AZ BS

Thank you!

 

Yeah I think Kris (spvrtin) has gone back and forth a few times on his end state. Last I talked to him was about a JB like ours.

We've gotten our system down pretty well to where we can comfortably arrive anywhere with Lisa, I and the two dogs, and be either ready to sleep in five minutes, ready to cook in ten, or ready to shower in ten.

The only thing we've waffled on so far is the height of the rack. We purposely built it low for aerodynamics, brushdynamics (squeezing into tight overgrown trails), performance off road, and to accommodate our awning and room. See, the room that zips on to the awning has walls that are only 83" high, and we wanted to be able to get in and out of the tent from inside the room when we deploy it, like in this picture:



This system works fuckin awesome.

We've used it twice.

It just doesn't fit our current use-case. We're on the move too quickly to bother setting it up. We have however used the awning without the room a few times when it's rained on our trip. And it's nice to be able to get in and out of the tent from under the awning.



What has really kept us from raising the rack height is knowing ourselves - if we have room for more shit, we're gonna bring more shit, and more shit weighs more.

So we went with the bed slide to make getting to our limited amount of shit easier.


Long story short... hard shell tents are a game changer in the RTT way of camping. We don't have any reason to change it at this time.

 

I'm seeing no down-side except cost and, since I like to sleep well, and want to go places a trailer can't go, it's an easy spend.

I love your set-up and don't even pretend to be quick about anything except actual driving, so eventually, that awning might pull me in. I keep up on your build thread so I know you LOVE that bed slide (with spare ). I love the low profile of your rack and JB, and it's the lowest I've seen anywhere in months of research. Can you let me know sometime what the clearance is from the bottom "edge" of your rack to the truck bed, and post pics of how/where your rack is mounted to your truck? (I want to figure out what option I'd use to store underneath, before putting in that rack.

Thanks, Kevin!

 

Thanks man! We're pretty stoked on the setup and it took a long time to get it together - Brandon at AVID spent a lot of time with us discussing options and how to execute on our requirements.

Here's probably the best pic of the rack by itself to show the height. Our requirement was to fit our current (at the time) camping boxes stacked 2 high underneath it. That meant the bottom of the cross tubes had to be level with the top edge of the bedside. Basically if you took a huge piece of wood and laid it on top of the bedsides, we needed that whole interior space, minus a little bit on either side where the tubes bend down to the support.



I'll have to measure it, but if you measured from the bottom of the bed, to the top of the bedside, that's our height.

It attaches with the factory optional bedrail system. The weight of the rack is on top of the bedsides, and the rail system just holds it in place.


this is before the bed slide.


and after...

Shoot, I gotta find a photo of the current load organization with the bed slide

 

Thanks for the pic and detailed info! I can see now how the side rails rest on top of the bedsides. I'll try measuring it up. I'm kinda imagining a flat slide out that spans most of the width of the bed, to hold my storage containers... an upgrade to pulling 'em out with a rake... but not sure I'm "fab" enough to work out ease-of-opening, support of weight when open, drainage, and also use of some type of rolling mechanism that won't "weight" divots into the slide rails.

(Also, I keep clicking 'like' when you say 'thanks, man' because I don't care, but actually I'm more of a "fan-girl" of Lisa's truck and your mad-scientist approach to solution-finding-- so figure I outta let you know, before anyone else mentions it.)

Edit to make this info searchable later:

Kevin and Lisa's Komodo low profile low-profile bed rack bedrack

 

Thanks man!

For the bed slide, you could look into other brands and different styles. We tried the aluminum because it was the lightest, but I think a steel one would hold up to the abuse better. After our next one fails, we may try a different one.

We’re also talking to a local fabricator about doing something creative with our bed. If we can make the idea work then the bed slide may be subject to less abuse. Time and money will tell - it’s gonna be summer at the earliest.

 

Anyone planning on attending the Overland Expo in May? Been to the previous ones? Any tips, must sees?

The Mrs and I are thinking about going with some semi-retired friends that slum around the West in their Sprinter van.

 

We’ve gone the past few years but missed last year. It’s cool to see all the vendors in one place and stuff like that.

We haven’t done any of the classes but they’re supposed to be excellent if they’re not already full.

Worth going if you’ve never been and are pretty into the whole overland thing.

 

Thanks Kevin, I think we'll give it a go. I booked a room at the military lodging that's located right there at the Expo.

Not sure if we're into the Overland thing but I wouldn't mind having one of those pop up truck campers (Hallmark is the one I like). Would be nice to have while dragging out fishing boat around. Would probably get out a bit more too.

We used to drag a pop up trailer all over the place. Owned that thing for 19 years having finally sold it last year.

