JKChad
Observer
What lift capacity is your struts? I went with 60lb'ers but I'm going to be real close to there total, combined, lift amount.
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Telescoping RTT Rack Design Question
- Thread starter KellyM
- Start date
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Steve F
Adventurer
I used these for my awning tubes, they are not super tight but hold it pretty well and work great for my awning. They do two sizes, these are the smaller ones, larger ones might be better for a tent lift.
http://hubproducts.com/collections/tube-sliders
Cheers
Steve
http://hubproducts.com/collections/tube-sliders
Cheers
Steve
If I were going to make an adjustable rack, I would make it out of two pieces of channel flat to flat. One with a groove cut and one with two holes/bolts. In my experience, tubing just does not telescope well. Debris/water etc binding up inside the lower tube would concern me. If you end up making it from tubing, I would wrap the joint in electrical tape after you lower it. Any time I have painted telescoping tubing, it gets scraped off. Coupled with water/moisture retention, you could end up with rusty surfaces sliding against each other.
Mushin_Noshin
Adventurer
I went with 75lb per corner. Way to much! With the wife sitting on top it slide down really easy, when I was solo I would use a ratchet strap to bring it down (easy enough to do but took longer.
I think 60lb will be OK, ide rather help it up then down! And with locking pins it won't go anywhere while up/down anyway.
I never had issues with dirt or mud, and it saw alot, I painted the outside rubes and left the inner tubes bare where they slide inside the outer (upper part that showed was painted), when ide get home I would wash any dirt out and spray liberally with wd-40, never had issue with binding or rust
www.overlandgearexchange.com
JKChad
Observer
Great info! I plan to paint my tubes, inside and out. My smaller tubes will have strips of UHMW to act as a slip surface between the inner and outer tubes. About to head out to the garage and make my brackets and extentions for my struts. Hope to be able to have a functional assisted telescoping rack by this afternoon.
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ecameron97
New member
Here is a rough idea that I may try if or when I get a RTT. Basically the legs will pivot up and down on hinges with struts to help with the weight. I would also create some brackets to lock it in place in both positions.
Thoughts?
Down-position
Mid-position
Up-position
Thoughts?
Down-position
Mid-position
Up-position
bobholthaus
Observer
Any chance one of you would explain exactly how this works? I'd like to run this same setup on my RTT trailer. Thanks.
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JKChad
Observer
The telescoping tubes have lift struts installed inside the tubes to lift the rack. Pop pins are welded onto the lower tubes with holes drilled into the upper tubes for high and low catch position. When you pull the handle on each pop pin, the force of the strut pushes each upper tube up enough to keep the pins from reseating. Once all 4 pins are pulled, the struts lift the rack up to the high position. The high position holes in the upper tube catch and hold the rack up in position. To lower, this is the trickier part and the guy above saved me some headache. You need to have your struts total lift capacity close to the total weight of the rack and RTT. If you go to strong, you'll have a tougher time lowering the rack/rtt. I went with 60lb lift per strut and have a total rack/RTT weight of about 230lbs. I'm still finalizing my rack build/trailer restoration but here a quick video of my setup.
[video]https://youtu.be/Manb83SD4Mo[/video]
I can fairly easily lower mine by myself by entering the trailer, hang my body weight from the middle of the rack with one hand, and pull the pop pins with my other. if I have an extra person we just start pulling down and pull the pop pins. pulling down equally on each side doesn't take much effort. I also added bolts, will be replaced with star knobs tomorrow, that make contact with the upper tubes opposite of the push pins. This is to help lock the tubes in place to reduce any movement in transit or in the high mount position.
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bobholthaus
Observer
Okay, thank you for the explanation. Where do I get the lift struts? Right now my rack is very tall and it slides straight down into some larger diameter square tubing that is welded to my trailer; the RTT isn't on yet, so until now, we've been raising and lowering the rack manually (prior to putting bikes up there, which is all we've used it for to date). I'm wondering if I can retrofit my setup or do I need to start from scratch? Thanks. I'll watch the video in the morning.
bobholthaus
Observer
Thank you for taking the time to send all of this; I really appreciate it. Do you mind sending me the part number you used?
Also, if I close off the bottom of my lower piece, and close off the bottom of my upper piece, can I just slide the strut down into the lower piece and then set my upper piece in there and let it compress the strut without any inner attachment points for the strut? So the upper piece is literally just "smashing" down on the strut as it slide down into the lower piece? Obviously I would drill a small hole in the bottom piece to allow water to drain out of that piece.
Thanks again. I'm going with a Tepui Kukunam tent plus the weight of the rack. I think the tent is 130 lbs; I have no idea how much my support bars and Yakima rack are (I have a Yakima in the middle so that I can quick release the tent if needed). I will weigh all of that to come up with the strut strength I need, but I also want the longest one they sell. Thanks.
Also, if I close off the bottom of my lower piece, and close off the bottom of my upper piece, can I just slide the strut down into the lower piece and then set my upper piece in there and let it compress the strut without any inner attachment points for the strut? So the upper piece is literally just "smashing" down on the strut as it slide down into the lower piece? Obviously I would drill a small hole in the bottom piece to allow water to drain out of that piece.
Thanks again. I'm going with a Tepui Kukunam tent plus the weight of the rack. I think the tent is 130 lbs; I have no idea how much my support bars and Yakima rack are (I have a Yakima in the middle so that I can quick release the tent if needed). I will weigh all of that to come up with the strut strength I need, but I also want the longest one they sell. Thanks.
bobholthaus
Observer
Here's what I have. I'm guessing I need to make my lower bars much longer and cut my upper bars shorter; the upper bars are already line-x'd. Then do I just slide the struts in the lower bars loose and let them sit inside of there? Thanks.
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JKChad
Observer
How much do you want the rack to raise/lower? For instance, my rack uses all 19.75" of stroke on the struts to get the desired low/high heights. I'm not an engineer, although my job titles says it I don't have a degree in engineering. That being said, my good ol' logic sensor told me that if I want the rack to raise 20", i want my lower and upper tubes to be around 1.5 times that amount to have a safe amount of upper tube still inside the lower tube at the high height. Now the other factor(s) are overall height needed. for me I wanted the bottom side of the tent floor to be around 75" so my head clears as I walk under the overhang. I also needed the top of the tent, while closed and in the low position, to be under 78" due to some low hanging items and overall low ceiling height in my garage.Here's what I have. I'm guessing I need to make my lower bars much longer and cut my upper bars shorter; the upper bars are already line-x'd. Then do I just slide the struts in the lower bars loose and let them sit inside of there? Thanks.
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For strut mounts, I prefer a more secure/adjustable mounted connection. Here's a pic of the mounts I made and the strut rod extentions I made for the struts to work with my setup. With the strut extension, I threaded 4-5" of thread on the lower bracket mount side so I can dial in the exact amount of overall length and preload on the struts.
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