*THE RTT Owners Thread (With BS)*

I believe 22" over the bed rail will just clear if I remember my measurements correctly. Bed flex might give you an inch or so but because most flex is torsional and the antenna is centered (i.e. on the radius of that twist axis) you shouldn't need more than a couple inches above the antenna even on the safe side. Especially so with a cap which will absorb a lot of that flex.

Also, if you're weary about hitting, I'm 95% certain the antenna from some Scion FR-S models is a direct replacement. It has a detachable mast so it's about an inch or so shorter but you do lose the Sirius antenna. Plus side if you don't use it is that when you unplug it, the option disappears from the radio.

 

Makes sense. I think with my current setup I might have an inch or so. But the torsional flex thing makes sense since the bed and the cab are pretty close together and don’t touch.

 

REI has them right now at 25% off as well and it's not included in the 20% coupon so you can still use that elsewhere.

 

I joined the club this week. Waiting on my bed rack to get finished, but I'm going to borrow some bars to get it mounted. It's a no-name Smittybilt knockoff with a Tepui cover and upgraded mattress. The only problem with it is the cover straps have separated from the floor pan. Anyone know of a place to get the cover straps as a replacement part?

 

Ill go measure mine later, but i keep a sleeping bag and a pillow in mine (and ones in the past)

 

Yeah you have a lot more issues hitting things toward the edges of a roof rack or something or you'd have to consider that the tent will come closer toward the front but in that position, I've seen some super low setups and nobody has complained they hit

 

Why not hang over the bumper on the rear?

 

If you can sew, I highly, highly recommend making your own. I'm converting mine to a single, wrap-around strap with Cobra buckles and from what I've seen, it's less stress on the frame because you're not pulling on the edge and you can tighten them down quite a bit more. Sandwiching them between the mounting rail and body will hold them in place and you can use the original mounts as guides to center them by only using the outside screws and inserting a washer to space it out a little.

Even with the cost of the cobra buckles I'm still coming out cheaper.

 

For me it's the fact these beds are already prone to cracking and that puts a lot of stress on the rear-most part of the rack (and thus, the weakest part of the bed). With a Leitner or Brute Force rack that mounts to the floor I'd do it without hesitation but I've seen beds crack with less weight than a tent chilling 2 feet above the bed.

 

I've thought about making some type of webbing strap with a buckle. That's pretty nifty with the cobra buckles.

I'm not home right now, but the original straps were riveted to the tent base. That's where they tore, so I'm going to need to either drill out the rivets and re-rivet with the new straps or come up with another fix

 

A topper and bedding is a piece of cake in a standard tent but with the low-profile ones that are 7" tall, you only have like 5-5.5" of gap and 4" of that is mattress. You can get bedding into them and compress it all but it's tight. The standard tents have another 4" or so in them.

 

Ah yeah the Tepui ones have screwed-in brackets. In that case I'd for sure see if you can make your own because rivets will need to be bigger than the original to be snug. Honestly, you don't need the end brackets if you pinch them with the mounting rails... I'm just doing it because it's easy but the rail will provide more than enough force to keep them roughly in place with the weight of the tent on them.

 

Thanks. Your help gives me a starting point.

 

I’m going to try to hang over the rear a bit but the back door on my shell opens pretty high so I don’t have a ton of room for rear overhang.

 

i swapped all my straps to the lashing straps linked at the bottom of this page. Ill link again. Highly recommend.

$19 Cartman 1" x 12' Lashing Straps Cargo Tie-Down Strap Up to 600lbs, 6pk in Carry Bag, Black

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B017902W8G

Not sure why black is no longer an option

 

I think orange would look pretty sweet... gotta color match your Maxtrax for maximum likes.

All seriousness though, I have no idea why I didn't think of this and I'm disappointed in myself that I didn't. Cobra buckles will look cool and all but this would have been crazy simpler.

 

they work great too! I had my velcro blow open and come off and slam the side of my 4Runner for a few min until i could safely pull over. So i swapped over to these and it keeps the cover tighter as well.

Use the buckle on the long side so you can get torque to pull down to tighten.

 

Likes are more important than your silly real world experiences @LTDSC

 

Hmmm...interesting. Might not need extra padding as they say the mattress is 3” now. I have a 10” bed rack and a prinsu and my goal is to keep the tent tucked out of the wind for aerodynamics. I don’t think either tent will be a problem for me. I wish there was a store near me that I could get hands on with it but sadly there isn’t. The rei near me doesn’t stock them. But with their return policy, I can just try it out until I find one that works for me. It seems to be my only option

 

I run the CBI mid-height rack, and a little more than half of my tent height sticks up above the cab. My gas mileage has been unaffected -- it actually might even help and offset any loss for carrying more weight. It creates a smoother arc over the truck for air to flow. I wouldn't worry about it too much, focus on other features you want.