*THE RTT Owners Thread (With BS)*

I've had a bad experience of trying to get a two person sit in kayak on and off the top of my camper shell alone. Gravity doesn't seem to play well with me. I cracked a taillight. So now built a saw horse type lift to take my camper top on and off and I put my bed rack on when I need to carry the long kayak. It's much easier to load things when you can stand in the bed.

 

YouTube has videos on one load of rtt.

 

I've watched plenty; figured I'd ask a thread full of people who also have tacomas and RTT's. Many of the Youtube solutions include garages, building your own hoist system under a drive-thru structure, or a small crossover type vehicle that isn't comparable to a Tacoma.

I'm starting to think its time to kill 2 birds with one stone. I've been needing to find a deer hoist solution for cleaning deer when I hunt. I'm sure most of you have seen the hitch mounted deer hoist you can mount into your receiver of truck and hang a deer from. I may try to build my own with some 2" tube, in sections, that could be tall enough to hoist a tent above the roofline. And design it in such a way that it can pivot at one of the sections to swing the RTT onto the roof like a crane, or pivot to load a deer onto the tailgate/into the bed. Just gonna need to be super beefy and have somebody other than me weld it

 

I have used this method. It works. You do not need to be a power lifter but you do need to know how to properly lift and hinge at the hips so you don't F your back up.

 

Can confirm this is how I loaded my tent for a couple years every time I went camping. it works the best that I have found. Also helps if you wrap a hand towel around the back bar so the tent rails slide easier up on.


Garage door too short to fit my truck inside with it on the rack.
Now I have it moved to a trailer that sits lower so its not getting removed.

 

pretty much how i do it when i'm solo

 

I have a similar rack. If you could snap a pick underneath showing how its mounted, it would be helpful to me. thank you

 

I got a screaming good deal on a used CVT Mt Hood (single channel). Wanted to say thanks to this thread for the feedback and knowledge on RTTs. I can't wait to get compliments at the mall.

Also somehow my gas mileage has remained the same or slightly improved. No idea how that's possible.

 

idk how it works. i've ran a rtt with a rack for a couple years and my mpg varies from 16-24. it seems winter gas blends in colorado change mpg more than weight and stuff. (i have a data table with graphs of 99% of my fuel consumption if youre interested)

 

I do enjoy a good spreadsheet.

 

Last time I updated was Feb 1, so like 2 fills are missing. Not really sure how I got 35 mpg. was probably going downhill/down a mountain in colorado or something. only filled 7 gallons too so a shorter distance.

 

That's a nice spreadsheet right there.

One thing I find interesting about Tacomas is how inconsistent the MPG can be between Tacomas. Probably driving habits and alignment/maintenance cadence mostly.

I found this thread interesting bc this guy's cap tanked his MPGs down to 14. https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/camper-top-killed-my-gas-mileage.822686/

And it looks like you basically say as much in this thread: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...compare-science-and-data-inside.784344/page-2

 

Stranger: Hey man, what’s that on top of your vehicle?
Me: A tent.
Stranger: no way, that’s so cool!

 

What camper shell is this?

 

Well, had a sick kiddo all last week, so instead of going to work, I piddled around at home and got the roof of the truck all squared away. Moved a rifle case from camper shell rack to cab rack, made a wind deflector to hopefully help with mpg, and mounted my new (to me) big ass XL Roam tent on some 1" risers to clear the front rack. All in all, everything works great so far, and still on first tank of gas, but so far, gas mileage is seeming to actually be improved from the wind fairing so far. A couple more tanks will know for sure!

 

ARE Revo CX and the tent is CVT Mt. Hood.

 

Makes me feel better about putting a 180lb wedge tent on my Leer.

 

Went to install a kammock awning on the prinsu with the low profile mount and I can’t install it without removing the RTT the awning will tuck in perfectly below the tent and have 1/2” clearance

 

A lot can go into MPG numbers. Elevation, driving style, mods, winter gas, tire pressure, maintenance history, etc.

Comparing your MPG to any other tacoma is a futile effort without being able to control for most of those variables.