RTT ( roof top tents)

[Bushwhacksurvival]

I'm in the middle of designing and building a new type of RTT, it's cost effective as well as versatile. I will post pictures once it's completed but the basic premise is measuring out the space available on your pickup truck or SUV roof rack. Then taking 3/4 in plywood and cutting it to those specifications. To waterproof, im bed lining them. I'm still playing with hinge ideas, but what I'm trying to do rather than manufacture them is find ones from a local home Depot or Menards that will work therefore allowing everybody to be able to build this. I mean not everybody has a welder like me. Then U bolting it to the roof. The piece that folds out will be supported by a collapsible ladder from harbor freight. okay so now you kind of get an idea of how I'm building this. Here's where it becomes versatile. Because this is just a platform at this point I'm making it so that way you can put a tent up there, like a one or two person backpacking tent. But you can also take that down and put up a blind and use your vehicle as a mobile hunting stand. You could also technically use it for any number of situations looking up the Stars whatever the possibilities are endless. But what that's also does is it makes it serviceable. No more paying for $800 to $1,000 to even $2,000 rooftop tents I can put whatever I want up there however I want. I'm also working on a universal way to attach everything. When you ready to pack up and go pack up your 10th you're sleeping bag everything like you normally would fold up the platform and place everything on top and then put a rooftop storage cover over it all. Looks exactly the same as a folded up rtt. But with twice as much storage as I have found. I'd love to hear talks thoughts with this, granted there are pros and cons but I think if executed properly this could be a very useful over landing tool for all of us. Shoot I would even use it for fishing bringing my truck out a little bit into a body of water and then using it as a platform to fish off of.

 

[RoarinRow]

Looking forward to your project.

 

[Billiebob]

I love simplicity. Sounds like a great project. I'll post a few ideas.

Hinges,these are hardware store gate hinges.


Platform base, Ladders, incredibly light and rigid, even cheap then 5/8" or 1/2" plywood to save wieght, or OSB which is heavier but more stable than plywood
Thinking of weight, use something like #2 Pine for the box sides. Very light, easily workable. Much more rigid, stable than plywood and it holds screws better



over the wood, box liner is not my favourite idea
It always get knicked, cracked and once that happens it traps moisture promoting rot
I'm more a fan of stain or paint and sanding, recoating every few years
Plus keep it under a roof when not using it

Tying it down, rachet staraps, even rope is light, cheap, adaptable, flexible. I think better than u-bolts
Feed it thru the ladder rungs, hook it in the rack cross bars



And PL Premium, glue and screw every wood connection

 

[rgallant]

I saw that kind of idea a couple of years a go, a "light" weight platform that the folks put a standard ground tent on. They built for their tent so it had places for the pole ends to sit and a loop for each the places a stake would go the worked with a toggle system. The base was some sort of aluminum structure with 1/4 in plywood on top. Did not seem to deform much as they walked around

 

[genocache]

I did something like this 30 years ago. My Eureka Timberline tent has the same footprint as my Land Rover roof. I had a roofrack and put 3/4 ply and could set the tent on it. I drilled holes into the edge of the ply and made 1/4" OD steel hooks to slide in and hold the stake loops. I made longer ones to guy out the rain fly. Worked great the couple of times we used it , but too much faff compared to just setting up on the ground.
Most peoples don't need to sleep on the roof.

 

[Outdoordog]

These seem to be exploding in popularity, and they're certainly quite useful, but I can't help wondering how useful they actually are. Do we expect to see the same tents on the same vehicles 10 or 20 years down the road, or will these largely become tomorrow's Craisgslist ads posted by guys who "got married" or "had kids" or 192.168.100.1 192.168.1.1 "just don't have the room for it..." any more?

I think its a fad.
Soon people will realize it's not great to have so much weight on top of an offroading vehicle, getting up and down stairs is not fun, and ground tents cost about $100 for 6 people and setup in minutes.

 

[ScratchCoin]

I went for a weekend off-roading trip with some people, mixed bag of equipment. The best set ups were the trailers with roof top tents on them. They were off the ground, had lots of room for all their camping gear and unhooked and hit the trails. The guys with the roof top tents had to pack up their camp EVERY morning….it was a great eye opener. I was on a ground tent and it was good till the last night when it rained…so i slept in the LandCruiser. BUT…the trailers with roof top tents on them….definitely the best set up but also the most expensive.

