change without even closing the doors. My 2 cents...

 

[RocKrawler]

Sounds like a neat tent, that said having spent nearly a hundred nights in my Simpson III tents on the back of my Tacoma I've come to love the veranda cover. While its a very minor pain to duck under (if that), it offers some privacy, my wife can take a nap with out having to close the door flap and I can change without even closing the doors. My 2 cents...

I can see where some people would like the feature and others would not, especially if you were tall. The other nice perk is they will be made by the same factory ARB currently uses, and covered by warranty directly by ARB. These will be priced significantly ($300+) lower than the Simpson III but with all the same quality and warranty backing ARB is known for. ETA of these new design tents is mid March and we will be posting up photos and details in the very near future.

 

[Arvin G]

was made for a few configuration-tent cot-bedrack-RTT. Just never got around to the RTT.

 

[hbmurphy]

:smiley_drive:

 

[fire931]

Nice...

I recognize that rear bumper!

 

[freeze]

I wonder who made it?

 

[fire931]

Yea not real sure but looks good to me! lol

While on the subject, Freeze, are you happy with your rack? Any complaints on the height or anything? I might be making something similar soon and thus far yours if my favorite.

 

[freeze]

No complaints! I wanted something to be able to see out the back window but low enough the keep the tent from being a brick. I've gotta hand it to our fab guy Chad, I just told him what I wanted, he CAD'd it up with a pretty cool design (he has a pretty unique style) and it came out like this.

I think these bed cages are going to get pretty popular with more solid designs and functionality.

It could have been a simple twin roll bar with a top rail but it was nice he takes it the extra step.

 

[enzo]

Yea not real sure but looks good to me! lol

While on the subject, Freeze, are you happy with your rack? Any complaints on the height or anything? I might be making something similar soon and thus far yours if my favorite.

:sombrero:

 

[fire931]

Thanks for the input! I threw together something in BendTech recently. I've had several customers talk to me about stuff like this, plus I'm hoping to get my own tent sometime this coming year.

Enzo.... Going to URE this weekend and wish I had your new toy!