Non roof top tent rigs. Let's see em.

got thjis idea from a post somewhere on the forum...

I will prolly be building myself something like this.. on rails so you slide it out when you get there.



i like the idea of sleeping in the back since i have a snugtop but also would like to close it up.

 

If your a solo camper this hitch mounted hammock could be an option otherwise there’s truck bed tents if you don’t want to be on the ground

$210 Rightline Gear Mid-Size Short Truck Bed Tent, 5 Foot - Tall Bed,Grey

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N5CQ4FO

 

I do a lot of camping out of my kayak so I’m looking to shave weight off my gear. I used a Marmot Tungsten one-person tent for a few years, it’s in the front in the first photo. The two-person version is behind it. It’s light and has plenty of room for one person. It’s been through several 60 mph thunderstorms. I did find some of the aluminum pole sections had cracks on the ends. Marmot has a lifetime warranty and replaced the poles for free, so kudos to them.

I recently upgraded to a Slingfin Portal two-person tent, it’s on the right in the second photo. It’s light and gets rave reviews for being bombproof. I’ve had it out camping twice but not in severe weather. It has about 10 external loops for guy lines and an internal bracing system.

I can fit either tent, its footprint, an extra Tyvek ground sheet, big sand stakes, my Therma-a-Rest sleeping pad, and a Helinox Chair Zero chair into a 20 liter dry bag.

 

Amen brother! I love my diamondback and could bare the idea of spending that much and then purposefully making it obsolete with a RRT/permanent rack.

Typically when I go camping I’m backpacking, so no vehicle at all. And when I am forced to settle with car camping, The idea is to set up base and then go explore, so in either scenario a RRT does not make sense for me.

Though now with a little one, I have been faced with the fact that I am confined to car camping until he is old enough to carry a pack and put some miles behind him. I also know with the Tacoma that I will be leaning more towards off-roading focused camping trips which I think might be what the OP has in mind @Davis1891? In that instance I started to you with the idea of sleeping in my truck bed under the diamondback. I would open the panels and tailgate, toss a bug net over the bed and string up a tarp from the roof rack over the bed for shelter from the elements. Maybe something like a Kelty waypoint tarp:

This could be a doable option with the right weather and a sleeping pad in the bed?

 

I've thought about adding an RTT but find I don't need one. Long bed with a canopy works great. All of my gear is compact and light from years of backpacking. I bring my MSR Freelite if I plan to head out on foot, keep the truck set up as "base camp", it's pretty great.

 

Could you provide me brand and model of the RTT on the 1st Gen Tacoma?

 

Like your trailer! Could you give me some info and photos of it?

 

Don't blame you for not wanting one... personally, i think the whole roof top tent thing is ridiculous.

 

CVT Mt. St. Helens.

 

A variety of options I have collected in over a half century of living in the outdoors:







Roof top tents? Nawww! For me less is more: The older I get the less camping equipment I need. In over fifty years of owning and using almost every type of camping equipment known to man I can say that I've never romanced the thought of owning a RTT. Don't get me wrong: I have squandered oceans of money on my own outdoor equipment journey, oceans of regret and buyer remorse, but gained practical knowledge, dearly purchased. Close as I ever got to a RTT was that Tent Cot torture device. Never again. A cab-over truck camper in the 80's was my "RTT experience", then a Class-C motorhome through the 90's. Now, I leave a 32-foot Class-A Southwind motorhome at home in the shop, preferring the simplicity and convenience of a true overnight camping hammock (different from a festival hammock) for more than a decade. Quick setup and tear-down, packs down small in the Taco, and infinitely more comfortable than any other camping sleeping option I have tried.

$1,400 Self-leveling 165FT/50M, Drain Pipe Inspection Camera Built-in 512Hz Transmitter, Meter Counter, with Microphone Speaker DVR Recorder, 16GB TF Card, Guide Wheel (5mm Cable)

Self-leveling! (How much quality outdoor time do you squander during camp set-up, attempting to get your sleep surface almost level, but never completely level? And miserable all night because it's not completely level?) Yeah, that. A hammock is less to clean up when I return home too. Leaves me more time to actually enjoy the outdoors rather than fixating on my equipment. I learned a long time ago that a man does not own his stuff, it owns him. It will eat up your money and, most tragic of all, your time maintaining it. Having been that guy in my "living large" youth, I thankfully realized that a roof top tent is a cumbersome thing to own, maintain and store, the 800lb gorilla hanging from the clever but cumbersome suspension storage device in the garage. Yet for some a RTT seems to be an inevitable rite of passage in their camping maturation process, an expensive lesson learned along their way to camping nirvana. In several years on this forum I have watched as newbies get caught up and romance the RTT idea, quickly crossing the event-horizon of a less than well thought-out RTT purchase, inextricable. There is no shortage of RTT enablers on this website. Misery loves company. Alas, some lessons only time can teach. Ask me how I know. It's not about the equipment guys. It's about the moment, and the memories made. Old dog, still learning new tricks.

 

I'm rocking a snugtop with a custom sleep platform I built, but I'm upgrading to a canopy camper shell... No rooftop tent as I can't climb ladders drunk.

 

Bed tent, goes up in a few minutes

 

I think this a pic of this YouTuber's set up. He has a 1st Gen Tacoma that he has been living in it full time for 7 years. He has a couple of videos showing how he built it. This is his YouTube site:
https://www.youtube.com/c/OffGridBackcountryAdventures/

 

What hammock mount is that?

 

Got this like 4 years ago, never got a chance to use it though, so its just sitting in the basement.

 

Here’s a quick pitch design I used once.

 

Here's a few that I use, depending on where/when I am camping and who I am bringing with me. I also have a little bivvy tent. My son tends to use that one more than me, though.