*THE RTT Owners Thread (With BS)*

I have a soft top for the following reasons:
1. I have a short bed and am 6'2".
2. I run kayaks on the roof at >75lbs each.
3. I can't afford a GFC and the GFC can't be raised with 150+lbs in it. So I'd still have to remove the kayaks. At that $$$$, I'll stick with my setup.

 

I wrote up my .02 on the subject, you're welcome to take a look. And of course, agree or not

Things to Consider When Choosing a Roof Top Tent (RTT)

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Who all is using Tepui Tents and how are they holding up and how many years have you had your Tepui?

I've had mine for 4yrs and its showing a lot of wear. We do use it a lot. The seam seal tape is pealing off and the bug screen door zipper has broke. I've also had to replace the cover cause of the zipper breaking.

I not talking bad on Tepui its been a pretty good tent, just thought it should of lasted longer.

 

@Speedytech7 has a reasonably old Tepui. Might have some input.

Also, your question is a bit vague (for me anyway). Before I'd be able to answer/compare my usage, I'd want to know:

1. What tent do you have? (since "Tepui" is pretty generic and could be a lot of tents, each with different wear profiles)
2. What does "use it a lot" mean? How many nights per year?
3. What climate are you in when you camp? (dry and dusty? wet? hot/cold?)

I will say - I have a 3 1/2 year old soft shell CVT Mt. Rainier Pioneer (so, essentially the same as a Tepui soft shell of the same vintage, just a different door of the same factory, if you catch my drift) and I too think I use it a lot. For me, that means about 80-100 nights/year, so ~300 nights so far in the time I've had it, in temps from 17F-103F. Here are the issues I've had:

• My seam tape is also peeling in several places. This seems normal to me, and I don't care since the places it's peeling are largely covered by the fly anyway. The way I look at it, after been unfolded/folded ~300 times, I'd expect pretty much any tape adhesive to fail.
• One of the straps holding the cover on when it's closed, broke. As in, when I was cinching it down, the stitching came undone and the buckle separated from the strap. I'm going to sew it back on and not worry about it. I've cinched on that thing 300 times, and it's always under tension when I'm bouncing along trails.
• The zipper on one of the doors is hard to work (and sometimes the zipper separates "behind" the head). Generally this comes down to what I term "care when zipping" - I'm more careful than my wife with the "zip" operation, and I don't ever seem to have a problem, but she does seem to have a problem. So I do the zipping now.
• The zipper on the cover is "sticky." This happens when it gets dusty, and I've found that it's important to not ignore that situation, and to thoroughly blow out the zipper to remove the dust and make it work smoothly. If you don't, and just "force" the head along the zipper, you will eventually break it, regardless of brand.
• The mattress sucked. I replaced it with an Exped 10 Duo LW+

Anyway, hope all that helps. If you've had yours for 4 years and used it 400 nights, I'd say you're in good shape. If you've used it 30 nights, well...less good, but still, I think it depends a lot on how nice/careful you are, when it comes to items like RTTs.

 

Nice write up.

I do agree from my research that if it was more than 2, soft would be the way to go. I’m thinking a hard shell will remove that zip up the dusty bag problem. My hope is it’s also easier to travel with, if things work as I hope, I’ll go from Maine to some where out west every year.

 

Good things to think about, I unfortunately will be getting a new rack/cap system to work with what ever I end up with.

 

Thank you for your response it was very helpful.

 

No sudden evasive movements and you'll be fine, just take a little getting used to at highway speeds.

 

I removed mine at the beginning of summer and I’ll never go back to one. Truck drives so much better now, just be careful since it can get squirly at high speeds.

 

Any of you guys use the KB Voodoo Hi rose crossbars? I'm looking to get a RTT and want relatively cheap bed rack to mount it on (I have a bakflip mx4 cover so that's why I'm thinking the KB.

 

My Ayer 2 is pushing 4 years old now. I personally have used it several dozen times since I got it ~2 years ago. It had 2 previous owners. Each used it only a few times if I recall. I did have to replace the cover and velcro straps due to wear and holes. The rainfly has got a bunch of pine sap and other crap on it, but no holes yet. A couple of small rips here and there near where the rainfly rods attach.

I think the biggest wear item so far has been the ladder area. I added some felt feet to keep it from rubbing when stored. And the red velcro strap gave up the ghost long ago, so I replaced it with a cheap buckle strap from Harbor Freight.

Overall Ive been impressed. And Im super pumped I still have a RTT with the old school Tepui logo on it. The new one is totally boring

 

Have the same setup. I'm pleased with it and would buy again however, their powder coating is an issue. I did a short write up here:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...s-bars-with-mx4-bakflip.677202/#post-23861345

I'm sure if I had asked, they would have swapped the damaged powder coated items out for new. I've just read enough about their powder coating to know that the next pieces will likely have the same issues so I didn't bother. Their customer service is good. I've since bought other items from them, all good things and they even sent me the comfort grip knobs for free (I opted for the locking screws initially)

 

Check out Mobtown's crossbars. I run them with my tonneau. Love them.
https://mobtownoffroad.com/product/2005-2020-toyota-tacoma-low-rise-bed-bars/

 

I do. I like the system too. It keeps the tent lower and out of the wind. I would recommend it and purchase again.

I try not to leave my tent on and the rack is real handy for bikes too, I’ve also put a Thule box on it too.

 

I assume you have to remove the entire cover to remove the bed rack? My only concern is that I'm not always going to have the bedrack on and dont know how big of a pain its going to be to remove the rack.

 

I believe you can just take the cross bars off. But the look of that may not be to you're liking.

 

I'm running their aluminum Hi-Rise crossbars and I like them a lot. Crossbars come off easy, I keep them attached to the bottom of my tent when I hoist it off. It would be pretty easy to take off the risers but I leave them on, I kind of like the look of them for some reason. As others have mentioned, the powdercoat is slightly dubious...It's not bad but I've had to hit some areas of rust with touchup paint (even areas that are not subject to abrasion from the bars, the cutout letters on the risers, for example). I'd still buy them again despite this as the form factor and convenience has been great.

 

As others mentioned, the rails come off seperatly (and quickly) leaving just the uprights in place. Your bakFlip is then fully functional at this point. Taking the uprights off, while not overly difficult, is not a quick task. You have to completely disassemble the MX4 as the cover and side rails will need to be removed.

I didn't plan on running the rack full time, but I'm finding that having it provides a bit of versatility, so I bit the bullet and bought accessories to mount my bike to the rack. I can remove the crossbars and haul them with me when I need to haul lumber, dirt bikes, etc.

Also, as I referenced in my previous post, your MX4 will no longer be waterproof without some effort on your part. You'll need some closed cell foam or weatherstripping to fill in the gaps. I personally did not add the MX4 for waterproofing, so it was of no consequence to me, just something to take note of.

 

Ya the waterproofing of the mx4 was always meh to begin with. I dont mind putting suitcases etc back there because it keeps most of the water out, but nothing too expensive goes back there.

I'm not a huge fan of having the supports stick up like that when the rails are off, but i'll probably just have them on whenever we go on a trip. So not that often.

 

I actually think they come off pretty quick. I have a soft tonneau that removes quickly. Than it’s jusy 8 Allen bolts , two each upright. I back them out, remover the upright and put them right back in, never removing the t-bolt backer think and bolts.