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RTTs are an awesome way to overland. We have a California King sized bed in ours. (Tepui tents) Been from the Southwest to the Arctic Circle in ours. On the Denali Hwy, Alaska Range in background.
I installed a Yakima rail system and Yakima roof bars over my bed. I run with a smittybilt RTT. Since I just have the 5.5ft box, I run the smaller one.
I have a Yakima Skyrise medium 3 person size RTT. The deciding factor for me to get this particular model is one day when I walked into an REI store they had it on a damaged clearance sale. It was really only the box that was torn up and no damage to the tent, so it was a good buy. I had been pondering on the purchase of a RTT for over a year but had not done it yet, so I just happen to be at the right place at the right time.
Tepui is perhaps one of the biggest companies of RTT's and they innovate a lot too. On Amazon there is a Smittybuilt model for pretty cheap if you are looking for a budget model. I do really like the Yakima tent, but I do not really have a good comparison to other brands. I have only seen one Tepui in person and it definitely was more heavy duty. The Tepui uses a canvas material, and the Yakima is a nylon material more similar to a traditional ground tent. The Yakima tent is much lighter than others though and I am able to pretty easily get it on and off the truck by myself by leaning on the tailgate and then flipping over and onto the cross bars. I really like the mounting system on the Yakima tent. It is super easy to install and lock.
The cross bars are Yakima round bars using the Bed Rock mounts that clamp onto the bed rail. The mounts are easily installed and removed with no modifications to the bed. I opted for the heavy duty bars, then cut them to length. I have oriented my tent so it opens to the rear. Others I have seen orientate their tents so they open to the side. I think it is only personal preference and maybe just depends on what your campground is like. Opening to the side creates a shaded spot to sit beside the truck but oriented opening to the rear, the ladder rest right along the tailgate, so deploying the tent does not take up any more space than is required to park the truck. I take my shoes off as I go up the ladder and set them on the tailgate, so the tent says pretty clean.
One tip I have, is to purchase some RV parking blocks like Lynx Levelers. I got some on Amazon for pretty cheap. They are like big Lego blocks that are stackable so you can build them up then drive up onto them to level your truck. I also bought a cheapie 6" level that I just keep in the bag with the blocks to level the truck before I deploy the tent. It is usually possible to find some rocks or sticks to build up then drive up on, but these blocks are pretty cheap and very convenient. I usually put my gear in some plastic totes and slide them into the bed under the tent along with a large water jug. When parking, it is easy to pull the totes out and set them on the ground when setting up camp.
This is maybe more info than you asked for but I don't post here often and actually have some experience with this topic so I thought I would contribute what I can.
Here is my setup. Running a TEPUI Autana Ruggedized. Fits the fiancé and I and the golden very well. Very sturdy construction and quite comfortable. I love how I can just leave the sleeping bags and blankets folded up in there. I am running the ACCESS Adarac aluminum low rise rack bars. They are about 10" above the bed and super sturdy. And they attach to rails that run along the top of the bed, so with some more bolts you could add some more cross bars, which I might do with my old tacoma cross bars. They cost about 350 bucks overall.
04-28-2019, 11:38 PM
