AT Habitat, Atlas, & Summit Pictures, ideas, aaand BS

I was curious how a standard rivnut would hold on the bed material. Have you seen or tried plus nuts? They make a larger flange area on the back side.

 

Honestly it seems like something AT should address better, it is clearly a design flaw, kind of surprised they thought they would be strong enough with two small rivets and "high bond tape", especially when they advertise it as a rugged camper.... really frustrated it ended up damaging my truck... Basically what happened is once those two rivets were gone on the driver side, the wall of the habitat had play in it, and torqued the synthetic bedside out enough to put a decent size (probably 10 inch) crack in the bed near the cab wall.

I emailed AT and they sent me a drill bit, and more rivets along with a couple other little fasteners that are designed to be used without removing the bed.

I emailed him before and just told him I was going to take it in and have it welded so I wasn't worrying about it on while on trips, he said it can't be welded after they use the high bond tape, so Im just going to remove it and put a bunch of rivets in there.

I do not believe I have any issues with rivnuts. Are those what hold the front of the camper down? haven't looked there yet.

 

We have since addressed the issue in production with 4 x 3/16" rivets on each front side. The earlier 1/8" single rivet was designed as a place holder while the adhesive set up. We did not anticipate that the flexiness of the Tacoma composite bed and frame would compromise the small place holder rivet. We know that bed stiffeners are popular with Tacoma owners. With over 250 Habitats and Summits is use, yours is the first that we hear of the bed actually cracking. We will be monitoring this.

 

Hey, any information on those awning mounts? More pics, prices, etc??

 

Thanks for the response Mario.

I bought some bed corner stiffeners that I am going to adapt to work with habitat, that along with the extra rivets I think will do the trick.

 

Jombolyshimx. Where did that come from?! I have the rear bed stiffeners but never seen these. I want.

 

Just tagged you in the thread, but for anyone else that's curious I bought them from ath fab


https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/bed-corner-gusset-tie-downs.476843/page-12

 

I've got the ATH rear bed stiffeners, and very happy with their product. Good stuff if you ask me!

 

Those rivets came out on mine too, I replaced one or two with stainless steel rivets (I think originally they are aluminum) but I was planning to drill then all out and just use a bolt and nut through it, sealed with silicone. I want to lift my habitat off too, but mainly because I want to tape over the bedside holes and put new sealing all around.

 

I may look into some sort of bolt / sealing washer setup. Would be stronger than rivers and more serviceable if need be. I'm interested to see how the seals are holding up as well and was just planning on covering any exposed holes in the bedside with aluminum tape.

This is the top of the bedside I'm putting in.. plenty of spots for moisture to get through if not sealed

 

I now have his rear stiffeners, his front, and of most recent one of his bumpers. Hes a good dude that makes cool stuff.

 

I have had the rear stiffeners since just before the Hab went on, was a little nervous with the rear corneres and weight. Plus they make great tie downs for the fridge and other crud... and have a bottle opener built in!

Truth be told, part of me is waiting for bed cracks to form so I have an excuse to build up a Ute bed.

 

I'm looking at having a fab company make a thin box that fits inside the Habitat so that when I open the side doors its a separate compartment. Since they are lockable I'm thinking recovery gear, shooting stuff, tools etc. Has anyone considered or made something like this?

 

You may be able to adapt something from the likes of leer or another topper manufacturer that makes commercial toppers with tool boxes there...

 

How about a sheet with a couple bends. Bolt the top through the existing sides to top mounting, and bottom to the bed side bolting. The. You have a thin but huge space for all you need. And you won’t intrude too deeply into the bed space.

 

This is the year I get an AT-Habitat.
Have any of you upgraded or felt the need to upgrade the brakes?

 

Better hurry up and place your order so you can use it this summer!

And no on the brakes. I never have trouble stopping... unless my trailer wiring decides to come unplugged and i'm then stopping my loaded truck and Habitat, and 4000lbs of trailer and it still stopped it, was just a big surprise how hard i had to hit those brakes!

 

I agree. Brakes are fine. No fade to date, probably because I drive a bit conservative with that much weight.

The G37 is the car I flog the crap out of.

 

I haven't upgraded the brakes and its been fine but plan on stepping up to the tundra front brakes when these wear out a little more.

 

Are you talking about stuffing the 2007-17 tundra brakes under the taco?