Tonneau Tent

Well, that actually cheeses me off. I have a history of coming up with ideas and plans, having them shot down by family, only to see someone making money with it later, one guy is even a millionaire. I drew up plans for my ARE cap, including the ability to store inin the lid of the tonneau, so you could use the bed without tent via a floor system that folded the tent up. Had rhe engineering figured out and everything. Took my diagrams to my business owner father for advice on wbat to do, and he told me it was a dumb idea. No money at the time, and slightly crushed.

I mean, it looks great, and Im happy for you, but it.still cheeses me off.

 

There won't be this thread is a year old and no updates given....

Build it, I'm sure you will sell a few no problem

 

You know what? I think I'm going to look into it again. The .pdf is different than what my design was, so I won't have any patent issues. I'm a designer by trade, but my engineering skills are the greatest, but I've got a buddy who might be able to help.

What do you guys think a tonneau tent would be worth? It'd be a full size cover (I'm thinking ARE, because that is the one I had when I designed the original one), where the tent has a hard floor, and when not in use it is contained in the underneath of the cover (don't want to give too much away). Any thoughts?

 

I would have been all over it when I had my cover. I've changed to many things since and no longer have the cover so I can do it now.

I would say not to design it for any one companies product. Make something universial that will fit ARE, LEER, Undercover, Etc so you hit a more broad audience. Then you would only need to do one for a long bed and a short bed.

 

If you build it they will come

 

Id have to look at a few different covers. My design had a hard floor which lowered from the cover, and tucked back to keep every thing neat. I don't know how model specific Id need to go. I'm kinda excited, think I'll pull the sketch book out this weekend.

 

I want one of these very badly, what brand fiberglass tonneau is this built off of??

 

Anyone ever wrapped a tarp around a tonneau and folded it at the tail gate and called it a day?

 

i was just thinking of doing this lol, but would seem to seal in a lot of heat as tarp isn't breathable..?

 

Or what about a Bed Rack With a Tarp Wrapped around it?

 

I'm actually going to try making something like the op posted, my aunt is an engineer at Northrup Grumman, and she is going to help me with the thermal component and i have a family friend who is a really good seamstress, so me and my buddy are going to mach so thing up tomorrow and run it by my aunt, when its all dome ill post it here and tell you about my costs and procedures and stuff....

 

at that point you're better off with just buying a soft topper...

 

We did this once... lol. Made out of pvc, tarp and bungies. This tonneau tent would be perfect for us!

 

Bump. The OP's tent is the nicest truck-bed tent I've ever seen. I'd totally buy one!

 

Bump.. I still want one

 

I'm not a fan of tonneau covers but it doesn't seem like a hard build at all if you have any sewing skills. If I were going to make a tent for one I'd simplify it and make it more universal, especially if I were thinking about trying to market it. The cargo basket complicates things but if I were to make one, I'd make it out of tent material and have it slide over the top of the cover and attach to the bedsides with multiple rare earth magnets (sew them into the bottom hem). Put a thin seal along the bottom edge to keep wind from blowing up it, have elastic sewn along the front and back along with a nylon strap that would allow you to cinch it up under the tailgate. The back/door opening could be the same or you could have a awning attached to it that allowed you to use some poles and stakes to give you a sheltered area. Simple.

If you were going to run a rack/basket on the tonneau I'd just delete the top and put Velcro along the top edges instead. You need the material to either come over the bed rails to shed water or some sort of seal on the top of the rails which would more of a PITA and more likely to leak water into the bed. Two other ideas would be to mount aluminum or vinyl awning track into the tonneau and sew Keder awning rope along the top edge of the tent or you could permanently mount it like VW Westys did.

You'll need some sort of seal between the tailgate and the bed to keep the mosquitoes out but there are several styles out there.

 

I'll Guinea pig one of these for anyone making... I have a short bed and want something to camp in badly...

 

How has this not happened yet? I'm about to try the PVC/tarp combo, but I'd be very interested in something like the OP.