Roof Tent Mounting Options

[Lemsteraak]

You know, I was thinking, Thule xSporter is an excellent system but it is a little pricey and you may not need the versatility is offers. If I were doing this I would probably go a slightly different path.

What about something like this?



This is an ancient Maggiolina on an old Can Back system. It offers a nice feature that you can keep equipment in the back protected and shouldn't be that much more than the Thule system. I sadly can't recommend Can Back, don't think they are around anymore, but there are a bunch of clones like Best Top that should be able to do a better job.

Here is a link to the article

http://www.4wdandsportutility.com/newproducts/0303_4wd_roof_top_tent/index.html

 

[gravelguy]

Someone was looking for a pic of a RTT on the roof of a DC Tacoma......Here you go! Probably looks kinda weird, but its an effective mount and doesn't cost an arm and a leg. That and I can still carry my bikes in the bed or use the hard tonneau cover for bed security.

I just remounted it for the season yesterday and added a few touches to help keep it more secure and quite. It does sit directly on top of the towers and that concerned me as well. To fix it (I think) I took some rubber material (actually an old thule foot pad) and cut it into pieces which I then glued to the top of the towers for the RTT to sit on. Also, I added steel spacers (about 3/16") directly under the mounting rails for the RTT. I have only driven around the block since making those modifications, but already it seems way more quiet than previously.

 

[Mark Harley]

I made several brakepress bent 1/8" stainless steel gutter mounts that bolt to the bed lip under my tonneau cover.
I use thule bars with gutter mount towers. Works great, removable, and stealth without the bars on.

 

[mike r]

 

[Nikson]

View attachment 107407View attachment 107408View attachment 107409

Nice setup Mike

 

[Fresno]

Suggestion -- if you haven't already, check ut the Thule Xsporter rack - mounts to the bed rails, adjustablehe for height. A very good solution for many people.

Mike, We have a medium Maggiolina to mount a ARE shell on a short bed Ford Raptor.
Question: Can we directly mount to the shell with out bars? Will the hurt the tent since it wiil not have the cross load bars? I will have to spacers between the tent and shell so it clears the cab.

 

[Lemsteraak]

Fresno, I've put some tents directly on shells, mostly Columbus' like Mike's because of the height. They will cut a trap door in the bottom of the tent so they can have the added height to change into gear like wetsuits away from the wind. Normally I do not recommend it because your tent will outlast many vehicles, mine has gone through about four, so you want to be able to move it easily to other vehicles. They are a very high grade fiberglass so you can modify or patch them with epoxy resins and the repair is stronger than before.

An aside, the tents are really aerodynamic and it seems to be just as efficient, drag wise, to mount the tent on bars. The air gap seems to add a little downforce.

 

[Andy@AAV]

I was going to use the X-sporter to mount my ARB, but the cost of the rack plus the bed rail system adapters was more than buying a rack from All-Pro. Since All-Pro is an easy drive from me I could save the cost on shipping. Plus the rack could be drilled to mount my pioneer gear and high lift. So...

Something to look out for is the location of the front spring steel rods that hold the window shades open. Depending on where your tent goes and how high the rack is they may interfere with the roof line of your truck. The rods need to be inserted parallel to the tent base then bent up to the window shades. Where my tent is mounted, it is difficult to insert one of the rods due to the roof line. Below you can see the closest rod is inserted parallel to the tent and the rear is in the up position. Its easy to see that inserting and removing the back rod without leaving deep scratches on the roof takes some practice.

The All-Pro APEX rack is a good solution for tent mounting. Its heavy but will hold up to anything.

 

[Fresno]

Fresno, I've put some tents directly on shells, mostly Columbus' like Mike's because of the height. They will cut a trap door in the bottom of the tent so they can have the added height to change into gear like wetsuits away from the wind. Normally I do not recommend it because your tent will outlast many vehicles, mine has gone through about four, so you want to be able to move it easily to other vehicles. They are a very high grade fiberglass so you can modify or patch them with epoxy resins and the repair is stronger than before.

An aside, the tents are really aerodynamic and it seems to be just as efficient, drag wise, to mount the tent on bars. The air gap seems to add a little downforce.

