Bikes and Roof Top Tents

Got my first Tacoma three weeks ago, 4dr long bed, 4wd, 110k mile 2006 for $14k from a good friend! 3 inch lift, never been offroad, clean inside and out except for a scratched front bumper and a cracked rear light.

Anyway, been going through the truck and learning a lot from this board so thanks to most of you already. Did the oil, air filters, MAF and shut my TPMS light down.

I don't really like my brake feel and power right now. And folks have been advising me to change all fluids. Suspension is a bit stiff and could use seat covers for stinky dudes. Bigger wheels and tires might come too. Any advice in these areas is appreciated.

Anyway, the project of the month is bikes and tents. I have a lot of hitch racks and am pretty dialed in with the 2 inch hitch. Then I started using a tailgate rack and that's even better. Fits up to 6 and it's very convenient.

The new project is a roof top tent bed rack as I have a Tepui Kukenam Sky. I just got the Thule Xsporter and it's cool but it doesn't really fit unless it's cut down.

Turns out one of my good buds is a welder/fabricator so he's gonna make me a custom bed rack that can accommodate a tent still let me use the tailgate for bikes. I just dropped it off with him so should be done by Monday. I'll get rid of the Xsporter then. I got a few ideas from the big Bed Rack thread already.

Just an intro. Chime in if you have suggestions. Say hi if you ride mountain bikes or you're from the Bay Area, CA. I am in West San Ho.


After the first clean up.


I ride with my high school kid and take all his friends to the good trails.





Test fitting the Tepui and Thule Xsporter.


Tent and bikes.

 

Nice setup! For brakes, maybe a good bleed, and fresh shoes and pads will help. My friend just installed SS brake lines in the rear and I sweat my brake feel is firmer, kinda like Shimano saints haha. Also check out various roof racks to mount wind deflectors for your tent! Might help with MPG (probably not) and noise.

 

Dang that rack is high, I wouldn't be able to justify the loss of MPGs with that thing

 

So high!! That is the lowest point the

$1,050 Thule 500XT Thule Xsporter Pro Multi-Height Aluminum Truck Rack

Thule 500XT can be set at as it hits the side molding on the bed of the truck.

I hear it's common to cut down the legs of the Thule to get that rack low. Since it can't go all the way down to the bed floor without hitting the sides, one can only get about 6-7 inches of height adjustability out of it. And you'll lose the lock core holder to prevent the towers from getting stolen.

 

Sell it lol

 

Yes, we'll see how the custom rack turns out. My buddy's got the gift so he's got free reign on this one.


He uses very strange software.


He wants to make it modular.


<ateroa;s


Drawing board.

 

What do you mean by "modular?" I have been wanting a rack that you can use for an RTT but somehow be able to take off the center bars easily in case I need to move furniture or put a 4 wheeler or something like that back there. There is one company that makes that, but they charge almost 2k for it lol

 

I think that is possible indeed since he is making the crossbars removable. His initial intent was so the whole rack can be removed in pieces and stored flat. But hey, getting crossbars out of the way is certainly a useful feature. There's storage and expandability possible too.

 

Yeah, I figure it's too much effort to remove the whole rack, plus it looks badass, but being able to remove the crossbars for moving stuff for a couple of hours would be easy. Idk why it's not a thing. I'm going to look at fabbing something up with my dad. I would definitely want any rack to be put down in the bed itself as well as the rails in case of flexing or when I eventually get fiberglass

 

looks good, not exactly right for me because of the gas mileage thing. But my tacoma has become the bike hauler as well. to the trails or the bike park, i don't think i could be much further from you out here in NH.

 

I see a Highland MTN sticker! thats my local spot I'm like 45 mins south!

 

I wish Highland was my local spot, it is only like 9 hours away from me haha

 

Mountain bikers from both coasts!! Any good beer there? I've had Peeper Ale from Maine and the famed Heddy Topper.

I've biked in a few places but never at the famed Highland Park or Kingdom Trails. I made to Jersey though and that bike park over there, Mountain Creek.

 

I went to the kingdom trails about 2 weeks ago, there so good and Burke bike park is like 5 mins up the road too. You park at Mikes tiki bar and burrito truck, go for a ride all day, ride downhill back to the town/ bar.

And there are a ton of awesome local beers around here! Killington Mtn Bike Park is rad too.

 

For those of you mountain bikers out there, this dude runs a killer site. MTBR.com. I haven't been active there in quite a while as I've hardly been riding (mostly frequented the Norcal board) but it's a great site.

Nice truck FC! Welcome

 

I had my bed bars from Relentless Fabrication modified to accommodate a Thule bike rack. It works ok, but I'm not super happy with the quality of the job the local welder did.

I thought I had some pictures, but I can't find them.

Basically, I had round tube welded on about half-way up the relentless fab bars. The round tube sticks out on the drivers side, and I use it to mount a Thule bike rack. (The kind of bike rack that would normally attach to their roof-top rack bars)

 

Here it is

 

Really cool mounting the bike off on the side. If rolling solo it seems ideal.

 

The rack is the same on the other side, but I've never bothered to put a bike rack on it. It'd probably interfere with the antenna mount I had put on that side, anyway.

I'm thinking about switching out to KBVooDoo's rack, next year. I wish he still made the over the side bike mounts, they were similar to my idea and very clever. I received an e-mail response yesterday that he's not making them anymore.

It might be a non-issue, because I'd also like to put a Prinsu or FrontRunner roof rack on the truck. I'd be able to put the bike up there.

 

I've considered mounting bikes on the side but the hard shell tent is offset to the passenger side for the ladder. Would be cool to find off the shelf parts for my rack but I'll need to crack out the welder for any mods. Most bed racks sit ontop of the bed rails, mine is mounted to the frame.