 

We gave those Hallmarks a seriously look a few years ago when we started our build. The weight and overall dimensions don't suit our current driving style (mostly too fast, always too reckless, often too big), but it may be in our semi-distant future still.

You may want to check out our Tundras to Sedona event too. Not really any vendors on site, but a big raffle, some trail runs, camping and a lot of good people hanging out.

 

Lol... We're both in our mid+ 50's so we're accustomed to at least some creature comforts when we camp. Currently have only a backpacking tent, couple of pads, stove, etc. Pretty minimal, and uncomfortable, at the moment.

We did hang on to our old Coleman Camp Kitchen though. That thing is great.

 

RTT's are so 2014.

 

I’ve been looking at picking up another rtt. Had one for a year or so on the taco and liked it, but there were some downsides. With a long travel tacoma you want to go out and play with your truck when camping. Having to tear down and set up sucked. And the extra weight was tough on performance. Not to mention getting it off and on was a pain in the ass.

Only thing keeping me from getting one now is lack of room to store it at my apartment, and I’m just not sure I want to spend 2k on a tent anymore. But, I love how much more I was camping with it. Had a 3 month streak where I was pretty much camping every weekend.

 

I still wanna see what you come up with. I blame you for starting the RTT fad 4 years ago.

This is something the Uberfahrts have been trying to figure out for a long time. Hence @n2deep cimment above. He’s trying to lose some weight and get his performance back.

We leave the tent on 100% of the time, so our loaded vs unloaded weights are close to the same. If you put the tent and all your gear on and off the truck, then you have to figure out how to make it perform well at two very different weights.

We don’t really have the setup and tear down issue at camps because we wheel all day and only stop when we’re ready to make camp for the night. Pack up in the morning and then go wheel all day to find a new spot to camp. If you stay in the same camp site for the whole trip, then an RTT is a pain in the dick because you’re setting up and taking down every day for no reason.

@Rextinkleton93 if you want an RTT with setup and takedown convenience, check out the hardshells. Our James Baroud sets up in 60 seconds and closes in a minute and a half. And that’s not rushing around trying to do it as fast as possible, they’re just that simple. We pop four latches and it opens on gas struts. Unzip the door you want to use for the night (there are three) and set the ladder there. Done.

 

Hardshells have definitely caught my interest. Other than the price point (there are now some that are more reasonable I suppose) I just don’t have anywhere to mount it. I don’t want to do a full height rack and it will look funny hanging off the bed I think.

I’m going to start looking into them again and figuring out if I want to make the leap again. Ideally oh just build a trailer, but unfortunately I really don’t have anywhere to store a trailer at this time.

 

@KevinK I didn't start the fad but when I got mine nobody made a rack for the Tundra and now there are like 20 racks made. But now it doesn't really fit my needs and the cons outweigh the pros for me. There has to be something better for my setup. Prototype hopefully will be completed by T2S4 if I can swing it.

 

If you have a crewmax, then the model one size smaller than ours would have the same overhang ours does. We got the biggest one JB makes and it does hang off the back a bit, but not terrible. If we raised our rack a little, we could slide it forward more since the back window slants forward a bit.

The JB that’s smaller is one foot shorter so it matches the one foot shorter bed. But there are other options out there too that may not cost as much.



I’m trying to find a pic that shows the overhang from the side.

 

I’m still gonna blame you since you’re the first person I knew.

And then when you come up with something better, I’m gonna probably blame you for making me want to change my mind. LoL.

 

I wouldn't say its better - but better for me. LOL

 

well shit, sorry man I need to look at this thread more often! we did a last minute planned trip to CK last weekend and I was the only tundra with t4rs and tacos

Perfection Industrial Finishing! These guys are awesome and one of very few who are actually certified cerakote applicators

 

@KevinK do u carry the awning post that goes into the bedside holes in the bed or does it break down, i dont think ive ever noticed it on your truck

 

no worries u got my number now, jsut text me when you head out..i work this entire weekend so i wont be out but after that i have the next 3 off

 

Anybody in Tucson have TechStream loaded on a laptop? I changed the clockspring in my xB and apparently it needs to have the zero point calibration done to clear a couple of lights.

Thanks

 

Thanks Blue. Sent you a PM

 

so n.AZ payson, flag, crown king, happy jack is getting lots of snow and a lil rain the beginning and end of this week.....whose coming out to play..anything above 6k feet should be getting powwwwder

 

finding some snow would be a good time. I only have one snow pic so far

 

check my build thread for most recent snow pics...went to payson last saturday

 

put your build thread link in your signature - come on man don't make me search ashole_rn

 

For what it's worth, I've been on this forum a while and still can't figure out how to post in my signature, or how to search in others'. Js