Cheap RTT for those on a budget.

I will be going on a couple day off-road trip at the end of April in NH. I will be going with a few others and we will be camping at a couple of state parks. I have a regular tent but wanted to see what I could come up with for a cheap and easy RTT alternative to get me up off the cold ground. I have a 2016 double cab with the short bed covered with the factor tonneau cover. I had a Thule rack from a previous car that I decided to modify to work with the tonneau cover. This would then give me the load bars I needed for holding my RTT idea. So for the RTT itself. I looked around for ideas and came across the idea of a tent cot as a RTT. So I did some research and decided to pull the trigger on a kamprite double cot tent from Amazon warehouse for $150. It weights a little over 50lbs and has plenty of room for just me. In order for it to work with my load bars I had to take the four legs off that come with it. This is an easy task as the just bolt on. The only thing I had to make were some easy little wooden legs for a bar that runs down the middle of the tent and a cover for it while bolted to the load bars. To secure the tent to the load bars all I needed was 4 u-bolts. So far I have tested it out in my garage and it seems really comfortable and very stable. Hopefully this might give others an alternative if on a budget.

 

Love the puppy!! Mine black lab was that size a few months ago

 

Thank you! She is almost 12 weeks old and has been great so far!

 

Added benefit is that you can use the cot tent other places as well. Nice write up.

 

genius

 

I love labs. Had two that we lost in the last couple years.

Baby girl is almost 15 months old now

 

That tent is amazing.. we have one as well. The inflatable pad they sell with it is probably the best camping mattress I have come across in my life.

 

Is that the self inflating one you are talking about? Like the one listed below?

$159 Kamp-Rite Double Self Inflating Pad SIP391

https://www.amazon.com/Kamp-Rite-Do...coding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=8FF2JZ6MPZFHEG1FFCF4

 

Can you get some pics of the inside?

 

Yep, that exact one. We sleep on that with me, the wife, and the dog, and I swear it's more comfortable than my actual bed half the time.

 

Looks promising. How is the weather resistant aspect of the tent?

 

I only have one picture right now that isn't that great but I will try to get more tonight.

 

Thank you for that information. I was wondering if it was worth it. Do you feel the middle bar through this?

 

I really don't know yet from my own experience as I haven't had it out in the weather yet. I have seen many good reviews on it though. I does come with a rain fly which I will try to get a picture of it. TSki might have some better real world experience with it since it sounds like he has used it for camping.

 

Nope. Not at all. I will say.. Don't expect it to inflate quickly.. We end up opening it and sleeping the first night.. which opens up all the foam cells, and then we reopen the valves for it to finish expanding the next day before further sleeping.

 

I have not ran it through any hurricanes or anything. But we have taken rain and snow without any issues. We do use the rain fly, and since it's an elevated platform have no use for a ground fly.

 

Awesome idea....way to think outside the box.

 

Thanks. I spent a lot of time trying to come up with a cheaper solution. I am not the first person to use one of these tent cots as a RTT but I hadn't seen anything with them on a tacoma so I thought I would throw this up there for others who may not want or need to pay for a real RTT.

 

Great writeup, strike of genius hit ya in your sleep?
I would have looked at this before i bought my napier truck box tent. Maybe in the future. Again great job...

 

Thank you. I have been struggling for a bit trying to find a way to sleep on or in the truck for short trips and I came across a site where another person did the same sort of thing. For me it is great. It is pretty cheap, should keep me warm and dry, easy to setup, and allows me to still use the tonneau cover to keep my gear dry and protected. I made a bed slide also which makes it handy to get to the gear.