Hondo Garage's New Thing

That is pretty slick looking. So that forward rack over the cab won't attach to the roof at all? Do you think it would carry a full rotopax, or better yet, do you have any idea of a load limit. it looks pretty burly.

 

Or you could just take an extra few seconds and wipe the excess sand off the board.

 

The trays will hold 100 watt panels that are in the neighborhood of 48” x 22”. And the boards won’t touch since the panel sits recessed below the rack bars.

 

These are the first run of camper specific mounted racks. There will be vehicle specific coming soon after provided it tests well. Meaning cab racks, 4runner racks, rav4 racks are not out of the question.

 

Does anybody know if the Prinsu Designs Habitatrack will work with the GFC?

 

Any rack should work as long as its not directly underneath our camper. That said, i'd wait til feb before buying anything...

For those that already have the prinsu full length cab rack and are looking to keep it, we have had multiple customers cut down existing units on four door tacomas. You still have two mount points on each side and it seems to work well.

 

That's a good call, better to have the GFC in hand before making any decisions

 

Renogy Solar Panel, Single

https://smile.amazon.com/Renogy-Wat...ns&keywords=renogy+100+watt+solar+panel&psc=1

This 100W panel seems like the right size. I like the idea of running that panel toward the front of the camper, like Wiley has in the pic, and then having the rack or bars to haul bikes or whatever. I have a smaller Renogy panel that I have had zero issues with and it seems very well made. And in my experience 100w is plenty of power to keep a battery going strong with fridge and lighting. I've built multiple power packs for smaller and larger applications and I really think ill do the 100w Renogy in that new mount they are working on and just leave it up there. Sweet setup.

 

Thanks for confirming! I've had one sitting in the garage, waiting for you guys to come out with a rack. Glad to hear it's on it's way!

 

I was wondering if any other GFC owners have extrusions that are a bit out of square, where the top and bottom don't match up? This makes it nearly impossible to close with all the cushions in place. As you can see from my attached photos, when you close the camper the extrusions are just shy of 1/4" out of square when compressed down to the matching bottom side. In my case this makes closing the passenger's side pin real hard. In "bunk" mode (sleeping solo with the two small cushions removed) it closes up without much hassle, but adding any more cushion and getting the passenger side pin to latch becomes very, very hard as it won't come down square. I have to hang with all my weight (155 lbs) on it and try to pull it to the passenger side and after multiple attempts I can get the bolt to slide through, otherwise it won't match up with the hole. I find it impossible to close with all 4 cushions (though Graeme was able to get it to close with all 4 cushions with some effort).

After picking up the camper the end of last month, I went on winter camping trip to Cooke City in the camper I returned through Belgrade and both Graeme and Wiley took a look at it. Wiley banged on the sides of the extrusion with a dead blow hammer, but I don't think it really had any effect. I know you have to take your time closing the camper, opening front and rear windows to let the air out, and tucking the sides, then press on the rear center with all your body weight, etc, but other than "bunk" mode, this camper won't close up for me. Wiley said extrusions were within spec. but looks like I'm going to have to make another trip back up there. I'm not sure what they can do.

 

It seems like the clearances should be the same on both sides or somethings askew. I don't think they would design it that way. The whole design is OCD. Could having the cushions in place on one side only creates a lack of clearance that forces it out of square. The 96" length can exert a lot of leverage, maybe permanently skewing it. Probably not a good idea to hang off of it.
When I get mine, I'll probably remove the bedding before closing. Not a huge deal for me. I'll just stuff the down quilt or bag down below in a small net hammock or something.
I would be interesting to see some other photos of units that have been out there for a while as well as some brand new units.

 

He said Wiley stood on it. I bet he weighs more than a rotopax.

 

Wiley stood on the camper rack on Instagram but I think he’s asking about the cantilever rack that sticks out over the cab.

 

I think I need to see the rack on a truck first for it to make more sense on how it looks.

I do really like the solar panel rack design. Also like how it is on the tent portion so you can pop the tent in the angle of the sun. I kept thinking of adding it to a cab rack and making some ghetto prop.

Stoked to see how the surfboard + the rack setup looks like.

 

I could be wrong, but I read that (above) as talking about the cantilevered rack.

Now that I’m reading it again, he said “roof of an xl” so maybe he is talking about the extrusion as a cross bar, not as the cantilevered rack.

 

Were still testing the racks so I won’t give any hard numbers yet but it’s safe to say you could use the cantilever rack to hold a couple of full rotopaxes.

An adjustable fairing for it is also in the works.

 

I’ve had the same issue with mine since I got it and had the same adjustment done by the team. Often I can’t latch both sides fully, usually it’s the passenger side that isn’t fully engaged. I find that after tucking the fabric in I need to grab the top driver extrusion and pull it vigorously towards the passenger side to line it up. The longer it sits compressed but not latched the better it closes. And like you said, it’s easy with any cushion removed but that negates some of the benefit of having the tent permanently mounted since I’m storing part of it inside now. For me 8/10 times I close it take a lot of yanking and cussing, 1/10 it closes like a bank door and the other I drive with it only latched on one side for a few miles the. It settles in and both latch easily.

 

The roof was designed to float a little bit, so some variation will occur. This might not be the case for you, but on trucks with tire swing outs, it's imperative to close the swing out before latching the tent as most swing outs have enough weight to twist the truck bed and subsequently the camper enough to make things difficult to latch. We're experimenting with thinner tent fabrics and the dual-density 2" mattress we use on the RTTs. Both of these will make it easier to latch with all the panels in.

 

I have no tire swing outs, and your issues are the same as mine. It is interesting that you have the same problem on the passenger side as I do, this is the hard pin to get in alignment because the top extrusion naturally wants to come down inside the matching bottom extrusion and not mate square with it, thus requiring all the effort pulling and pushing to get it to line up properly. Because the drivers side extrusion comes down outside its matching surface, that pin goes in easily, but the passenger side binds up.

On another note, Graeme said all GFC owners should be getting a replacement rear bulb seal that extends out further on the tail gate panel sent to them in the near future.

 

Ahh, I see. It was designed to have a bit of play in order to account for irregularities and movement in the bed.