Roof Top Tent (RTT) mounted to OEM roof rack

[t3lcfe]

Here are the photos of my successfully / happy RTT ( Ikamper Mini-2 person) low-profile mounted to Toyota OEM roof rack.
Many aftermarket manufacturers and people suffered and/or gave up to mount RTT to OEM roof rack due to no room from front , rear and sides to access to work on mounting devices …Many people had to replace the OEM roof rack by aftermarket one to be able to get RTT mounted. Some people mounted RTT with risers which push RTT way up high on top of roof rack…to cause wind noise and not stable on challenging trails…
I searched and watched numbers of videos on YouTube's and websites, but non of them works! Some people had to temporarily remove the front and rear panels of aftermarket roof rack to make room for installation ( which OEM roof rack cannot do it!!!), or some people had to take the cross bars off from roof rack and mounted them (2) to RTT offside then put entire RTT+2 cross bars back to roof rack then bolted roof bars to roof rack by bolts at 2 side rails (which OEM roof rack doesn’t have). I also saw many super expensive and complicated designs called quick mounts…To me, too much to install and operating, especially, to who put in and take off RTT for every single trip. I never left RTT on my vehicles running around in town for months and years without off-roading trips
After months sketching and trying all different methods with my “engineering experiences from my works), I finally got the “best” solution for it with most simple/cost and time sufficient.
Beside the new mount method, 8 yrs ago I did custom make the crank which can lift and take down RTT easily after every trips
(Note: forgot to take photo the RTT attached to the crane in my LC case…so I used the photo of my G case to illustrate how it looks like)

 

[shwazz714]

Love the crane - if I ever go with a RTT I want to be able to take it off in between trips too.

 

[ultane]

@t3lcfe . . . I am blown away by the job you did. If I wasn’t 68, I would want one of those. But now, with my luck, I would get up to pee in the night and end up with a broken hip after falling out of it..

 

[t3lcfe]

@t3lcfe . . . I am blown away by the job you did. If I wasn’t 68, I would want one of those. But now, with my luck, I would get up to pee in the night and end up with a broken hip after falling out of it..

Hahah still give you a big

 

[t3lcfe]

Here are photos of how I store the RTT at my garage ceiling and take it down for trip.
If I have higher door clearance, definitely, far easier to drop RTT to vehicle roof and drive out…or roll it up after back in garage. The problem is most of houses have standard 7ft height door! Except the warehouses or automobile shops

The crane (2tons overkill for 125-165 lbs RTT) can be fold and stored at corner of garage. It takes a space of 30”x30” max or less.

 

[EOD Guy]

Nice solution!

I fab'd a crane system for my "Coastie" buddy that mounts in the receiver hitch. It pivots on a 1" bolt and allows him to swing the arm 360 degrees. The benefit is the super compact storage and he also uses it to load his deer harvest into his UTV during hunting season. The down side is, it doesn't have wheels/roll........