Organizing roof rack. RTT in the front or the back.

[HiPERnx]

Hi,
After a lot of back and forth to get a hard shell RTT or a soft, i've gone with a soft one (Gordigear Explorer). Mainly because the price, i get a RTT and a roof rack (front runner) + a bunch of accessories for the same price as a Autohome hard shell without any mounting hardware. And i'm 206cm tall (6'9" MAGA units), soft shells are a lot longer, even longer than Autohome extra length models.
Now comes the question on how to organize the roof rack, what do people prefer? I was thinking of having the RTT up front and firewood and Jerry cans in the back of the rack, with the logic that with the tent placed over the center of the vehicle the tent will be more stable when 140kg me moves around in it and the Jerry cans are closer to where they are used and i can just siphon the gas out.
Would there be a reason to move them around? Having the cans and firewood up front and the tent in the rear.

Thanks a lot and keep exploring!

 

[ChasingOurTrunks]

Your logic is sound; the practicality of siphoning from a roof rack is handy as it saves a bit of work. Something else to consider that I would suggest is taking your vehicle to a Truck Stop or weigh station and see about getting axle weights. Your goal should be to evenly distribute your load over front and rear axle, as that is the best for handling and stability ,so depending on what you are taking this could change where the tent goes. It's fairly easy to know the weight of the tent and cans, so depending on your weight distribution you can adjust where you put stuff.

The other consideration is how the tent opens and if that will interfere with you accessing anything else on the vehicle. For instance, we used to prefer the tent opening out the back, but the ladder would interfere with our tailgate. Opening out the side makes this a bit easier to access.

 

[NatersXJ6]

Back. Wind noise when front will drive you nuts.

 

[jacobconroy]

Your logic is sound; the practicality of siphoning from a roof rack is handy as it saves a bit of work. Something else to consider that I would suggest is taking your vehicle to a Truck Stop or weigh station and see about getting axle weights. Your goal should be to evenly distribute your load over front and rear axle, as that is the best for handling and stability ,so depending on what you are taking this could change where the tent goes. It's fairly easy to know the weight of the tent and cans, so depending on your weight distribution you can adjust where you put stuff.

The other consideration is how the tent opens and if that will interfere with you accessing anything else on the vehicle. For instance, we used to prefer the tent opening out the back, but the ladder would interfere with our tailgate. Opening out the side makes this a bit easier to access.

I agree with the above. For drivability it's important to keep the weight even front-to-back. If you put the RTT in the front I would think it would aid aerodynamics for other non-aerodynamic gear if that gear is behind the RTT.

Be sure to consider any additional weight that you are putting at the rear of the rig too (inside). If it's a considerable amount, moving weight forward on the roof rack is about the only way to counteract that "inside" weight that I have found.

 

[Beat Mumenthaler]

Personally I put the rtt in the front, as aerodynamics is screwed up anyway I’d rather chose how to access things. The rtt has its own ladder and the gear on the roof rack while sitting on the back I access it with the rear ladder of the truck.