*THE RTT Owners Thread (With BS)*

Standard Dakar's here as well. Leer 100xq with a CVT Mt. Hood.

 

She had 2 or 3 in her truck she's living that pint house life

 

Same here gotta get it ordered also as I hit my bumps every time I'm Offroad

 

Thanks for all the info guys. Extra leaf it is!

 

It's not a shell/RTT but probably similar in weight... Running Dakars w/ AAL...

 

That truck is gorgeous, Bill. Nice work!

 

Thanks Jason!

 

Nice setup! What kind of Tepui do you have mounted? And any noticeable drop in MPG's with the tent mounted that way?

 

For all you guys out there with RTT. I'm getting a custom rack built to fit around my topper, I have the option to do either steel or aluminum. I have OME sport nitrochargers and Dakar leafs with rake and an AAL. If I were to go steel would it be too much weight? With Aluminum its close to 30% less weight, but I feel that I'd like the extra with to bog down the ass end a little. I plan on in the future doing a rear swingout, so I'm taking that into consideration as well. I like to see if you guys have any feedback on what you feel would be best as far as Aluminum vs. Steel. As well as your thoughts on Air bags for the rear. Looking forward to seeing what all your thoughts are!

 

Is this a Steel rack?

 

Yes, mine is steel... Here is my two cents...

The difference in weight between steel and aluminum seems like a lot when you're talking about 30% but in reality it's not that major of a difference IMO. I think on my set up it was like 40lbs extra maybe. Yes, steel is extra weight but for many of us far more adaptable... In my case, I knew that I would be tweaking things over the first year or so at least and cutting and welding, adding an subtracting steel is usually easier for fabricators or just dudes in their garage. Not to mention cheaper. Plus there are other mods/parts that you can do with aluminum to save weight - in my personal case: fold down table and skids. Now with weight in mind, part of my design incorporated the swingout into the rack system itself by eliminating my tailgate. By moving the wheel/tire closer the bed it helps distribute weight further forward. It also shortens the length of the vehicle compared to traditional bumper swingouts. The idea of tweaking things is also the reason I've only rattle canned my rack rather than powdercoating it - that will come later once I've refined things to my liking as best I can. But trust me... you can do all the planning you want ahead of time and there will still be something that you'll want to change (even something minor) once it's installed and you've gone on a handful of trips.

Now that said, if you have the extra money to spend and a fabricator that is more than comfortable working w/ aluminum than going that route is definitely a legit option... but IMO the cons outweigh the pros. (Pun intended)

As for airbags... I'll let someone else share their thoughts.

 

I rotated mine to open aft, so the ladder is more streamlined when closed up. Also if I need to move the truck a little I don't have to fold the tent up, just shrink the ladder. When I want to use the tailage for cooking and such I just put the ladder vertical so it gives me the space to work. I also had to adjust my ladder length, I just drill a couple new holes. I actually drilled several for more holes for more adjustabilty in the field.

 

Interesting. I think if I rotated mine 90* like that it'd be too wide, or at least wider than my bed...

 

I think mine measures something like 49x53 closed up.

 

We just came home from a two week excursion to Windrock park, TN; the Ark Encounter, KY; visiting family; and camping at Camel Lake, FL panhandle. We spent five nights camping all together in our brand new CVT Mt. Shasta. Our experiences with it were awesome. Loved every second of it. So did the kids. I was never in a hurry to fold it up, so break down was around 20 min for me, as was set up. Temperatures ranged from 30 deg - 85 deg. We only had one night with some condensation issues under the mattress. I currently have this anti slip mat for rugs under it. I didn't want to shell out another $100 for the anti condensation mat just yet, as I wanted to get the gear in the field. However, for $5 I bought those mats and they worked ok. they do get pinched when opening the tent up. Steady drizzled on us all night once, and that wasn't the night we had condensation issues. Stayed dry the whole time. Inside the tent we covered the mattress with a sheet to sleep on, had a thick comforter on top of that, an 8ft x 10ft crocheted afghan, an additional blanket, two children's blankets, and three smaller pillows. We also had the tent hardware inside, and it closed up just fine. The tent was awesome, worth the money. It was mounted on relentless bars.

The annex provided excellent much needed privacy at times. Especially in the morning. We also utilized it to store our luggage. I had to fold the annex up with the Velcro due to the mounting height. Not a big deal for me. If necessary completely opened up 2-3 more people could sleep there comfortably. I purchased two cheap dome lights from Amazon: (Camping Lantern Tent Light Camp Lanterns LED AAA Battery Operated Lanterns Magnetic Camping Lights for Tent Camping Hiking Tents Emergencies SOS Backpack [2 Pack]) for $14. Worked perfect, One for the annex, one for the tent. I'm purchasing one more that is a power bank in addition to a light. Being military got in the way of family fun, as I seemed to harp on light and noise discipline a lot. It's like I don't want anyone to know we're here in this location with a ton of crap to already show we're here. I tired of bagging the annex, and just opted to leave it on the top of the closed RTT, under the ladder, under the cover. The cover still fit just fine. In the future if we plan on staying put night after night I will set up the annex, but if we're wheeling daily then forget it.

Now, my issues are in general with the annex:
The annex ripped upon installation at one of the corners as shown below. This was before we even left for camp.
The annex blue strip that slides into the bottom groove frayed a lot faster than I expected. As in this was our first outing, why is it fraying?
The annexes ground stake plastic buckles are cheaply made plastic that bent with slightest tension. So are the tents really. No biggie, I'm going to replace with ITW buckles.
The annexes stakes suck completely. I bent the hell out of them in Tennessee's hard ground on the first go around. I found two fat ones on the ground later, and I'll acquire more.

Gas mileage avg 15.4 - 17mpg highway, 14 mpg trails

That's the corner I thread the annex through. It began to fray on the blue strip. Inside/outside photo.

You can see the extra bulk with the annex inside the cover. (My cheap sorry flexing pic)

My little guys loved sleeping in this tent.

I did crush my skull on the bottom of the tent. The wife had to patch me up as I was bleeding out fast.


You can see the annex takes up the slack in the cover.

 

Really like my CVT tent! Got it local in Bend Oregon, great people to work with. Already got my eye on some more accessories!

 

Might wanna adjust your ladder