Tepui Tent RTT

[Patrollife]

Love the Tepui! Have the Kukenam and Awning.

 

[Blacknight]

Awesome pic! Where was this pic taken?

 

[DemonOfTheFall]

Hey guys, just read every post in this thread. I currently have a Hannibal Classic 1.2 and while the tent itself is bomber (Even heavier materials than the Ruggedized version and 3/4" marine plywood base, etc) their customer service, in the USA anyways, does not exist. I have been trying for 5 months to buy a new travel cover from them to no avail. I contacted Tepui and they answered first call and spent 30 minutes with me on the phone sizing a replacement cover for my existing tent and answering my questions about their products. Even though I have not one bad thing to say about the actual Hannibal tent I am so disgusted with the company that I am selling my Hannibal to a buddy for his new trailer build and will be ordering a Tepui in the very near future. Great thread, thanks for the all the excellent information and I'll follow up when I have the new tent in hand!

 

[Beamer pilot]

That has to be the ideal environment for an RTT in my opinion...

 

[Tigglebitties]

Hey box rocket I just got mine! I love it, mostly.
Kekunam ruggedized.

Didn't like:
Aluminum shavings on the bed when I opened it for the first time, obviously from manufacturing . not a huge deal, but shoulda swept that crap out before putting the mattress in.
Had a couple sharp spots & burrs on the aluminum rail thing that the cover slides onto. Quick fix with my file, but shouldn't have had to do that for 1500.

Questionable:
I didn't like the gap on the mounting rail between the diamond plate and outer edge, so I cut a strip of rubber and mounted it between. Hard to explain, I'll post a pic of this later. Probably doesn't matter, but I don't like any gaps between load bearing surfaces and the two 10mm bolts per rail could not be tightened down enough to close the gap between.
I REALLY question the fact that four 10mm bolts are all thats holding my RTT to my rack rails. Has anyone ever broken these? Now that I know where my mounting points are, I'm considering putting a couple heavy 1/4" rivets into the rail to the diamond plate. Not that its a design flaw, but I like to drive like I stole it when I'm off road and the last thing I can have is the tent leaving during a hard hit or turn.

Everything else is a huge win. I love this thing. It sets up in 5 minutes and stays super warm. I slept like a baby the other night!

Any suggestions on the other stuff will be much appreciated!

 

[Box Rocket]

Hey box rocket I just got mine! I love it, mostly.
Kekunam ruggedized.

Didn't like:
Aluminum shavings on the bed when I opened it for the first time, obviously from manufacturing . not a huge deal, but shoulda swept that crap out before putting the mattress in.
Had a couple sharp spots & burrs on the aluminum rail thing that the cover slides onto. Quick fix with my file, but shouldn't have had to do that for 1500.

Questionable:
I didn't like the gap on the mounting rail between the diamond plate and outer edge, so I cut a strip of rubber and mounted it between. Hard to explain, I'll post a pic of this later. Probably doesn't matter, but I don't like any gaps between load bearing surfaces and the two 10mm bolts per rail could not be tightened down enough to close the gap between.
I REALLY question the fact that four 10mm bolts are all thats holding my RTT to my rack rails. Has anyone ever broken these? Now that I know where my mounting points are, I'm considering putting a couple heavy 1/4" rivets into the rail to the diamond plate. Not that its a design flaw, but I like to drive like I stole it when I'm off road and the last thing I can have is the tent leaving during a hard hit or turn.

Everything else is a huge win. I love this thing. It sets up in 5 minutes and stays super warm. I slept like a baby the other night!

Any suggestions on the other stuff will be much appreciated!

Well thanks for the feedback. The shavings are likely from the holes for the tension rods. It's difficult to always get every little bit of the shavings out after those holes are drilled and they sometimes shake the last of it loose during shipping. Definitely not a casual oversight, but something hard to catch 100%. All the same, sorry you had to clean it out.
.
You'll have to show me what "gap" you're referring to. Never heard of that being an issue. Also never heard a single instance of anyone having the tent come loose from the mounting rails. Those bolts seem to hold it just fine. I'd wager that I drive as "spirited" as you do offroad. And I may or may not have jumped a time or two in my truck and the tent has never even hinted at coming loose. I think you'll be just fine.
.
Glad you're liking it otherwise. Hope you have a lot of great trips with it.

