I have an Eezi-Awn RTT that I bought because my buddy Jerrod has one and we'd used it all over southern California and deep into Baja. In my book, definitely the way to go.
Craigslist yielded an inexpensive used shell for my 01 tacoma, and I fabbed up a simple internal frame for the shell itself and mounted the tent to the top of the shell. I have an overhead hoist to haul the shell+tent off the truck and chains hanging from the ceiling of my shop to secure it in place. That all works well but my biggest gripe is that with the tent on my truck, once I reach camp, I'm stuck. Obviously I can't go anywhere without completely breaking camp. I put up with that for a couple years and then finally decided to do something about it.
I go to the desert quite a bit during the season and had acquired 3 quads plus a tandem axle trailer to haul those plus all my camping gear. It worked pretty well, lower shell onto truck, bolt it up, hitch up trailer and go...but the trailer is on it's own lift up and out of the way so that was the first thing that had to go. Sold, for $100 less than I paid for it 5 years ago. God bless Craigslist.
One of the quads had been my ex-wife's and seeing that thing reminded me of that miserable tart...so that was the next to go. Out of sight, out of mind.
Next up: Specifications and criteria for the build.
Craigslist yielded an inexpensive used shell for my 01 tacoma, and I fabbed up a simple internal frame for the shell itself and mounted the tent to the top of the shell. I have an overhead hoist to haul the shell+tent off the truck and chains hanging from the ceiling of my shop to secure it in place. That all works well but my biggest gripe is that with the tent on my truck, once I reach camp, I'm stuck. Obviously I can't go anywhere without completely breaking camp. I put up with that for a couple years and then finally decided to do something about it.
I go to the desert quite a bit during the season and had acquired 3 quads plus a tandem axle trailer to haul those plus all my camping gear. It worked pretty well, lower shell onto truck, bolt it up, hitch up trailer and go...but the trailer is on it's own lift up and out of the way so that was the first thing that had to go. Sold, for $100 less than I paid for it 5 years ago. God bless Craigslist.
One of the quads had been my ex-wife's and seeing that thing reminded me of that miserable tart...so that was the next to go. Out of sight, out of mind.
Next up: Specifications and criteria for the build.