Maverick Impressions + iKamper Rooftop Tent / Overlanding Review

[MavCamper]

Hi dpak, I'm sorry to say that I'm not with the truck (or its garage) right now, so I can't answer your questions with specificity. That said, if you take the truck height and add about 20" to it (iKamper housing = 13", plus 7-8" to allow for space from rooftop to bottom of iKamper) , that's probably about right (as seen in the above photos). I want to say that my garage door height is around 72", and I have no problem getting the truck + iKamper in the garage with several inches of clearance (I have a pulley system in the garage that then raises the iKamper to the ceiling when not in use).

As mentioned above, before I had the Maverick, my iKamper sat on a rack above a Volvo XC90; it was therefore quite a bit higher, and I had to go to absurd lengths to clear the entrance of the garage (setting air suspension to lowest position, then weighing down the rear of the vehicle with sandbags). There are other rack systems (including one from Yakima) that might allow for you to mount the tent below the cab, thereby lowering the height and yielding greater efficiency at highway speeds...but this didn't work for me for any number of reasons, not least because I wanted to maintain rear view visibility and storage space on top of the tonneau cover.

I hope this information helps! Can't wait for summer to arrive so we can mount the tent and hit the road again...

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[droth]

Hi, do you think the HD Bar 55” would fit as well? I could get a set of used ones for a good price but not sure if they would fit. would highly appreciate your input.

 

[MavCamper]

I went to the Yakima website to check if the 55" HD Bars would fit with the Overhaul HD rack, and unfortunately after entering the Maverick the website stated that the 55" bars would not fit - so I guess the answer is sadly no. There is some unnecessary overhang with the 60" bars on my rig, so I thought it might be possible...but at least according to Yakima's automatic system it isn't. Hope this helps.

 

[LouisPetrocelli]

Outstanding information and I must say I’m jealous as hell!!

Happy Mavericking.

Hi folks -

I placed my Maverick order in mid-September 2021 (EcoBoost Lariat with most of the trimmings), and then [like many of you] began a nine-month wait until I finally took delivery in mid-June of this year. I feel a debt of gratitude to all who shared information on this forum during that long wait, as it made the delay and uncertainty more bearable - plus I learned a lot.

In an effort to repay said debt, I want to share some feedback on the truck generally, and on my specific truck’s ‘mission’ as it pertains to family camping/overlanding (note the deliberate use of lowercase "o" on overlanding: dirt roads and state campsites and occasional rain/mud/snow are generally the extent of our off-road needs).

In any event, I recently took the family and our month-old truck on a 1500 mile road trip/camping adventure, which allowed me to generate a somewhat informed opinion. Headline: I am very, very pleased and impressed with this little truck! In addition to using it for daily driving, our crew of four (two adults, two kids, and a dog) utilize a rooftop tent, which was mounted on our previous vehicle [a large SUV]. The hope was that the tent would work well on the Mav, and that it would sit lower than it did on the roof of the SUV – which would help with clearance issues in our garage (a major pain requiring sandbags and lowering tire pressure in the SUV). And further, that our camping gear would fit in the truck in a functional way. Mission accomplished!

We’ve owned the rooftop tent [iKamper Skycamp 2.0] for awhile now, but the credit card would get quite a workout as I assembled the parts required to mount the old tent above the new bed. Given the worldwide supply chain issues and my generally impatient and acquisitive nature, I went ahead and ordered the necessary parts long before the truck arrived, hoping to have all in place before a planned summer camping trip. The good news is that the truck arrived just in time, and each of the pre-ordered accessories worked out nicely. In case it's helpful, the key bits were/are:

Retrax Pro XR tonneau cover: this item was pricey at almost 2K, and the canister takes up precious bed space, so I was worried I had made a very expensive mistake…but after experiencing some serious buyer’s remorse upon ordering the cover [when it was on sale] and then installing it at long last, I’m pleased to report that so far it’s terrific. Reason is that, in addition to providing a lockable and mostly rainproof truck bed, when paired with the rack system described below, the aluminum tonneau cover essentially provides a second ‘shelf’ above the bed on which to pack camping supplies or anything else. This proved invaluable, and I was also able to maintain a sight line out of the rear view mirror by leaving the center of the tonneau cover clear of items (see photo below). Win!

