ARE MX Canopy...Walk in Door?

Just about to place an order for a new canopy and would like some advice, especially from guys who have experience with the ARE walk in door.

Decided on the ARE MX Canopy, but I'm still undecided on whether to get the walk in door or not.
It's basically a $1,200 upgrade...

I'm planning on doing a lot of camping in the back and some basic weekend overland trips. I don't use the truck for work, towing or hauling too much. In general I'm thinking the door would be nice for camping, but I'm still trying to decide if I'll miss the tailgate.

Let me know what you guys think

 

Just for fun here's a picture of my old ARE CX canopy, camped in this thing countless times!

 

You won’t miss the tailgate. In fact it’s nice to know it’s brand new and sitting in the basement.

 

Cool set up for camping

 

Damn you for costing me an extra $1200!!!

I'll have to let it slide since you're an Intimidator fan

Haha just kidding Steve, thank you for the advice and the picture. I wish we could get the 3rd Gen with the standard cab.


Currently leaning towards getting the walk in door

 

I will mention...... in my opinion do not get the flip down front window, rather no window and install a rubber gasket to save some $ and weight. You don’t need two windows; trust me

 

Just to clarify, Are you saying not to get the front window (closest to cab) and just have fiberglass there? I would imagine that would have a big negative affect on visibility.

By the way how is the visibility with the walk in door?

I was thinking about getting the "windoors" on at least one side, I see you have those

 

I can see the appeal, but I honestly use my tailgate as a table/workbench all of the time. I used it at the camp last week to rearrange my dry box storage and as a bench to prep my chainsaw. Sometimes I cook lunch on it.

 

Having the front window in a canopy is great for occasionally carrying long items sticking into the cab. For interior molding, fishing rods that you don’t want to break down and extra long pieces of wood with either tailgate up or down, the open windows are great.

Even if you rarely use the truck for hauling, a tailgate and flip open back window comes in handy for carrying a sofa, dresser or a long table.

 

Good choice on the MX. I'd do the walk-in again. I have a $4200 fully-loaded ARE MX. It was a LOT, but completely worth it. My truck's used the most for work, long-haul towing a camper for long trips, and a lot of day trips on the weekend. I have just over 42k miles, and have had the MX for a year and a half now.

All of the functions I use the truck for are improved by having the high-top canopy coupled with the cargo accessibility you get with a walk-in and a bed platform. The walk-in adds a few inches of length to the truck, making sleeping much more comfortable with a well-designed bed platform. The door makes it easy to load and unload smaller goods - especially with the truck lifted, you can reach in to more cargo than with the tailgate. Then, when it's almost full, you close it like an SUV and load the rest through the little door. I can pack an absurd amount in the back of the truck for work, then use it as base camp or a literally zero-setup tent.

The windoors and a toolbox are a huge plus too - I use them daily. They help loading stuff on the passenger side, and I have tons of tools and supplies I use daily on the driver's side in a toolbox behind the windoor. If I had to pick between the walk-in and the windoors plus driver side toolbox, I'd have a very hard time choosing, but I'd probably settle on the windoors and driver side toolbox - begrudgingly.

From a functionality loss perspective, I missed the hell out of my tailgate when I added the swingout bumper... I couldn't back up to a loading dock and just throw work stuff in there. That was, and still is, the only major downside of my current setup, but is more of a factor of the fullsize rear and carrying extra fuel than the walk-in. I also can't really use the truck as a truck since it's a mobile house at this point, so I rely on a cheap harbor freight trailer I've had for a decade to haul mulch, soil, trash, etc.



The MX with walk-in gives me more internal cargo capacity than a van and the dogs love the platform in the back for looking out the windows. It keeps fur out of the truck that way too.

I went out and took a few pictures from the garage...



The SOS offroad concepts HCrear bumper is awesome. I have towed my ~4k lb camper trailer thousands and thousand of miles with no issues. I have a 33" spare and 5 gallons of fuel on it. I've gone through a lot that would have ripped the rear bumper off, but the HC just slid off with no damage. Swing it out:



Walk-in on the left, table on the right. I added the table aftermarket, but you can get one straight from SOS. I modded mine a bit by moving the license plate so I can leave the hitch and step in all the time, it helps getting into and out of the back.



Table flipped out, door open. The door's a quick latch. It came keyed the same as all the windoors, which was nice. You can just see the camper platform inside. If I was loading at work or doing a home depot run, all the crap would go on the floor with light stuff on the platform. There's no tailgate, so I can reach everywhere without climbing in through the back door or through the passenger windoor... But what if I need to load something big?



Oh yea, I forgot - the back's like a gigantic SUV. That's like 4'x6'x5' of cargo space... Actually a good bit less from the taper at the top and my platform, but you get the idea. This is how I load bigger boxes or larger pieces of hardware. If I'm doing house work and getting plywood or boards, I load those on the roof rack, which is a BajaRack Megamule.



I've camped a few times in this now, but haven't finished the build yet. I'll be building the left side into a cabinet with more storage. The fisheye lens is a bit deceiving, the platform on the right is about the size of a cot and is where I sleep when I camp. All my camping gear is organized into bins under the storage vault at the front... That's about 1.5' deep x 4' wide x 1' tall.

 

Have the hole just no glass (unless you really want more weight and glass to clean I don’t see the point in having it) On one of my other trucks I removed the back window of the cab, as well and installed the gasket and put up a curtain to have it completely open to the cab. Good luck with whatever you choose! Edit: as for visibility I plastidipped the inside of the rear center door (I didnt like people looking in the bed from behind) so not much but I’m good with it

 

Ya I feel like I might miss the tailgate, used it all the time with my last canopy.

 

Highly valid point!

Will probably go for a front sliding window. I had one on my last canopy and I did use it.

 

Wow Dave, first off can't thank you enough for your contribution. This is super helpful

Secondly, what a badass rig! It's real similar to what I'm picturing (although my budget might be around 50% of yours hahah). I love the swing out bumper, table and step, I would imagine its perfect for camping. Im going to look into this.

I was thinking about the windoors on at least one side so I can reach in and grab stuff, but haven't really thought much about the tool box. I love that you can access gear from the outside, but I hate how you cant get in the box from the inside and how much interior space it consumes.

Also I never considered the extra couple inches in length you save from the talegate delete...Everyone can always use an extra inch or two :0

Overall I am planning a camper build for the MX and your project is inspirational at the least!

Thanks Dave,
Luke

 

Just placed an order for the following canopy

ARE MX Series w/ the following options
-Walk in Door
-Rear view camera
-Tilt down front sliding window
-Drivers side Windoor
-Carpet Liner

$3,365

Very excited, but the canopy is 6-7 weeks out, so the wait will suck.

I'm designing a badass camping setup with a heater, water, electrical system and some other features. So I'll use the next few weeks to finish that!

 

I’m excited for you. Just got my first taco and am shopping for a shell. Assuming you had a platform bed in the back with your CX, did you ever feel short on headroom? I’m debating cab-height vs mid-rise

 

Get the tallest one you can. A small slide-in camper would be sweet if you can find one

 

Not sure if you will see this or not but if you still have this canopy id love to see it in person. Let me know hope we can meet up so I can take a look.