RAISE THE ROOF...top tent!

[Mr. T]

I'll soon be starting a trailer build and would like the tent as low as possible when traveling. I would also like the option of lifting up the tent.

? is it must that you lift the tentmy my tent is 4 feet off the ground which I find is just right for unfolding and folding, my awning is what goes up and down. https://expeditionportal.com/forum/attachments/6bf9e07d-6a56-4523-9558-6f5f39c1c7bc-jpeg.475559/

 

[Brianj5600]

It is not a must and not always be used. My reason for raising it is to use the tent overhang as a makeshift awning and down the road, possibly an annex. I'm trying to keep things simple. It would be easier to build the trailer once.

When I'm on vacation pretty much all my time is spent doing stuff. I don't care much about where I stay in a hotel because all I do is sleep and shower there. I won't be hanging out at camp much either. I don't want it to be too complicated.

I don't remember the first time I disperse camped. Roughing it was the norm. That was what we did for the most part growing up and as an adult. My build will not be elaborate. The main thing that I hate about roughing it is lack of shower. That is a must. Raising the tent will also make showers easier.

 

[Mr. T]

It is not a must and not always be used. My reason for raising it is to use the tent overhang as a makeshift awning and down the road, possibly an annex.

Then keep it simple, a scissor jack to raise and lower and quick release pins on each corner to give it stability in the up or down position. Square perforated steel tubing as risers seen in diagram below.View attachment 485630

 

[Brianj5600]

That is definitely in the running. Your pictures have different height boxes on the trailer making the lift look smaller than it really is.

 

[Mr. T]

That is definitely in the running. Your pictures have different height boxes on the trailer making the lift look smaller than it really is.

Fixed picture

 

[cemeb4dk]

I used linear actuators to lift mine up 20'' to annex height. Then wired each motor individually so I don't have to level the trailer anymore, I just drop the stabilizing legs and level my tent frame once its up to height.

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awesome work. What did you use as cross bars to mount your tent. Any pics of the tent on the rack in the lower and raised positions

 

[Shwane]

I dont have pics of it installed yet, but here's a time lapse of it going up

 

[Shwane]

I got the brackets from this guy...After that I just bought some square tubing and went to welding.

Compact Camping Concepts

The crossbars are the mounting channel that came with the tent, I just secured them to my square tubing.

 

[Pierre C]

I used linear actuators to lift mine up 20'' to annex height. Then wired each motor individually so I don't have to level the trailer anymore, I just drop the stabilizing legs and level my tent frame once its up to height.

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I'm struggling with this idea since day one. I went with lift support inside the mast mainly for time/budget constraints. (see pics below)

How much electricity those it take? I have a Deep charged battery in the trailer, those actuator drain a lot? How did you build the control?

 

[dstock]

I went with linear actuators. Build thread in my sig...

 

[Shwane]

I'm not 100% sure on the amp draw. But It hasn't drained the battery too bad. I'm running them on a 55 amp hour deep cell.

For the controls I used a 6 gang switch panel and replaced 4 of them with momentary on/off/on switches. S0 I can control them individually.

 

[battleaxe]

I dicked around with this for about a month during the summer.

What eventually happened was I found some ~50lb struts with a 10" stroke, and mounted on the inside of the trailer. It worked fine I guess, but was not how I built the trailer originally.

I wanted ~20" stroke to allow use of the annex, and to clear my head to the bottom of the tent.

Your best option in my opinion, is to pony up for some actuators. They're cheap from China (I bought two sets of 4 for less than what a single one would cost me in Canada)

I think what has ultimately happened now, is that I'm just redoing the trailer to get close to the proper height from the start. The wife would like more storage in the trailer anyways...