Yakima Overhaul HD rack, HD Bar 60”, Side Bar, and Tonneau Kit 1: the combination of these four [also very pricey!] parts not only allowed me to mount the tent above the bed on the integrated tonneau cover T-slot rails, but also [with help from the side bars] created a sort of cage around the top of the aforementioned tonneau cover ‘shelf’ – providing protected space for plastic bins, milk crates, etc that are wholly independent from the bed-level storage. I went with the bigger Overhaul HD over lower-profile options like the Outpost HD because my rooftop tent is pretty huge, and if I had tried to keep it below the height of the cab, the overhang off the back of the truck would have been significant; I didn’t want to go there for various reasons. I also wanted the ‘shelf’ above the tonneau cover to have more overhead clearance for bigger items. That said, there was definitely a price paid on fuel efficiency, owing to the additional drag (average on my trip was around 22-23 MPG, though as mentioned below there were other contributing factors in addition to my ever-expanding gut).

For anyone who owns an iKamper and plans to purchase the Yakima HD bars, I should mention that the iKamper-included roof rack mounting hardware - the cooler and more minimalist ‘2.0 system’ that came with my rig a couple years ago - won’t work, owing to the thickness of the Yakima bars. However, the original 1.0 bracket hardware will work with this bar and the tent's rail system. So you’ll need to order that part separately (though iKamper says that the latest 3.0 hardware included with new tents/the newest rail system will work with Yakima bars). Further, the Yakima Tonneau Kit 1 [the adapter kit that interfaces with the Retrax T-slot rails] has been perpetually on backorder over the last year, and it was only through sheer luck and perseverance that I found a random set floating around in a sporting goods store very far from my home and was able to snatch it up. Plan accordingly!

CravenSpeed Stubby JR Antenna: needed this in order to avoid the factory antenna mashing up against the rooftop tent where it hangs over the back of the cab. Reception seemed fine, though mostly we use our phones/internet for audio.

Etrailer Folding Cargo Carrier: this may be TMI, but I needed a little more space for bulky items such as cooler, water jugs, etc…so I added this carrier to the truck’s hitch mount. I could have crammed most of these items onto the aforementioned tonneau shelf, but it would have been really tight and would have entirely eliminated my rear view. Anyhow, I’ve had this cargo carrier for a couple of years and it always annoyed me that the tongue length was so long – like why not have the carrier platform sit closer to the vehicle, for 1,001 reasons? But it turns out I was wrong, as the distance from tongue to storage platform on the Maverick left just enough room for the tailgate to open without interference. Yas!

Those were most of my tweaks for the tent rig and camping storage. Other random observations on the truck:

-The cruise control and lane-keeping software is stellar, if a little overzealous about checking for hands on the wheel. Seat comfort is stellar. Visibility is solid.

-Cabin noise is…a drag. It’s just a loud vehicle, particularly on rutted roads.

-Back seat space was/is adequate but not spacious; the kids were fine, and were way more focused on the various power options available for their devices.

-Most of the finishes and details in the truck interior are plastic-utilitarian, and I wonder if they will indeed prove to be “Ford Tough” after my kids put them through their paces. But I knew what I was buying and was not expecting perforated leather. Overall, I am very pleased with the fit and finish throughout the truck.

-I held off on lift kits or alternate tires, and mostly was satisfied with tire performance and vehicle height. But it’s summertime and the weather was good, so we’ll see…

Thanks again to all of you for sharing information with me over the past nine months – hope I’ve done my part to give a bit back to you!

,

any update on how your maverick is holding up? I have a very similar build to yours with the Ikamper in the back

 

[MavCamper]

Hey Louis, really nice-looking rig! Haven't seen many Mavericks in all white in my area. Contrasts so nice with the black iKamper and the black wheels. Well done.

To answer your question: YES, the rig is holding up great. Last summer we did another 1,500 mile out-and-back camping trip...and if anything the tent and rig was even more dialed in and performed even better. I love the small footprint of the truck but the big footprint of the RTT, with low clearance. My only gripe is that once we have set up camp, it is - ahem - hard to move, since obvi the tent is attached to the mode of transportation. But now we travel with two folding bikes and have embraced the range limitation.

We are counting the weeks until this summer's excursion [from our new home base much further south] to a new camping destination. My only concern is that owing to our more southern coordinates the temperature will be warmer (I don't love sleeping in the humid heat). But that's not the rig's fault, and probably TMI! I just love this rig, as does the rest of the family.

In the time since I first posted, we have added a big ground-level circular tent to our rig - to store accessories and firewood and such, and to hang out in if the bugs get bad. It folds up and fits in a roughly six foot long soft case. Thus far, I have been lashing it to the side of the Yakima rack, which works fine. But I've been eyeing those big PVC pipe rooftop rigs that work trucks and plumbers sometimes use to store copper pipe and such. I'm thinking I'll look for something like that to possibly attach permanently to the rack before this summer's trip...with the idea being that it might be more aerodynamic and easier to load and unload.

Let me know what the experience has been on your end, and if you've come up with any clever innovations. Happy camping.

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