First, let me start by saying I owned a Jame Baroud hard shell tent for about 3 months. It was awesome, except, it was long and had to be mounted high over my truck cab and I did not want to have that as my travels for work require me to go under garages in downtown places. I started looking for suitable lower-profile racks and found the KB Voodoo racks were perfect, sturdy, and reasonably priced considering the market. The only complaint I have on those is that the powder coat finish had a few minor holidays near corners and the mounting holes. I understand the difficulties of getting those areas to cover (electrostatic issues!) so I touched up with some paint on my own.
To build the tent, I first thought about the size. I really didn't want a massive beast of a tent, something two could sleep in, and compact overall to lessen the profile on the truck. I chose to build a folding tent, similar to most of the tents on the market. I am 5'-7" so length is easily accommodated with an 84" length when extended. I went with 48" wide x 84" long.
A friend of mine and I were joking about 80/20 DIY one day, then I started thinking 'Well, that might work actually...' So I jumped on 80/20's site and started searching for options. I went with 1" x 1" solid rail with track on all 4 sides to allow for mounting points around the perimeter. I ordered the rail precut from 80/20. It takes longer to get (about 10 days to ship) but the cuts were accurate and clean. They also tapped the ends of the rails which I used to connect the rails at the corners. I also ordered corner brackets for all 8 corners to reinforce. I used one center rail for platform support as well. For the upright risers, I ordered 'Ready-Tube' from 80/20 with 90 right angle connectors to make the frames. This was super easy to do and they are lightweight. For the hinges, I ordered RTT hinged from Equipt. They were about $60 and shipped right way. The mounting holes actually line up just fine with the rail. I used female track nuts mostly. I bought SS cap and buttoned bolts for almost all of the connections.
So far, the 80/20 rail cost about $300. All my fasteners were another $50 (I bought more than needed anticipating additional needs and replacement parts) plus the hinges. I have a nice assortment of hardware ICOE on a road trip. For now I laid a 1/2" baltic birch plywood panel for the floor. This will be replaced with an aircraft grade decking I ordered from a friend of mine. As always, when ordering from a friend, I may have to wait a while. For now the wood platform ($38, Home Depot) will work and this part is easily replaced. The aircraft platform is corrugated ABS with aluminum skin top and bottom. It is expensive ($300/sheet) but long term I will not worry about any environmental issues with it. I should receive sometime in February, hopefully...
For the webbing spanners I used a Nylon 17337 webbing and used 1" Velcro 'One Wrap' to grab each of the uprights. They are spaced on 32" centers and secured to each with a t-slot nut. I placed a grommet in the webbing to place the bolt through. Works perfect...
For the ladder I bought a 6.5 ft telescoping ladder on Amazon. It was $75 and is pretty darn stout surprisingly. After buying I realized this is used by some other RTT tent mfrs so I was happy to see these were not uncommon. I bought 2 right angle aluminum brackets from McMAster to mount to the rail. Those are on their way now. I will just drill through the ladder side and bolt those on using a half moon washer on the inside to bolster that connection.
I just started working on the cover, laying out the window and attachment points. I am going to use Dimension Polyant X-Pac material (lightweight and waterproof) in white for the primary cover. For the rainfly I will most likely use a Sil-Nylon material. As a textile manufacturing company this part is the one that we can excel at, or at least I hope to. I am sure the first version of this won't be perfect but it will get me through my inaugural runs.
If anyone has some advice on this please let me know. So far this is going together pretty well but I am sure I will run into something that I overlooked... Pics below...
To build the tent, I first thought about the size. I really didn't want a massive beast of a tent, something two could sleep in, and compact overall to lessen the profile on the truck. I chose to build a folding tent, similar to most of the tents on the market. I am 5'-7" so length is easily accommodated with an 84" length when extended. I went with 48" wide x 84" long.
A friend of mine and I were joking about 80/20 DIY one day, then I started thinking 'Well, that might work actually...' So I jumped on 80/20's site and started searching for options. I went with 1" x 1" solid rail with track on all 4 sides to allow for mounting points around the perimeter. I ordered the rail precut from 80/20. It takes longer to get (about 10 days to ship) but the cuts were accurate and clean. They also tapped the ends of the rails which I used to connect the rails at the corners. I also ordered corner brackets for all 8 corners to reinforce. I used one center rail for platform support as well. For the upright risers, I ordered 'Ready-Tube' from 80/20 with 90 right angle connectors to make the frames. This was super easy to do and they are lightweight. For the hinges, I ordered RTT hinged from Equipt. They were about $60 and shipped right way. The mounting holes actually line up just fine with the rail. I used female track nuts mostly. I bought SS cap and buttoned bolts for almost all of the connections.
So far, the 80/20 rail cost about $300. All my fasteners were another $50 (I bought more than needed anticipating additional needs and replacement parts) plus the hinges. I have a nice assortment of hardware ICOE on a road trip. For now I laid a 1/2" baltic birch plywood panel for the floor. This will be replaced with an aircraft grade decking I ordered from a friend of mine. As always, when ordering from a friend, I may have to wait a while. For now the wood platform ($38, Home Depot) will work and this part is easily replaced. The aircraft platform is corrugated ABS with aluminum skin top and bottom. It is expensive ($300/sheet) but long term I will not worry about any environmental issues with it. I should receive sometime in February, hopefully...
For the webbing spanners I used a Nylon 17337 webbing and used 1" Velcro 'One Wrap' to grab each of the uprights. They are spaced on 32" centers and secured to each with a t-slot nut. I placed a grommet in the webbing to place the bolt through. Works perfect...
For the ladder I bought a 6.5 ft telescoping ladder on Amazon. It was $75 and is pretty darn stout surprisingly. After buying I realized this is used by some other RTT tent mfrs so I was happy to see these were not uncommon. I bought 2 right angle aluminum brackets from McMAster to mount to the rail. Those are on their way now. I will just drill through the ladder side and bolt those on using a half moon washer on the inside to bolster that connection.
I just started working on the cover, laying out the window and attachment points. I am going to use Dimension Polyant X-Pac material (lightweight and waterproof) in white for the primary cover. For the rainfly I will most likely use a Sil-Nylon material. As a textile manufacturing company this part is the one that we can excel at, or at least I hope to. I am sure the first version of this won't be perfect but it will get me through my inaugural runs.
If anyone has some advice on this please let me know. So far this is going together pretty well but I am sure I will run into something that I overlooked... Pics below...
