Roof Top Tent Mounted Under Tonneau Cover

[JasonDroninAround]

Very nice! Looks like you have a 2025 Space White Tremor. Same as mine. Looks great! Lucky find.

Nope it's just regular fleet and farm white lol. I bought it straight off the car lot because I was nearly vehicleless and didn't have time to order one in any specific color. I always try to find the good in every situation. They say the white color doesn't show scratches as much and it's cooler. I live in Central California and I need all the help I can get with the heat. Also, I have already been doing way too much sketchy off-roading with this Tremor and I've got plenty of pinstripes to show for it. My previous vehicle was a full size 7-passenger van that I partially converted for camping. It was solid black and you could accidentally rub your shirt sleeve on that thing and it would look like a scratch

Sponsored

 

[Ben6berry]

Nope it's just regular fleet and farm white lol. I bought it straight off the car lot because I was nearly vehicleless and didn't have time to order one in any specific color. I always try to find the good in every situation. They say the white color doesn't show scratches as much and it's cooler. I live in Central California and I need all the help I can get with the heat. Also, I have already been doing way too much sketchy off-roading with this Tremor and I've got plenty of pinstripes to show for it. My previous vehicle was a full size 7-passenger van that I partially converted for camping. It was solid black and you could accidentally rub your shirt sleeve on that thing and it would look like a scratch

It looks great, either way.

 

[KenJ45]

That is too awesome...

 

[NHRider]

Here is my latest and hopefully final step in making it quick, easy, and comfortable to camp in my Maverick. This is a used, smaller, folding roof top tent from Facebook Marketplace. I got a pretty good deal on it because the soft cover was a little damaged and there was a little mold. For how I am using it, I do not really need the cover anyway.

This tent is/was probably a little too wide, by about 1/4". It is tricky getting it around the striker rods for the tailgate when folding and unfolding it. Luckily the ladder is so long that it makes a good third hand, holding the tent partially open, as you make sure it is not catching on the tailgate parts or the tonneau cover mounting hardware.

Even though the soft cover was a little damaged, It would have still kept some dust out. It was just too difficult to pull it over the tent with so little room between the tent and the bed sides. I took the cover off. I'm probably going to find some sort of tailgate seal kit to help keep the dust out.

There is about a 6" gap under the tent. I'm going to build a big pull out drawer out of 2x6s and plywood to go under it.

I am not entirely sure what model this tent is. When I asked the seller about the model name for the purpose of confirming dimensions, he said this specific model is discontinued.

that's a great setup. Nicely done.

 

[Deb from MN]

Love it!

 

[Wilklersticks]

I don't know why I never thought to deploy a rooftop tent this way. I've been trying to come up with ways to get the tent before the racks for my setup. Wrestled with just waiting til after racks, buying a shorter, cheaper rack to tide me over, DIYing a rack ... but this. This just makes sense!

 

[JasonDroninAround]

I don't know why I never thought to deploy a rooftop tent this way. I've been trying to come up with ways to get the tent before the racks for my setup. Wrestled with just waiting til after racks, buying a shorter, cheaper rack to tide me over, DIYing a rack ... but this. This just makes sense!

If you look at the specs on a link above, it cannot be any wider than that. The tent actually needs to be slightly narrower than this one, if you want to mount it to the bed rigidly somehow. The one I have is almost exactly as wide as the inside of the tailgate latch pins. I have to leave it somewhat loose to wiggle it around those pins when I'm folding and unfolding it.

 

[Wilklersticks]

If you look at the specs on a link above, it cannot be any wider than that. The tent actually needs to be slightly narrower than this one, if you want to mount it to the bed rigidly somehow. The one I have is almost exactly as wide as the inside of the tailgate latch pins. I have to leave it somewhat loose to wiggle it around those pins when I'm folding and unfolding it.

Good to know. Thanks for the heads up. Still a great idea that could be in the future for me.

 

[Onewheelsqueel]

Love this. Sorta wish I went that way. It is able to sleep two people somewhat uncomfortably. Lol. I went with a cap and raised floor to sleep on, because I’m 5’5” and can fit at an angle. Perhaps maybe I’ll go that way in the future.

Why not raise the tent to just under the tonneau cover (maybe it is?) to gain room under for more storage

 

[JasonDroninAround]

Love this. Sorta wish I went that way. It is able to sleep two people somewhat uncomfortably. Lol. I went with a cap and raised floor to sleep on, because I’m 5’5” and can fit at an angle. Perhaps maybe I’ll go that way in the future.

