Question for rooftop tent owners regarding logistics.

[dstock]

My solution based off another members solution:

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/125832-DIY-Solo-RTT-mounting-contraption

The thule crossbars will help make it all easier.

 

[Lucky j]

We had the same problem with my girls friend Rav4 /hard shell autohome combo, my for arm would kust not pass the side rails and even if My gf arm could reach, she just did not had the patience for this. So we went with the yakima tower and bars.

Much better, but we take it of and store it under her porch.

I leave My ARB either on the trailer or some other place outside but raiseed from the ground, but I just put a plastic tarp over it for winter. I also made a cover since last winter out of an old garage tarp cut ans sown to the tent dimension.

 

[calicamper]

That's crazy! With the way mine is mounted and the strange angle of my driveway I or my neighbors would definitely hear the cursing. Once it is on the trailer I will be more concerned about security and will check out the security nuts.

Around here trailers walk off easily. I keep my trailer in the garage, out of sight. On the rare occasions the trailer is out front, I box it in with two vehicles. Just way to easy to steal trailers. One of my dads friends lost his 25ft goose neck cargo trailer while parked out front of a friends house during a visit. He was moving lost all his prized belongings!! Really messed up! Never found.

 

[stingray1300]

I built a "skate board" (2'x3') out of 1 1/8" plywood and some casters so that when the RTT comes off I can roll it around anywhere I need.
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Then I built 2 - steel tube racks and mounted them to the ceiling in my garage. They have "break-away" bottoms so when I hoist the RTT up, it slips into the racks. Then I swing the bottoms up and pin them. (I use an electric hoist)
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I used to just slide the RTT on and off the back of the truck cap (with help). Not too difficult. But not anymore! I just built a "crane" out of some pipe. Ball bearing (1) swivel, a bottle jack for boom angle, and a wire rope come-a-long for hoisting/lowering. It's simple, but effective. Drop it onto my skateboard, roll it into the garage, hoist, have a beer.
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It's times like these that it's really handy to be a welder... :sombrero:

 

[F800]

I've had my RTT on 2 jeeps. On both jeeps, I mounted the tent to the crossbars, then removed the tent & crossbars combo from the jeep anytime I needed to pull the tent. That gets rid of most of the difficulty of removal/reinstallation.

On my XJ I picked up some used Thule bars off craigslist, on the JK I have the rhino rack backbone HD bars. They mount even easier than the thule gutter mount bars did.

XJ

JK

My wife AND garage are both too short so I put together an el-cheapo crane with 2 8-ft ladders, a harbor freight winch mounted in the garage, a long 4x4 and some mcmaster pulleys. It's still a little complicated but it works pretty well.

I pull the tent off if I know I'm not going to be camping for at least a month and for most of the winter. I figured out 2 harbor freight dollys screwed together to form one large dolly hold the tent perfectly standing up on it's long side. That way it stores in a reasonably small footprint in the garage and it's mobile.

Slightly off topic but may I ask what roof rack / rails you are using with the JK that supports a Rooftop tent?

Thank you!

 

[Mass_Mopar]

Slightly off topic but may I ask what roof rack / rails you are using with the JK that supports a Rooftop tent?

Thank you!

Rhino rack backbone + 2 cross bars

https://www.northridge4x4.com/part/complete-racks/rjkb1-rhino-rack-backbone-3-bar-system

 

[Scoutman]

I leave mine on (been up there for almost 4 years now) but the one time I did remove it...