What is my concern is this part of the instructions:

"Before placing the roofbars on the vehicle, check the bar length and attachment strength.
Bar length "L" shall not be less than:
Small: 124 cm or 49 inches
Medium: 142 cm or 56 inches
Large: 160 cm or 63 inches"

"Again, make sure your roof bars are not too short"

If I mount on spacers to the shell will I break the tent? Does it require the horizontal bars to reinforce it?

 

[Lemsteraak]

Fresno,

Wow, that takes me back. Those instruction no longer apply, let me explain. One of the innovations that Zifer (AutoHome) made was to integrate the roof tent's deck with the bars so the bars were and integral part of the tent. Before that all the tents like Hannibals and the lot used expedition baskets for support which were heavier than the roof tents. This allowed AutoHome's tents to migrate to small cars and the tents weren't just for expedition vehicles anymore. The instructions you have are for use with the old steel expedition ladders. The ladders were two parts, the lower part would sink into the dirt when you stepped on it stabilizing it and the upper part was supported by the tent's side. All your weight was supported by the edge of the tent and could twist and develop stress cracks with time because of the flexing. Having the crossbars go out to the edge supported the edge. The newer fiberglass is better too, pretty much anything you find in North America is the new stuff, much better than "marine quality", hence the reason why your Maggiolina's shell is a good 20 pounds lighter than the new tents that look like AutoHome tents.

So, if you have an old steel two part ladder, keep it as an antique or have it for expedition use and order one of the new alloy ladders. Bottom line, don't worry, your tent can handle the shorter bars now as long as you don't use the steel ladder.

An aside, if you read the instructions, you will notice that these tents were designed with only one door, the other side was a small triangular window. Maggiolinas were really well adapted for cold weather use. Even though you could specify another door on the other side, the ladder wasn't designed to go there, it would interfere with the lift mechanism. The new Maggiolinas have a different lift mechanism so the ladder can go on either side. The old lift mechanism was bomb proof, in fact, even though the tents were and are very high tech, they are designed to be repaired in developing countries. The old steel ladders were often used as sand ladders and would get all twisted, no problem they still worked and you could weld on them if you needed. The new alloy ladders aren't welded, they are assembled to be able to be able to take them apart to repair. Probably costs twice as much to assemble but they have kept to their expedition roots.

 

[Fresno]

Thank you for the information.

 

[Kiddmen57]

So, I cant sleep right now because I've got a crazy idea in my head. One day I will build myself an expo trailer, and I prefer the maggiolina tents for ease and style. Having a family means that one tent will be cramped or possibly impossible (one kid now, another? maybe one day). This means dual maggiolinas would be required. I know I know, just get a big eziawn and be done. That's just not my style. So, knowing this I'm thinking dual maggiolinas. Issue is, that's a lot of real estate. An idea I had was to mount one on top of the other. Wait, how will the bottom one open? Well that's where this thought comes in: extra heavy duty drawer slides. I'm thinking build a lower cage and top support, put each maggiolina on a set of drawer slides front and rear, then one will slide 50%+ to the left and one will slide 50%+ to the right. You will have two tents side by side with about 14-16" of elevation difference. Each would have fold down support legs on the outer edge to hold our weight. So, what do you think, could this even be possible? Most drawer slides I've looked at are rated 375 pounds+ but only list up to a 32" wide "drawer". in this case the "drawer" would be closer to 90" wide. Now the tents themselves are not that heavy, 130 pounds. Add in the support and legs for another 50 pounds and the drawer slides *should* work. I might be crazy, but I have to start somewhere.

Crappy crappy concept for now. Solidworks will be used for actual design work


BTW - I don't want to mount one on the roof of the vehicle as I would need to install/ remove it every trip. garage height is only 80" which will not allow the lift, tires, and a RTT.

 

[Mike S]

I think that this would work on a trailer IF you make sure that you have access to the crank spud on the lower tent when deployed.

Tuffy makes some 'Hell for stout" slides that will hold 500 lbs. when extended. Might look at their specs...

 

[Bobmog]

My tent mounting

My RTT sleeping and riding.

 

[Corey]

Nice setup Bob!
Nice to see two of the Autohomes being utilized side by side.