Rooftop tent and body flex

I'm considering putting a deposit down on the new hi-vis tent, this tent has very similar specs to the roof nest falcon it is 85x56x7. I currently have a dcsb with full-length prinsu rack. I'm curious about how much body flex ill need to account for to safely run the tent, I know I can't put it flat onto the prinsu rack or the flexing will damage the tent. I noticed that prinsu makes the little risers to get the tent sitting a little higher, would that be enough to counter the flex? it would sit about an inch higher than the rack. If anyone has any pictures of their similar setups they would be greatly appreciated. Also, any other suggested routes I could take would be nice also. I want to avoid having to hang the tent off the back of the truck as much as I can.

 

considering adding either these
https://truckbrigade.com/products/p...jfJXTb1mKAooHuOLT7eZf9tKTYGgYecRoC8KIQAvD_BwE

or these
https://truckbrigade.com/products/p...PX9Cwe46EY7aH9brmnEqL5UuqzLgmhxhoC8eMQAvD_BwE

to raise the tent up off the rack

 

@CBI Offroad Fab any suggestions?

 

@CBI Offroad Fab???

 

From what I’ve learned, about an inch of clearance from the front rack should be good

 

Did you mount it? Any pics?

 

Not yet tent will be here mid June I’ll post some pictures in here

 

Just checking in to see if you mount the tent yet...? I'm really curious because I'm running into the same issue.

 

no im still waiting on the tent. Went with 1 inch risers from prinsu to compensate for body flex.

 

you get the tent?

 

Nope place in China screwed up the windows looking like beginning of August because they have to redo them. The owner of hi-vis was nice enough to lend me a rooftop tent to use in the time being so I’m not complaining

 

@RUSSELLTACO - I'm curious where you learned you couldn't mount a tent directly to the Prinsu rack due to body flex... Currently that's how my tent is set up and along with a lot of rattling/clanking noise coming from between the tent and the cross bars, I'm seeing some warping/bending of the tent along the mounting rails too. Worrying to say the least and I'd love to learn a little more about how to resolve. Could you point me in the right direction? Thanks man!

 

I can’t speak for the other guys set up but I can give you a few insights from mine.

I have a short bed with a snug top rebel on it. I have both the Prince a rack on the topper and on the cab. The snug top has Yakima tracks which I’m mounted the Prinsu rack directly to. Between the rack and the rails on my RTT, I have a sandwich pad setup. I used pieces of hard weather-proof plastic sandwiched between weather-proof anti-vibration rubber pads used for commercial air compressors. I put these under each contact point - 12 points, 6 cross bars.

This raised the RTT up about an inch and cleared the back two bars on the cab rack. I was worried my Skycamp would start to bend without the front support while someone was on that side of the tent. So I added a single anti-vibration pads with weather foam pads on top attached via weather-proof velco to each contact point on the cab rack bars. This prevented the tent from bouncing during driving but allowed the bed and cab to flex. Once we parked, I would switch out the “driving pads” with “sleeping” pads - which were dense foam pads the supported the front of the tent while someone was above them sleeping.

I hope that helps. I’m happy to answer any follow up questions. I’ve since sold the tent -multiple reasons why we did that I won’t go into here.

 

Thank you James - helpful for sure.

I think what I'm hoping to figure out is how much I need to raise the tent above my rack to 1) Stop the noise of the tent clanking on the Prinsu cross bars and 2) Prevent any further damage to the tent due to both body and rack flex. Honestly, I wasn't aware the latter would be an issue at all until coming across this thread - curious where I can find more info on this.

Also, I neglected to mention, the Prinsu and tent are mounted on a 4runner not a Taco.

Appreciate any thoughts! Thanks all.

 

Gotcha, I’ve heard that the Prinsu racks for 4runners have a habit of sloping in the middle.

The rubber anti-vibration pads should stop the tent from bouncing on the rack and making all the noise you are hearing. You can find those pads at any Home Depot or Lowe’s. Just look for air compressor pads.

 

You can mount a smaller tent to the prinsu no problem. The issue I was running into was that my new tent was going to hang over the cab, so any flex from the bed might damage the tent on the body of the truck.


I ended up getting the tent mounted, still havent had much to use it.

 

I know this is an oldish thread but since I’m in the process of mounting a roof top tent hopefully tomorrow I will chime in….

OP was talking about not mounting the tent to the bed rack (or same thing with a camper shell) and the cab of the truck at the same time. which you should absolutely not do if you drive on dirt roads at all.

Here’s why….

Currently I have Front Runner roof rack on the cab and camper shell both. They are dead level and it would be temping to mount a tent across both, but…


Because Tacoma frames are open C channels in the rear, the frame flexes when you off road. When rock crawling or even driving down super washboard roads or big whoops.

I couldn’t find a good pick of the flex with my camper shell on, but if you look close at the pic below, the bed is flexed an inch or more from the cab. ⬇️ In fact, in this pic, the frame is flexed so much, with my access cab it was actually hard to open and close the door in this position.



So in this case if I had a clamshell roof top tent mounted on the shell rack and the cab rack at the same time, that torsional force would be in the tent, causing it to flex or crack or on the mounts of the bed rack or cab rack causing them to become damaged.

If you off-road, these trucks flex a lot. Mounting a hard tent across the two racks may cause damage to the tent or the racks or the mounts on the shell or cab. Mounting the tent only on the shell rack only or a bed rack only would the way to go.

 

So is it decided that a 1" space should be the absolute bare minimum between the highest point of the cab rack and lowest point of the overhanging RTT? Going to be facing the same issue in the coming weeks I think and trying to find solutions beforehand. Seems like using any kind of spacer/riser to raise the tent on topper rack is the best solution.

 

I'd say yes but also remember how far the rtt sticks over the top of the cab matters too, since the more it sticks out the more exaggerated the displacement will be.

 

Thanks, I ended up with some 1" riser mounts on the camper shell, so theres about 7/8" of space between my tent and cab rack now. Haven't noticed any contact so far.