Couple RTT questions.

If you have a topper and a rtt would you rather have a bed rack? I would imagine the dry storage and locking options are the primary reason to go that route.

Keeping the tent in the bed under the roofline is also appealing for MPGs. Is there a reason to have it up higher vs lower in the bed?

 

I'm running a custom bed rack that bolts to the frame over bed rails with a James Baroud hard shell RTT. Tent is right at roof line with an open bed below.

Found that the higher one goes parking options can become limited along wiht a cut to your MPG.

 

I have a shell with RTT on Yakima bars. Advantage is storage, security, height allows annex attachment. Disadvantage is high center of gravity, mpg, stress on shell over time.
I just prefer the shell.

 

Cab height with bed bars. Less noise and drag for mpg's but it's a truck with not so great gas mileage anyways. I have an annex but don't use it and everything fits in the bed as is so no need to mount tent higher. It's also a lot easier to take off and put back on.

 

I thought about making a custom rack how do you like the James Baroud? they look really nice.

 

I'll be getting my setup pretty soon to combine the best of both worlds. Check out the Mobtown bed bars, as you can use them with many tonneau covers. The tonneau will keep stuff dry/clean and is more theft resistant than leaving stuff in an open bed. Plus, based on my measurements, with a Tepui RTT mounted on their bars (Tepui's seem to fold "shorter" than CVT's, etc) it should be within about +/-1" of roof line to help keep MPG's reasonable.

 

Ill take a look I saw KB Voodoo had a new system coming out soon too.

 

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...der-redesigned-for-rtts.458039/#post-13540792

 

I have had both bed bars and now a shell and I prefer the shell over the bars:

 

What rack did you use geek house? I have the same cap and wanna do a rtt but was worried about damaging the cap. I belive the leer cap is only rated to 150lbs.

 

Prinsu! Make sure you understand the difference between static and dynamic ratings..

 

Static is an at rest weight on roof and dynamic is weight of material plus wind resistance? I don't know the difference

 

I've got the Mobtown bed bars. Provides a good profile with the tent closed up. Plenty of room underneith for the gear.

Plus they come out real easy, so if you don't want to take down the tent you can take the tent off to go wheeling around.