Question about my short bed, roof top tent, and racks.

My 2021 has an ARE CX HD shell coming with the ARE rails attached to the inner frame of the shell. I'd like to put a rooftop tent up there and it's likely going to extend over the cab of the truck.

With it overhanging and having less support there, do I need something like a Prinsu roof rack to support the front of the tent? I like the idea of having a roof rack anyways, however, it might not be my initial purchase over the tent its self unless I need to order it.

If I did order a roof rack, would it fit under the overhanging tent?

 

Seems like some measurements you'll have to take yourself, but also depends on what kind of tent. I've asked roofnest the same thing about their aluminum clamshell tent and they said its totally fine hanging over the cab. Outside of aesthetics I was never a huge fan of overhanging tents with roof racks since you spend all that money on a rack to only use half of it. I know the folks with go fast campers have to cut down their prinsu racks to fit under the tent, but I believe those are a bit closer to the cab than the CX HD rack + the space the mounting hardware will add to it. Some manufacturers also have mounting solutions to "lift" your tent off whatever you're mounting them to, but they're usually not much, maybe .5 to 1 inch of lift off the cab.

 

It will depend on the tent. Martin off-road might be able to help on the RR. He makes a shorter rack that works with Go fast. It might work with a tent as well

https://martinor.com/shop/foundation-camper-rack

 

the cab will flex independently from the bed, if you attach a RTT to the cab and the bed the flexing might damage the tent.

 

Thanks for all the input y’all!

I found a video of someone using an iKamper on ARE CX HD rails with a Prinsu rack under it on the cab. Wasn’t attached to the Prinsu but cleared it.