Steward II
DIY Roof Top Tent using 80/20
- Thread starter Will Macia
- Start date
Steward II
I was able to get some time in this weekend after traveling for 4 months solid. Since NWOR is this weekend, I figured I better get it done... Here is the last of it... Both fabric portions will need to be remade, but these will do for one weekend. For the main cabin, the pattern is a bit too tight still. I need to increase the long piece running end to end a bit, and widen it slightly as it is being pulled at the corners. This will fail eventually, so I need to be smarter on a side attachment and skirt. To allow for the fold of the tent, I slit the center at the bottom on both sides and installed zippers there. For now I used a cheesy little flap to hold that in place. I will also need to use stiffer plastic rails on the sides as one day in the sun already warped them a bit. I used aluminum on the sides and that seems to work well. Next, I cut the fly out of a waterproof breathable gore-tex material, but it is too narrow to make a proper fly without seam sealing, so that will be the next round after this trip. I bought the rods for the fly from CVT (8 ea for $50) - I am only using 4 for now. The windows got a little fun 'Tahiti' print for shades that attach on the inside. The fly is under a decent amount of tension and would work better if it covered the sides, but oh well. I'll risk some rain this time. I laminated a piece of memory foam to some urethane furniture foam and covered with a grey canvas. I used spray adhesive and then cut using a vertical fabric saw. I am spoiled having a lot of these tools but none if it is too hard with ordinary trips to Home Depot. Last, I made a waterproof orange cover for it out of 180z tarp vinyl, sewed crossing straps with 1" s/r buckles and then welded the corners seams to make it waterproof. It isn't too pretty but I'll make another with the new tent cabin later. Finally, I mounted it to the rusting Voodoo fab racks that I need to strip and have powder coated. 1 year old and they are rusting everywhere. Lame.
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Steward II
Off-Road Ranger I
Influencer I
About $300, but I spent about $450 with trial and error... Some of my best laid plans didn't work. The worst of it is the hinges, they were $60 from Equipt. I probably could have found those cheaper. I also have a full textile manufacturing facility, so I have a luxury of making the fabric portion without a lot of complication or cost.
That's awesome. Well your tent looks great, I hope you get some good use out of it!
I have so far! Already made a long list of mods I want to make!
Funny you say that... We thought about it, hard, but it is a bit of a departure from our bag company overall. I think selling kits might be a good idea, but then again, you could buy all the parts off of 80/20 yourself without any markup. It would be nice to have an econo option in the market, other than the Yakima doohickey...
Traveler III
- 1,265
- First Name
- Steven
- Last Name
- Scoville
- Member #
12363
- Service Branch
- USN
You could sell the tent material all sewn together and then a parts list as well as how-to. I know I’d buy that and it would be way cheaper than current RTT offerings.
Influencer I
Check out 80/20's eBay store. Better pricing. Also, you can load your cart and submit it for a combined price. Saves cost especially shipping. I am on my third 80/20 project and love working with the stuff. I have bought a vertical mill now and aluminum chop saw so I can cut and shape the 80/20 as needed. That saves quite a bit too.
Member III
I would definitely be Interested in having just the tent available for sale and build the rest myself . You might be onto a great idea to get more people into a RTT but still have the creativity and pride of making part of it themselves.
Very impressive. Making a rtt is Challenging, a little frustrating and fun. Takes alot of time. Saves one alot of money. And you get it the Way you want it.
Husband and I finished our diy rtt last year.
Husband and I finished our diy rtt last year.