 

[Deleted member 14476]

I went for a weekend off-roading trip with some people, mixed bag of equipment. The best set ups were the trailers with roof top tents on them. They were off the ground, had lots of room for all their camping gear and unhooked and hit the trails. The guys with the roof top tents had to pack up their camp EVERY morning….it was a great eye opener. I was on a ground tent and it was good till the last night when it rained…so i slept in the LandCruiser. BUT…the trailers with roof top tents on them….definitely the best set up but also the most expensive.

I never put too much thought into with the rtt's having to pack up all of your camp every time, rain or shine, you wanted to use the vehicle. Definitely having some second thoughts on getting one now actually.

 

[rgallant]

@Conner Hunt if you base camp them do local trails and return to the base camp. The RTT is a little more work about a 40 minutes a day, if you have a clamshell. The hard shells and V shaped tents take maybe 10 minutes to close and open up.
Personally I tend to move a lot so a non issue for me, if I stop for a couple days I tend to stay in camp.

 

[Lil Bear]

I went for a weekend off-roading trip with some people, mixed bag of equipment. The best set ups were the trailers with roof top tents on them. They were off the ground, had lots of room for all their camping gear and unhooked and hit the trails. The guys with the roof top tents had to pack up their camp EVERY morning….it was a great eye opener. I was on a ground tent and it was good till the last night when it rained…so i slept in the LandCruiser. BUT…the trailers with roof top tents on them….definitely the best set up but also the most expensive.

This is my biggest complaint with my RTT! Love the size and being up off the ground and all but if it's raining or cold or anything its quite the pain at times to get set up and broken down EVERY time you need to do something! It's not hard to set up but in the wrong conditions it shows it's fangs! Trailer, Van, or truck bed camper has been my toss around ideas lately. I thought I was pretty set on a van but I'm starting to be lean toward a truck bed camper.

 

[ScratchCoin]

I'm new to the offroading scene, and was really wanting a tent on top my LC80, my friend that has been in the scene for a few years recommended we knock out a trip, i see what people were doing and how things worked in the field....wow was that good advice. He unfortunately didnt have someone to tell him like I did. I'm now going to save to build a trailer that can receive a RTT.

 

[rgallant]

@ScratchCoin If you build the trailers right it can be very nice setup. I suggest a few runs to figure where you like to go and make sure the trailer idea works. We have had a few folks pull trailers and it did not always make for a fun trip for them.

Not to dissuade you, just things to consider

For example, that area is often muddy but last year was very bad.

 

[ScratchCoin]

WOW! Lol that’s muddy! That would be terrible! I try and stay away from the mud as much as possible but I can see where a trailer could get hung up on things much easier than a vehicle. For the more remote areas, I’ll be sticking with my ground tent but places where the base camp is easier to access and I spend the day on the trails, would really like to have a trailer!

 

[rgallant]

@ScratchCoin One thing I failed to note they do not have an "off road" built trailer a better image below. It could have the suspension adjusted for a bit more height and tire clearance, as in second example below

 

[lhoffm4]

This is my biggest complaint with my RTT! Love the size and being up off the ground and all but if it's raining or cold or anything its quite the pain at times to get set up and broken down EVERY time you need to do something! It's not hard to set up but in the wrong conditions it shows it's fangs! Trailer, Van, or truck bed camper has been my toss around ideas lately. I thought I was pretty set on a van but I'm starting to be lean toward a truck bed camper.

I went with a truck bed camper, one, because I already had one and two, I had also been paying attention to folks not super happy about needing to break camp when ever they wanted to go exploring or even make a supply run. I like my truck bed overlanding set up, mostly because I’m building it myself but also I’m saving a TON of money by doing so, plus it gives me a lot of flexibility when traveling. My personal issue with a trailer is that it seems less secure than my truck. I’ve put effort and money into both so I get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach when I read or hear about low life types breaking into or stealing them. That is another reason I like big mean “looking” dogs to camp with me and the family... along with certain other 2A-options... ‘Merica! Lol

 

[Nbyapp]

Here’s me at the White Crack campsite on White Rim Road in Canyonlands National Park! Dealing with 60-80mph winds, currently rocking the Ironman 4x4 roof top tent over my bed! Pretty impressive system and I can see it being absolutely needed for especially places like this campsite where it is predominantly all rock and stone top! Highly recommend checking them out!