Roof Top Tent on Low Bed Bars

From the time I purchased my 2018 TRD Off Road, I thought I would eventually like to try a RTT. The time arrived a few months ago when I found a killer deal on CList for a floor demo, never slept in, Tepui Kukenam 3 for $750. Only issue with the tent was that mounting rails had been cut to only 36" long and it was missing some window/rainfly rods. With tent in hand I went looking for low bed bars to be able to mount the tent below the cab for better aerodynamics. I first tried to find someone local who could build me a custom design, but that was a waste of time with people who were either too busy or wanting way too much for what I thought the job was worth. After looking at several TW vendor options, I chose the Avid Off Road Low Bed Bars as I liked the design, they were almost local to me and many people said Brandon would customize products based on customer requests. I gave Brandon a call to see if he would modify his bars for my purpose. Since I wanted to keep the tent low, didn't have the mounting rails, and didn't want to experience the issues many have with stripped bolts and security of the rail mounting system, I asked Brandon to weld a steel plate on top of each bar to mount the tent directly to the bar and provide adequate surface area for tent mounting, similar to what the rails provide. Brandon came back in a week or so with a design using 3/16" steel plate and added some gussets for strength at each end, with the plates ending up being 2"x45", about 1/2" narrower than the width of the tent base, with tent mounting tabs that were placed 32" on center, to match the Tepui mounting holes. This is the CADD file he shared before commencing work.

Total cost for the design and added plates was $30 a bar (very reasonable), with total cost for two bars being $240, in bare steel. I had the bars about 3 weeks later. Brandon was great to work with and said he would be glad to duplicate this design for anyone else who is interested. The only thing I was not happy with in the Avid product was the mounting hardware Brandon delivers with his bars. He provides 5/16" bolts and, instead of T-Nuts for the truck bed side rails, he provides flat aluminum "nuts" that sit deep in the rail, are a little troublesome to line up, and don't provide as much thread depth as the T-Nuts. In a week or so of driving around with the tent, I had a couple of his bolts loosen up on me, so I went with 3/8x16x1" Torx security head bolts to provide some security, and used T-Nuts and added some lock washers to address the loosening issue.

After I got the bars and mounted them to my truck for a test fit, I figured out another thing I should have asked Brandon to add, that being a rack to store my camp table below the tent in the 5-6 inches of unused space above the bed. I found a local welder to add this to the bars and it turned out OK, even though we had some communication problems. I asked for a 3/4"x1 1/2" rectangle tube to be mounted flat (horizontal) below the top bar, and he mounted it vertical. It still works for my table, but if mounted the way I wanted, I would have had a little more height to work with for other cargo. He welded some links of chain onto each rack to provide an easy way to strap the table down.

After adding the lower rack, I had the bars powder coated at the shop that previously did my BAMF sliders and SSO Slimline bumper. They turned out great.

Before final install, I added some 1/16" dense foam rubber on top of each steel plate to provide a better interface to the tent floor, and also added some to the feet of each bar where they sit on the bed rails.

To mount the tent, I used Grade 8 hardware with 3/8x16x1 3/4" bolts with a large fender washer for the tent floor and a flat and lock washer under the bars. Mounting the bolts through the floor of the tent required removing the travel cover and unzipping the tent from the base to gain access under the mattress on both sides of the tent. Mounting the tent to the bars this way adds a marginal amount of security, at least in extending the time it would take someone to remove the tent. To loosen the tent mounting nuts, you have to have a wench on the head of the bolt, or it just spins. So removal of the tent also requires access to the bottom of the mattress on both sides.



Overall, I happy with the design of the bed bars for mounting a RTT low to keep it below the truck roofline.

Yes, the tent is mounted in the above pic.

It is very solid and I haven't found any issues with the design or mounting so far. If I were to do it again, I think I would use 3/4 square tube to make the table storage rack and drop them another inch or so lower to make the space usable for more than a table (camp chairs maybe).


I haven't had a chance to take it out for any real world trials, but will do that at the end of October with a 10-day trip to Idaho for elk hunting.

 

Nice work! Looks good and would still fit in my low garage