The no BS RTT thread

I'm a new member but over the course of the last year since I bought my Tacoma I've been lurking on this site reading about roof top tents. I'm a big time camper and I'm looking at upping my camping game..

I've done a lot of reading and researching about capabilities of bed rails only having 400# combined weight capacity. However there is still plenty of people with a bed rack, RTT, jerry cans, presumably a minimum of two campers (judging by the type of RTT), and equipment strapped to their glorious Toyota Tacoma. Which all presumably holds well over 400# unless they just have all of it rigged up but don't sleep in it.

Understanding that bed rails only support the 400#, what about the bed racks that insert into the bed rails and then have metal resting on top of the actual sides of the bed? It seems like that distributes much more of the weight and displaces much of the load off of the actual rail system.

Does anybody have any actual knowledge on whether or not this increases the max load amount? Or is everybody just risking the biscuit with potentially breaking their bed rails?

Is the answer to this problem the bed Chanel stiffener?

Please feel free to post photos of your trucks setup! And tell us how you came to the setup you have now.

Thanks guys, looking forward to your comments.

 

Never heard of anyone having troubles with running a rtt and accessories. Mines been solid for a year and half mounted on the bed rails. Hilift, shovel, axe and jerry can will be mounted on next

 

The number you may be reading could be the dynamic load vs. the static load. Hear me out here.

I had a RTT on my Jeep Patriot and learned much talking to Treeline Outdoors, Yakima and Jeep.

- Dynamic weight for the rack was #200
- Weight of my girlfriend, I, dog, surfboard, annex/bags/pillows = ~600
- Dynamic weight, while moving is much less than the static load ability. When you're moving it's experiencing loads going up down/left and right
- Static weight is when it's just still. With most normal cars static weight can be close the the GW of the vehicle due to rollover specs

I know this doesn't exactly answer your question but may give you some idea of what the numbers are that you are dealing with.

 

Ya I've bumped around this site quite a bit and have seen a lot of people (as well as spoken on the phone Thule and other bed rack mounting companies) saying that it is a 400# weight limit. they are worried about sleeping 2 people and a dog up supported by those rails. But that's great you are having no problems with yours. Post some pics please!

 

Previous setup. I'll be moving to a bedrack most likely by Wilco Offroad for the Tacoma.

 

Great answer, thank you. I had heard the same argument for your roof as they also are designed to handle a rollover. So it makes sense that the pickup should handle it as well.

 

Bought a KBVoodoo rack. The build quality is second to none.

 

You'll find all the answers to your questions here. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-rtt-owners-thread-with-bs.312269/

In short, you have nothing to be worried about.

 

that is one weird lookin tacoma