Haggis' Multi-Use Tundra Build
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Haggis
Appalachian Ridgerunner
Sometimes one can get so involved on the cerebral aspects of planning your next move that you get your cart ahead of your horse. That sort of happened to me and my last post…but it’s OK. What I was planning I now realize is over complicated. The plan is now being modified to fit a new reality as I actually have the major piece of our transition from trailer camping for a family of four to a more mobile set-up for just two. Oh, we’ll still have some wiggle room to throw in extra gear in if the minions come along, but the focus will be on roaming as a couple.
Well after looking at all the camping options we had listed a few pages back Michelle said she’d like to try out a RTT. And since we have a trip at the end of April planned for a tour of the Mid-South she wanted me to procure one to use on that trip for us to try out. My plan was to pick up a used budget RTT like the Camping Lab, Tepiu or Mombosa, try it out for the week and if we didn’t like it we’d just sell it again. Even if we lost a little money it would be cheaper than motel rooms for a week. A fabric folding tent would work well on my secondary lower rack and be able to flip up between my tall stanchions so that was an advantage. But I’ve seen folks rip their covers, tear straps and I’ve listened to tents flap in the breeze as I was following others down the highway not to mention tent’s rustling in the wind once they’re set up. But that aside I went ahead and put an ad here on the Portal for a used RTT. Lo and behold, I got a quick response…but not the type that I was expecting.
Opening a PM from fellow ExPo member Endo I found that he had in his possession a practically new Autohome Maggiolina Extreme RTT. Here it turns out Endo (whose real name is Clint) is a principal at JPFreek magazine and JPF's gear editor (John) had a demo Maggiolina sitting in his garage after doing a magazine review on it. It had only been slept in twice, so it was for all intensive purposes brand new. Autohome really didn’t want to ship it back to their factory if they didn’t have to, so they asked Clint if he could find a buyer for it and if so they’d offer a good deal on the tent. Well along comes Haggis…
I never even considered one of these tents as they are a high end tent, but I was really attracted to its design. Mainly the hard cover construction. Here in the East I’ve seen tent covers ripped by hugging trees so having a hard sided tent offers some advantage. Also the big bonus for me was storage. We live right next to a trout stream and critters run amok everywhere. You can’t let anything sit for a couple of days without some critter getting into it. I had visions of opening a tent in the woods only to find it chewed to bits and the interior covered in pellets. So after discussing the advantages and disadvantages of hard side and soft sided tents Michelle and I decide to go for Maggiolina.
Clint had us contact Mike (Mike S here on the Portal) at Autohome US to arrange a deal. Mike was great to do business with. He answered our questions and our concerns with good info, did everything he said he was going to do and offered us a deal on the tent that was way too good to pass up. Next I had to make arrangements with Clint to pick up the tent. And as luck would have it, the Maggie was located just a little south of my sister Elizabeth’s and my brother in laws (jim65wagon) house in Virginia. Sweet…I had a base camp for my tent retrieval expedition. As my wife and kids had too much going on to make a run south I found myself hitting the highway all by my lonesome.
So over a couple of days I mooched of my brother-in-law and ate his food (crab cakes, potato pancakes, roasted chicken with all the works…good stuff); met Clint who took time out of his busy schedule to help me mount the tent (Thanks Clint!), talked trucks and stuff, and we utilized John's too well organized garage (Thank's John!); drove the backroads of Virginny thanks to some suggestions form Clint; BSed with ExPo member TangoBlue while exchanging trade goods and ogling his sweet Overlanding (not a rock crawler) Tacoma; and finally dodged rozzer speed traps on the trip home.
So here’s the end result…a virtually new “used” tent on the back of Fafhrd…
Petrolburner
Explorer
Nice! Pics of it popped up?
