I'm looking for suggestions for RTT's for my family of 4. I've looked at many of the different ones that have come up frequently on the forum (ARB, Cascadia, Mombasa, etc.) but wanted to get some feedback from real user experience. I also have a question with mounting on many of these. I plan on installing an ARB Full Steel Roof Rack, not the Touring Rack. My question is, has anyone modified the full rack to accomodate a RTT? From looking at the racks out there, it seems that the side rails of the rack would interfere with deploying the tent. Am I correct in the assesment? ARB states that their RTT's are only compatable with the Touring Rack.
Help choosing Roof Top Tent and mounting question. RTT
- Thread starter Derek G
- Start date
cruiseroutfit
Well-known member
Correct, any 'flip open' style RTT is not going to work if its within the side rails of your rack.
cruiseroutfit
Well-known member
Yup, I've seen it done but it puts an already high tent that much higher, thus impacting COG, aerodynamics and general usability. Are you wanting to mount the RTT only when in use or leave it up there for extended periods? What will you be using the rack for when the RTT is not installed? Do you you need the sides when the tent isn't installed?
MANUCHAO
Aventurero
I have a full size Tradesman roof rack...
what I did was cut the rails off all around I made a ferring at the front...
this would allow me to use my Eeze Awn RTT..
I never carry anything else on the roof rack when I have the tent up there...
I have had a few 10' 2*4 beams up there when needed...
imho a flat roof rack is waaaay more practical than a basket type roof rack..
what I did was cut the rails off all around I made a ferring at the front...
this would allow me to use my Eeze Awn RTT..
I never carry anything else on the roof rack when I have the tent up there...
I have had a few 10' 2*4 beams up there when needed...
imho a flat roof rack is waaaay more practical than a basket type roof rack..
Flyfishjeep
Adventurer
This problem has been corrected by many with the purchase (or building) of a flat roof rack. Although the rails are nice for preventing gear from sliding, so is a good knot and proper tie downs. I was looking at this same problem and found it easier to purchase roof rack mounts and build a rack to my needs (flat for the occassional use of my RTT). I found this to be $300-500 cheaper and got me what I needed .Although I do not own an ARB tent (Camping Lab, which I am very happy with and for about 50-60% more inexpesive than most RTT's) I believ that most of these tents will mount to any bar (round or square) that does not run parallel to the tents mounting tracks. I know there are a few companies out there that are building flat racks just for RTT mounting, but they also seem rather expensive for less work/materials.
Looking at the replies here and looking into the Touring Rack I think that its more likely to suit all of my needs instead of trying to modify a full rack. The tent won't be on the vehicle the entire time, probably stored on the ceiling of my garage most of the time. We need the extra storage capacity, whether we have the tent on top or not, simply because of traveling with the kids (and as of two days ago, the new dog takes up a lot of room in the back of the 4Runner). I echo the same concern with COG with a narrow tracked vehicle, and had the same problems when my rack was fully loaded on my old Series II LR. As mentioned above, with proper tie-down techniques there shouldn't be an issue with not having the rails on the back half. Now, as to the first half of the primary question, tent reccomendations for a family of 4? New dog sleeps on the ground!
Colin Hughes
Explorer
Two Autohome Overcamp tents set up side by side, one for the adults, one for the kids. As for the dog, bring a bed for it to sleep in the truck. If you are in a campground, your fellow campers will not appreciate a dog barking all night at any little thing that moves and if you are wild camping, the kids won't wake up to just a chain and collar in the morning.
Colin Hughes
Explorer
BTW - I've been debating racks for quite some time and finally pulled the trigger on a Front Runner slim-line tall (flat) 2.2 m rack yesterday. I looked at a factory Land Rover Safety Devices rack, a Baja rack, a custom Baja rack but the Front Runner offers way to many great options and that swayed me. I can mount a solar panel under the rack for travel, an RTT on top, awning off side, etc, etc. And there is even a bottle opener accessory 
Yes, the dog will sleep in the car, if she makes the trip at all. I looked at the front runner but had issue with amount of separate "pieces" that were needed to put it together. I had a Con-Fer rack years ago on a jeep and after a few thousand miles, all of those nuts and bolts start to sound like I'm carrying marbles on the roof. Even after thread lock I was always busting my knuckles to tighten a bolt or two. I'm sure things have changed now, but that experience made me very aware of looking at how many parts it took to do the job. I looked at Baja, but they don't seem to make an application for my 4th Gen 4Runner that would allow me to place a RTT. The reason I'm swayed to the ARB Touring now is that I can place a RTT and still have a "section" with rails for added insurance.
jjstahl3
Explorer
As a family of 4 that used roof top tents for a while we have a 6 and 8 yr girls that would sleep in the rtt with my wife and I would sleep in the room below but as the girls got bigger the rtt we had became too small - we moved to a teardrop trailer for 2 and 2 in the back of our 110 - I think you will need 2 rtt to make it work as 1 large one seems like a fortune to purchase. I think I would consider a oz tent for the amount of money you are going to spend on rtt's for what you are looking to do
I'm typically a very simplistic camper and use a two man tent on the ground, especially during long trips on my motorcycle where space is extremely limted, but we're going to be doing 70% of our camping in bear country and we've already had a few incidents. This August we had a bear tear up the bike near Silverton CO, hence the desire to be elevated.
ksuttle
New member
RTT's where families are involved can prove a bit tricky. We have a family of 5. Me and my wife, plus daughters ages 7, 9, and 13. On trips where we don't expect heavy winds to be an issue we deploy the RTT with its vestibule and sleep 2 up top and 3 in the vestibule. Unfortunately, the vestibule does not have the wall support of tent poles so we suspect it would flap quite a bit in the wind - we have not had to test that yet.
In the spring we were fortunate to be able to borrow a duplicate of our RTT for an extended trip through Death Valley with our 2 rigs. We slept 3 in one RTT and 2 in the other RTT...the tents survived 40-50mph winds without a problem (except for noise) one night. The previous year we had a ground tent that was picked up and flipped by the wind with our gear and one daughter inside.
We purchased the Tepui Tent Autana model and have mounted it to a RTT model BajaRack and to a custom Hannibal rack that was mounted to Thule loadbars.
In the spring we were fortunate to be able to borrow a duplicate of our RTT for an extended trip through Death Valley with our 2 rigs. We slept 3 in one RTT and 2 in the other RTT...the tents survived 40-50mph winds without a problem (except for noise) one night. The previous year we had a ground tent that was picked up and flipped by the wind with our gear and one daughter inside.
We purchased the Tepui Tent Autana model and have mounted it to a RTT model BajaRack and to a custom Hannibal rack that was mounted to Thule loadbars.
Thank you, all very good information. After the bear incidents my wife is insistant that all of us are up top, luckily my two girls are only 4 and 5 and smaller. I've been eyeing the largest model of the Cascadia tent, but haven't seen one up close (any for that matter) and seems pretty difficult to do here in Dallas unless there happens to be an expo nearby. My wife likes the Tepui as well but I haven't looked into it as much, maybe something to do this evening.