Why not raise the tent to just under the tonneau cover (maybe it is?) to gain room under for more storage

That's what I did. When the tent is sitting on the wheel wells and the partially open tailgate (4x8 plywood mode) there was just enough room to close the tonneau cover. Under the tent, this gave me almost exactly enough room to fit one finished 2x6 standing up under the tent. There was NOT enough room for a finished 2x6 sitting on top of plywood, to make the drawer. I was going to rip down the 2x6s by the thickness of the plywood to bring the finished drawer back down to just less than 6" again, but I decided not to rip them. I built one big drawer that covered the whole bed that is slightly taller than 6" and slightly lifts the tent off the front wheel wells.

The reason I was okay with the tent not touching the wheel wells is that one of the mounting rails conveniently sat right inside that slot on top of the wheel well. This would have worked great to securely mount the tent inside the bed if it were not for the fact that the tent frame barely fits between the tailgate latch pins. I have to be able to wiggle the tent around these pins, if needed, when folding and unfolding the tent. The wiggling needed meant that the tent's extruded aluminum roof rack mounting rail was rubbing directly on the top of the wheel well and was scratching the paint. The sort of too tall drawer lifts the extruded aluminum off the wheel wells just enough to prevent scratching and still does not interfere with closing the tonneau cover.

Also, with this drawer, I do not have to put the tailgate in 4x8 mode anymore. I just pull the drawer out to just past the tailgate and it holds up that side of the tent just fine. I can partly lift the folding half of the tent to easily access almost all of the drawer. Because it is a roof top tent, is has a super long 8' ladder. I do not really need the ladder once the tent is set up but it works great as a third hand for safely getting the tent around the tailgate pins and holding the tent partly up to access the drawer.

For the last two weekends, I have been helping with some SAR of a lady that drowned in the Kaweah River last March. This weekend, I get to finally try out the tent in the wild. I will gat some more photos of the drawer and the whole set-up out in the wild then and post them here

 

[Onewheelsqueel]

Gotcha. It looks a bit lower in pics. Definitely want to make use of that area under the tent for storage as much as possible.

Very cool, enjoy.

 

[JasonDroninAround]

Here's a couple photos of it set up out in the wild and a picture of the drawer. I'm in the hills somewhere between Shaver Lake and Huntington Lake at 7400 ft and it's in the 30s up here. I slept pretty well but what the heck? It's July! LOLl I made a setup video too. I'll put that here when I get home to edit it and put in some captions

 

[JasonDroninAround]

Here is the video of me setting up this tent for the first time in the wild

 

[Edge Haley]

Here is the video of me setting up this tent for the first time in the wild

One of the best most practical setups I've seen...especially in the bed idea. I like to camp but every few days, at the end of the day I like to have a shower, update from TV news, microwave, relax, good bed. Rarely stay at same campsite more than 1 day. I typically do 2,000-3,000-4,000 miles cross country trips for a month or longer. Camped all the way to Alaska 10 yrs ago.

Often being forced to use campsites for setting up my tent, partially due to the need for a secure campsite....Last summer I quickly found many, if not most paid campsites, are $40-$50 a night....my alternative is a GoogleMap search for "Motel6, St Louis", (or Motel, St. Louis) or whatever city near me or up ahead. GoogleMap shows all the Motel6's locations and room rates on the screen.

About 8 yrs ago. Hilton bought several thousand Motel6's and modernized their trashy motels and they are very clean, wide screen TV, wifi, never carpet, charging plugs all over, 1 chair, very basic, just have to look for the Hilton properties...and they are frequently a bargain...at $45-$70 a night...their hard to beat compared to a paid campsite for about the same price.

 

[thev8man]

One of the best most practical setups I've seen...especially in the bed idea. I like to camp but every few days, at the end of the day I like to have a shower, update from TV news, microwave, relax, good bed. Rarely stay at same campsite more than 1 day. I typically do 2,000-3,000-4,000 miles cross country trips for a month or longer. Camped all the way to Alaska 10 yrs ago.

Often being forced to use campsites for setting up my tent, partially due to the need for a secure campsite....Last summer I quickly found many, if not most paid campsites, are $40-$50 a night....my alternative is a GoogleMap search for "Motel6, St Louis", (or Motel, St. Louis) or whatever city near me or up ahead. GoogleMap shows all the Motel6's locations and rates on the screen.

About 8 yrs ago. Hilton bought several thousand Motel6's and modernized their trashy motels and they are very clean, just have to look for the Hilton properties...and they are frequently a bargain...at $45-$70 a night...their hard to beat compared to a paid campsite for about the same price.

Booyah
Tremor brother

Sponsored