 

[JIMBO]

:sombrero: My trailer mounting uses 8-- 10mm mounting bolts, however-

You can use 2"/2-1/2" muffler clamps (just the clamp), that'll secure the tent to any roof rack, the Tepui comes with 8 attachment bolts--

Lowes has the same bolts, or 5/16 hex heads work to

I have mounted the Kukenam on my jeep that way and didn't like it, so now on the much lower trailer-

There's a dozen ways to mount the tent--use some ingenuity, solves any problems-

Good luck

:costumed-smiley-007:wings: JIMBO

 

[Tigglebitties]

This gap. Probably from the diamond plate instead of smooth bottom.
Again, probably doesn't matter and I have rubber between it now so it can't rattle.

Last question - any suggestions on a lock or something to keep it from getting stolen? I was thinking riveting a D ring for a locking cable to the bed. Paranoid this thing will get stolen.

 

[Box Rocket]

This gap. Probably from the diamond plate instead of smooth bottom.
Again, probably doesn't matter and I have rubber between it now so it can't rattle.

Last question - any suggestions on a lock or something to keep it from getting stolen? I was thinking riveting a D ring for a locking cable to the bed. Paranoid this thing will get stolen.

Yeah that gap won't cause you any issues. If you're really worried about it, you could cut an inch off each end of the rail so that it just lies against the diamond plate and not the aluminum frame around the edges. That might reduce the gap a little. But truthfully that's a lot of hassle for an issue that is NOT an issue.
.
As for locking it....I've seen some photos of someone who used exhaust clamps instead of the stainless steel flat bar supplied with the mounting hardware. They drilled through a couple of the bolts and put a padlock through the bolt. For me, when I'm in areas where I'm worried about theft, I use a cable lock through one of the rings on the tent base and around my bed rack. Simple and it hasn't been stolen yet.

 

[parapyropig]

I cut the rails back on my Autana - no structural issues - if that gap insults your asthetic sense of order in the Universe just grind the top of the rail down just enough to "fix" it. It's just aluminum.

- Please understand the above was not a personal shot - I speak from personal experience on this topic. It's a tenacious amalgam of OCD, ADD, SOB (Sick Of the Bullshiite), and TMB (too many birthdays).

 

[Tigglebitties]

I cut the rails back on my Autana - no structural issues - if that gap insults your asthetic sense of order in the Universe just grind the top of the rail down just enough to "fix" it. It's just aluminum.

- Please understand the above was not a personal shot - I speak from personal experience on this topic. It's a tenacious amalgam of OCD, ADD, SOB (Sick Of the Bullshiite), and TMB (too many birthdays).

Exactly my problem haha never said it was a structural issue, its just in my head. The word overbuilt doesn't exist to me & my future plans include a supercharger, four link rear and full width LT front.

Yeah that gap won't cause you any issues. If you're really worried about it, you could cut an inch off each end of the rail so that it just lies against the diamond plate and not the aluminum frame around the edges. That might reduce the gap a little. But truthfully that's a lot of hassle for an issue that is NOT an issue.
.
As for locking it....I've seen some photos of someone who used exhaust clamps instead of the stainless steel flat bar supplied with the mounting hardware. They drilled through a couple of the bolts and put a padlock through the bolt. For me, when I'm in areas where I'm worried about theft, I use a cable lock through one of the rings on the tent base and around my bed rack. Simple and it hasn't been stolen yet.

Sounds good!
Can't wait to get back out and use this again. I've got ideas for bringing 12v and LED lighting inside.. These projects never end.

Merry Christmas, everyone! Go buy one of these you won't regret it

 

[rangerdogg]

I believe cvt tents sells hardware for left on tents.

 

[Tigglebitties]

In the spirit of capitalism, I will always post the bad with the good. Anyone going through these threads should be able to find unbiased info to choose the right RTT. the above pic is a bolt I noticed has backed out after the second use (5th or 6th time opening it to show people)

That being said,
I'll GLADLY live with a stupid bolt I can tighten for this:

It's 40 degrees out right now and 87 in the tent. I now understand what the term happy camper means.
Another win for Tepui in my books. I love this thing.
Used a tent heater of course, but my old conventional tent never got near this warm ever using the same heater. I feel like this is cheating to to say I'm camping .

 

[caddo]

Ours came out after a trip to Death Valley and the folks at Tepui recommended loctite, the screws have move since.

 

[Box Rocket]

Thanks for posting about the hinge bolt that backed out. Tepui's QA team also monitors these threads and has seen this and they'll be taking measures to ensure this doesn't happen in the future. One possible reason is that the bolt was not tightened sufficiently to fully engage the nylock nut and keep it from coming loose. This will be checked on each tent to be sure the nylocks are fully engaged. They will also be using threadlock (loctite) on all bolts moving forward to keep this from happening.

Thanks again for the feedback.