Roof top tent rebuild

[jeeper]

I have had dreams of a RTT for a little while, not because I actually want to sleep in one, but because I needed more expo points on my card. One came up for sale that had been involved in a rollover accident. The price seemed fair, so I went and picked it up. The damage is mostly to the upper front portion of the tent.


I got got the base pulled off, and began to assess the damage. The base is built from square aluminum tubing, and has supports running about every foot. The majority of damage was contained to the first 2 feet. I was trying to save the aluminum sheeting, but realized it was going to be much more involved and tedious to do so, so I cut it at one of the supports, and planned to mate a new piece there.


I got got the end and the first bent support cut off



I used a torch torch to heat the aluminum and was able to bend it mostly straight, at least good enough for me.


I bent all the additional prices as straight as I could, and put it back together.

I stopped per taking picture, but got one with the sheeting back on.


Finally, after about 8 hours, I got it put back together. Before I spent any more time, energy, or money making this a part of our camping set up, I decided we needed to see if a family of five could actually use it.
Into the house it went, and we had the worlds coolest living room fort for the night.



We all slept very well. The padding was a little subpar in my opinion, but that can be solved. The tent is still slightly bent and needs some tweaking, but over all should be a fun toy to add to the collection.

 

[jeeper]

Future plans include mounting it to an offroad trailer. I will use this tread as it progresses.

 

[nnnnnate]

I saw that and if it was a bit smaller I might have tried to pick it up. Looks good and seems like it was/is worth the labor to get back into commission.

 

[Rot Box]

Looks great nice work

Speaking of RTT damage. I had one once... Wife went into a parking garage doing 800mph and the entry wasn't tall enough..... Kaboom and goodbye expo awesomeness

 

[bryson]

Very cool. I'm glad I get to watch this thing come back to life.

 

[CobraNutt]

Wife went into a parking garage doing 800mph and the entry wasn't tall enough.....

You had a RTT on her Ferrari?! LOL!

The tent repair looks great! Hope it provides lots of good service to you and the fam!

 

[jeeper]

I've spent some time working on the tent the last couple days. I had great visions of a cool frame to hold the tent up, but have enough scrap metal kicking around that I decided to go the 'free mode' direction and use what I have.
My grandpa had an old lumber rack out of his truck that I thought would be fun to use for the frame, he has passed on now so having his 'stuff' get used would be neat.
I added the tabs to hold the tent mounts. The tent is still slightly tweaked, and the ladder rack isn't straight, so it made for some interesting work..


I decided to use some angle iron along the bottom to give it multiple places to mount to the bed.



There were 3 ladders that came with the tent. 2 were on it at the time of the accident, and were not salvageable. The 3rd had some damage, but I was able to get it functioning. With the tent being so large, it really needs a second support. I took one side of the bent ladder, and used it for a peg leg. It's sorta ghetto for now, but it get the job done.



She's now all set for a trip! It still has some issues to be worked out, but they will happen and time goes on. We have a trip planned soon, and it will be fun to see how it does for us.

 

[TJDukit]

Very cool.

 

[jeeper]

Roof top test #1 complete. We had a great time. My wife said she actually enjoyed it, and thought it was fun. It's been dubbed the 'tree house'.
It rained on us for a while, and we stayed dry and warm. This was very exciting for my wife and kids.

 

[rholbrook]

I want one too

 

[sixstringsteve]

i love the tree house feeling of sleeping in a RTT.

 

[deepthinker]

Would love to have something like that too!

 

[sawtooth4x4]

The only thing that sucks about an RTT is having to pee at night.

Nice find. Hope it works out well for you. I couldn't hack one and went for a camper.

 

[jeeper]

We got out for another night in the tent. A family of 5 is a bit tight for sure, but it gives us a good place to sleep when the camper has to stay home. Learning to pack differently is taking a little time, but is getting easier.

 

[jeeper]

We used the tent again this last weekend. We had the 3 kids sleep sideways, and that seemed to make more room for everyone. It's fun to get all the comments about the tent... But it's most fun knowing that I am not sleeping on the ground with the spiders, scorpions, and snakes!

 

[johngottfredson]

This is awesome. I'm in the market for a rtt of my own, I borrowed one for a weekend a few weeks back, it changed my life. It rained through the night, in the morning I hopped out, folded that thing down, and was ready to hit the road in a matter of short minutes. The looks on the other guys faces as they struggled with their muddy, sopping ground tents in the downpour and I was up and done in a flash was worth whatever its going to cost me to own one of these

 

[nnnnnate]

I may have ordered one from Adam yesterday... I'm excited to give it a whirl next week.

 

[shortstraw8]

I may have ordered one from Adam yesterday... I'm excited to give it a whirl next week.

This Adam you speak of, they are local dealer?

www.jamesbaroudusa.com/

I have been looking here, they seem to have some nice ones for cheap-ish

 

[nnnnnate]

Well, kind of. Adam Tolman is a Tepui rep that lives in the Syracuse. I guess I don't know what his official title is but he sells Tepui and reps for them at area events. His handle here and many other places is Box Rocket. He is a really good dude and has been really helpful with a but of different questions and projects over the last few years.

I ordered the Ruggedized Kukenam in grey and it looks like it'll be here Tuesday. Just in time for scout camp.

 

[jeeper]

I am getting excited about using this tent a few time this year. I have been struggling with fitting all 5 of us as we continue to grow... but just this evening I remembered that we also have the anex. We have never used it. I could sleep in it, and free up space up top.

I've also been very heavily debating building a trailer for it this year. My original plan was to build a trailer.. but I never did. It seems like there are some pretty serious pro's and con's either way..

My travel cover has some rips in it. Is there a local place that might be able to fix the rips? Sugar House Awning is the only place I could even think to call.