Haggis
Appalachian Ridgerunner
Here are some more photos with the tent deployed…
Impressions so far…
*Driving with the tent mounted on the lower racks you don't even notice that's it is back there other than the blocked view out the rear window. The tent rode quiet and stable the whole way. On my trip down my gas mileage averaged 16.8 mpg and on the way home I averaged 16.6. So no real discernible difference and some of that might be due to the crappy gas they have in Virginia. This is way better than the three or four mpg loss that would happen when we hauled our E1 trailer around.
*The materials used in the construction of the Maggiolina are top notch. The tent fabric feels hefty and substantial and is of better quality than the fabric used in our old E1. The zippers are heavy duty and work fast and well with no snag ups. The roof has a headliner in it that has a nice feel and the mattress is really comfy.
* Set-up is fairly quick. It takes me 45 seconds to spool up the top and just a couple of minutes to set the ladder and zip up the doors. Ingress is fairly easy, though I have plans to make it easier. Take down is just a bit slower as you need to see that the fabric folds down nicely.
*Michelle likes all the interior storage pockets as there are two pockets to each side of the walls and a big gear storage loft at the low end of the hardtop. She also liked the rotating LED light.
*I won't be able to deploy the tent with the tall stanchions on. But it only takes five minutes to put them on and off if I'm bringing along the kayaks so it shouldn't be a real problem. The Extreme model of Maggiolina has provisions for a rack also and I did mount up my Thule mounts to see how they fit. But I don't think I can mount the ‘yaks on that rail as I believe the Maggie rack is only rated for 20 kilos or 44 lbs. I'll find out for sure though.
As I was driving home, ways to improve the set-up were already forming in my head so there will be tweaks and mods to the tent and it's set-up as we figure the best way to utilize our new loft apartment. I was looking forward to using it this weekend as when I was in Virginia the temps were warm and I was walking around in my T-shirt. But here back at home we're expecting heavy snows this weekend. Michelle doesn't sleep outside in the cold... so no trying out the Maggie at this time. Sigh.
Impressions so far…
*Driving with the tent mounted on the lower racks you don't even notice that's it is back there other than the blocked view out the rear window. The tent rode quiet and stable the whole way. On my trip down my gas mileage averaged 16.8 mpg and on the way home I averaged 16.6. So no real discernible difference and some of that might be due to the crappy gas they have in Virginia. This is way better than the three or four mpg loss that would happen when we hauled our E1 trailer around.
*The materials used in the construction of the Maggiolina are top notch. The tent fabric feels hefty and substantial and is of better quality than the fabric used in our old E1. The zippers are heavy duty and work fast and well with no snag ups. The roof has a headliner in it that has a nice feel and the mattress is really comfy.
* Set-up is fairly quick. It takes me 45 seconds to spool up the top and just a couple of minutes to set the ladder and zip up the doors. Ingress is fairly easy, though I have plans to make it easier. Take down is just a bit slower as you need to see that the fabric folds down nicely.
*Michelle likes all the interior storage pockets as there are two pockets to each side of the walls and a big gear storage loft at the low end of the hardtop. She also liked the rotating LED light.
*I won't be able to deploy the tent with the tall stanchions on. But it only takes five minutes to put them on and off if I'm bringing along the kayaks so it shouldn't be a real problem. The Extreme model of Maggiolina has provisions for a rack also and I did mount up my Thule mounts to see how they fit. But I don't think I can mount the ‘yaks on that rail as I believe the Maggie rack is only rated for 20 kilos or 44 lbs. I'll find out for sure though.
As I was driving home, ways to improve the set-up were already forming in my head so there will be tweaks and mods to the tent and it's set-up as we figure the best way to utilize our new loft apartment. I was looking forward to using it this weekend as when I was in Virginia the temps were warm and I was walking around in my T-shirt. But here back at home we're expecting heavy snows this weekend. Michelle doesn't sleep outside in the cold... so no trying out the Maggie at this time. Sigh.
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WASURF63
Adventurer
Timing is everything...Congrats!
Had a Med. Magg mounted to a rack above a contractor canopy on my '00 Tundra (pics below).
