*THE RTT Owners Thread (With BS)*

@Bannerman I'm loving the diamondback + frontrunner + RTT setup. It does suck that I can no longer open the DB front and rear sections, but overall it's such a great setup. Currently debating on if I should order a 3rd crossbar from frontrunner, or if the 2 I have will be enough.

The only other issue with this setup is the fact that I cannot put in the pole for the awning on the side of the tent facing the truck, because the pole hits the cab. I think I'm going to try using a bungee cord and just tying it to my prinsu roof rack and seeing if that works.

 

I've considered adding a third bar as well but I've spent a bunch of nights in it as we well as doing some pretty tough trails and the tent seems solid so far so not sure if I will.

I did exactly that, I looped a short bungee with a ball on the end to that flap and have a permanent hook installed on my Prinsu. I dont have a good picture of how it right now but at least here you can see that it pulls the flap tight.

 

When Overlanding is life but skiing is also life. $20 ski rack off Craigslist and a little creativity, no more propping my ~6 foot long skis crosswise in my 5 foot bed. Honestly I'm digging the asymmetry of my setup

 

bungee off of the roof rack works great. That's what I do.

The construction shouldn't be that hard. It's basically a bed rack with skins and I'd keep it pretty rectangular (skipping the stylish curves and contours). Another hiccup though is that I'd like it to be aluminum for weight, but as a DIY project it would have to be steel so I could weld it. I'm barely competent sticking steel together; I don't have the drive to learn aluminum.

 

Nice, I would probably have mounted the RTT on the passenger side to offset the Taco lean (battery and gas tank) but still pretty slick.

 

The exhaust is on the other side and especially when I'm winter camping off road I like to give the truck a chance to warm up while I'm putting the tent away rather than hop into low-range and the associated high RPMs on a cold engine. I did have it on the other side to start with and the exhaust goes straight up into the tent while I'm putting it away, and I like my brain cells.

 

I believe it's actually better for the engine to warm up quickly vs at idle. But are you saying you dont have your exhaust cut off just after the axle you Peasant?

 

Yah I'm going to have to do that soon, my exhaust takes a beating.

You're correct that the best way to warm up an engine is quickly, but with a light load. The worst thing you can do is go and rev the nuts out of it when it's cold and if I'm jumping right into technical terrain that tends to happen. Also when I'm ski camping immediately after leaving I'm coasting all the way down a mountain, if I don't let it idle for awhile before hitting the road it takes (no joke) 20-30 minutes to get up to temp.

Also can't lie it's nice to get into a warm cab after putting a cold, wet or snow covered tent away especially if that's also after a full day of skiing

 

Just ragging you, I idle my truck before breaking camp too, my dogs get cold so I usually let them sit in there while we pack up.

 

Maybe I'll flip it around when I eventually cut my exhaust(willingly or otherwise lmao, one of my off road buddies cut the exhaust on his FJC over the axle like that with a rock instead of a sawzall). I keep my heavy ass box of tools, recovery gear and chains on the right side of the bed and my lean isn't that bad

 

For those of you that use tent heaters, what do you typically set the heater on in the tent to keep it off of bedding and whatnot?

 

This, I hired a sous chef to hold it all night while I sleep to ensure I dont catch on fire.

Cookie sheets work great and they are cheep.

 

I hang mine when needed. It’s an old Colman, one of the first ones to take a 1lb cylinder. It’s nothing like a lil buddy heater though.

 

I feel dumb. Got my RTT and im ready to mount my tent to the bed rack. Hardware supplied with Smittybilt tent is for clamping on to bars but I have the KBVoodoo rack with the slotted bars running parallel with rack.

Do I drill a hole in center of mounting plates and use 1 bolt per corner instead of 2?

Roof rack bars also dont seem to line up with tent mounting bars.

Sorry dumb question.

 

shouldn’t the bolts go on the outside of the bars ? And that piece you’re holding attaches them to the bar like a ubolt. Or am I missing something.

 

Yes but both the tent rails and bed rack rails are running parallel.

Im not sure but I might be having a dumb moment lol

 

Just use a washer.

 

Unless I mount to outside bars instead of those two center ones?

 

How are you trying to orient the tent? The mounting bars on the tent should go perpendicular to those two crossbars with the slots in them.