Tacoma mid to cab height bed rack/roof tent

Hey I’m hoping to get some insight for my build. I have a 2013 Tacoma 4x4 Regular Cab Manual. It’s 2.7 L 4-cylinder engine.

I’m debating in two options;
A) cab height bed rack w/ soft top cover and roof tent
B) Mid height bed rack w/ retracted and roof tent

My concerns is if I go with option A build will I have enough power from engine. Because it’s now top heavier has created more drag, etc. Compare to the lower profile option of B.
Also, from your experiences how much does option A affect mpg.

 

I don't have the 4 cylinder so I can't speak to that, however the 6 cylinder version is not the most fuel efficient thing around. With the added weight it's worse for sure! I went with the mid height rack to try and keep the tent out of the air flow and reduce drag. In previous versions I had a Smittybilt tent on a truck cap and the mileage was much worse and the truck felt top heavy...

 

@RancheroDeluxe How’s the storage efficiency with the mid rack?

 

With a low height bed rack I may have lost 1 mpg or maybe nothing. Hard to say. The kayaks bring it down to 15 or 16 though.

 

Not to bad. I usually carry a kitchen bin, miscellaneous bin, a table and a chair with room to spare. My fridge is mounted in the backseat. If I want to make a dump run I take the 4Runner

 

I mount my RTT on my tonneau so that it's even with the cab height and within the slipstream of the truck. I've measured mileage over many, many thousands of miles with/without, and I can't see a penalty from the RTT when mounted this way.


My ARB Simpson III RTT has been sold, and I'm hunting a lighter weight roof tent that will be mounted the same way.

The first trips I made with the ARB RTT were on a Front Runner bed-mounted rack. This was convenient, but just a bit too high. Front Runner gave me some clamp plates that would allow the tent to be mounted directly to the load bars, eliminating the height of those raised brackets. I haven't done that as I like the security of my Mountain Top aluminum checkerplate tonneau and I can't run both.