Awning mounted to RTT?

[Phessor]

Has anyone had any success with mounting their awnings to the bottom of their RTT's? I am struggling with how to mount it to my rig. I can weld some mounts up to my bed rack, but I got the idea of mounting my awning to my RTT.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, thank you.

 

[Chadlyb]

Has anyone had any success with mounting their awnings to the bottom of their RTT's? I am struggling with how to mount it to my rig. I can weld some mounts up to my bed rack, but I got the idea of mounting my awning to my RTT.
Any help or suggestions would be appreciated, thank you.

Everything that I've seen has been attached to the rack system below the RTT even if it was right at the base of the tent..nothing mounted to the tent because of the cover needing room to roll down below...

 

[Sparky]

When I picked up my Tepui they recommended leaving the rails long for this reason. I use the gusseted brackets from ARB and just drilled holes through the aluminum tent rails. Also used washers to spread the surface area out across the rails. This is the only relatively close picture I have, tent is not on the roof at the moment. The bracket is visible just under the ARB logo, overall it's pretty straightforward, just leave at least 6-inches of rail, maybe more if you're not sure cause you can always trim more later.

 

[Kevin108]

I've been considering changing our tent to dump on the driver side and my plans are similar to what @Sparky did. Smittybilt awnings come with a simple L-bracket and u-bolts. I will reuse the tent crossbar and fit bolts into it to secure the L-bracket, which gets turned down to drop the awning down some and make installing the spring rods for the rain fly easier.

 

[Phessor]

I found this picture on line and this is what I was thinking of doing with mine. Any issues other then taking off the tent cover?

 

[Phessor]

View attachment 40852When I picked up my Tepui they recommended leaving the rails long for this reason. I use the gusseted brackets from ARB and just drilled holes through the aluminum tent rails. Also used washers to spread the surface area out across the rails. This is the only relatively close picture I have, tent is not on the roof at the moment. The bracket is visible just under the ARB logo, overall it's pretty straightforward, just leave at least 6-inches of rail, maybe more if you're not sure cause you can always trim more later.

That is a good idea, except I ran my mounting bars length ways and built my bed rack to accommodate that mounting platform.

 

[Sparky]

Well shoot. That pic you posted looks like it'd work, functionally it's the same. I suppose you could use a cutdown section of aluminum rail from the tent manufacturer too.. they're all just bolted through the floorboard anyways.

Just as an FYI, the ARB brackets use three bolts at the bracket:awning interface. That pic looks like a peice of gate hardware which probably only has two.. I'm sure two would be fine, just thought I'd point it out.

 

[000]

I don’t know if this would work in your situation, but it was a cheap and easy bracket that could be changed if necessary. It was originally too short since I’m pretty tall I kept hitting my head on the awning I made it taller.

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[000]

I would worry about eventually causing cracks etc in the tent floor. With proper backing this could be avoided, but rtts are expensive enough that I’d try to avoid it all together myself.


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[Sparky]

I would worry about eventually causing cracks etc in the tent floor. With proper backing this could be avoided, but rtts are expensive enough that I’d try to avoid it all together myself.


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I'd agree with this. I think most folding rtt's use a type of honeycomb-core aluminum floor which should spread the forces out pretty well, but I could see a backing plate on the inside of the tent being a good idea, you don't want the bolt head punching through the inside of the tent floor. We never asked what kind of rtt you have so that could made a difference, I suppose I made an assumption there when I heard you talking about the rails. Awnings don't weight much but there's a lot of leverage with how they mount so ya, I could see the stress there being a potential issue.

 

[Phessor]

I have a Smittybilt XL Overlander Tent that I am putting on a custom bed rack on my Tacoma.

 

[Sparky]

Maybe throw some photo's up so we can all see exactly what you're dealing with? I'm curious about the custom bed-rack, some of them out there are really crummy, especially considering the prices that are charged. How's AZ right now anyways, I lived in Tucson for 7-years and heard it's pretty warm down there for this time of year.

 

[Phessor]

I'm building my rack myself, I still have a ways to go though.

 

[Phessor]

Got it all put together for a test fit.