Endured some pretty foul weather in it (snow, hail, driving downpoors, high wind), and always stayed plenty warm and dry.
I'd suggest the available awning/changing room option "http://www.autohomeus.com/accessories/awnings.php" or rigging up something similar should you decide to keep this set up. Having weather protection when climbing in/out would have made this RTT even better when we owned it.
I did use these "http://www.autohomeus.com/accessories/tuffnut.php" to keep my rack and tent from wandering off.
Had a Med. Magg mounted to a rack above a contractor canopy on my '00 Tundra (pics below).
Endured some pretty foul weather in it (snow, hail, driving downpoors, high wind), and always stayed plenty warm and dry.
I'd suggest the available awning/changing room option "http://www.autohomeus.com/accessories/awnings.php" or rigging up something similar should you decide to keep this set up. Having weather protection when climbing in/out would have made this RTT even better when we owned it.
I did use these "http://www.autohomeus.com/accessories/tuffnut.php" to keep my rack and tent from wandering off.
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12husky
Adventurer
I have always liked the concept of those tents; I am looking forward to your review and hopefully seeing it in person at one of the floats.
With it mounted on your low rack, it may be better aerodynamically and look cool if you mounted it backwards. It is tough to see from your pictures if the deep end would be at cab level.
With it mounted on your low rack, it may be better aerodynamically and look cool if you mounted it backwards. It is tough to see from your pictures if the deep end would be at cab level.
Haggis
Appalachian Ridgerunner
Thanks again Clint, here's hoping you guys can make the float trip.
Haggis
Appalachian Ridgerunner
Thanks...it is funny how things work out sometimes.
Yep, thats part of the plan as the drawback on these tents is the uncovered entrances.
Haggis
Appalachian Ridgerunner
I thought about mounting it backwards, and Clint and I discussed it as we were sitting it up on the racks. But I think it's best this way as the rear portion would be higher than the cab, it puts the tent's built in small rack in a better position on the truck and the crank handle is way easier to use towards the rear. Also if I do end up using the tent's built in rack I can access it far easier by standing on the tailgate.
I had talked to Clint and James about mounting the tent to one side to make ladder entry easier and that would also allow me to transport the easy up shelter on the rack beside the tent. But that would also expose the tent to a better chance of tree damage at that one side. So I'm going to leave the tent centered and than fab up some "porches" on either side of the tent that will mount to the racks. These will be about a foot wide and have a mounting flange for the ladder on either side. We'll step up on the porch, slip off our shoes and crawl into the tent. I'm also thinking about mounting some waterproof boxes on those "porches" to put our shoes in and other things we don't want to bring into the tent. As we live and spend most of our time in soggy/muddy PA cleanliness is always a concern.
Here's a shot to either side of the tent where the Porches will extend in between the space of the rails...
I'm not sure what I'm going to use for the planking of the porches but will be looking for something light wieght and strong with preforatations so that water and dirt drip through.
Matt, you best get to a least one float this year.
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Haggis
Appalachian Ridgerunner
Tango brought his truck over for inspiration but I just not capable of being that ExPo Cool. I guess it's all in the Khakis....
Haggis
Appalachian Ridgerunner
I spent some time today gathering some stuff and assembling a prototype for the rack porches. The thought behind these porches is that we can remove our shoes and enter the tent easier than just crawling in. The first one turned out pretty good and I think it will work well, though I’m thinking about using aluminum diamond plate for the tread if I can source a deal on some correct sized drops. Ignore the gaps as I will have to adjust my rack positions once the Maggie is removed here shortly. Once I’m sure that this will work it’ll get a coat of rattle can bedliner so it color matches the rack and offers a little bit of traction to the tread. Then I’ll mount a 40 mm ammo can to each side of the tent on the porches to stow shoes or whatever we don’t want to bring into the tent but want near at hand. The racks are about 10" wide and 4' long.
JCMatthews
Tour Guide
Daaang!:drool: