coax
Adventurer
About a year back I purchased a howling moon 1.2 RTT. Good tent but really missed having a Cargo box on the roof. It was very useful for storing odd items like a shovel, chairs, fire pan, tarps, and anything else I didn't want to have to put inside the cruiser. I had kicked around building a tent for a while but never had the time. Now in prep for a trip to South America I made the decision to make a tent. I wanted to fold it long ways(hotdog) instead of short ways(hamburger).
Materials:
Cost
First Iteration of Old Tent:
This was how I tried my Howling Moon + Roof Box. Way too wide and a pain in the but to collapse and pack up the tent
Second Iteration with a Alum. Box. Also too hard to get into the box. Plus not as large as the Thule Box.
Materials:
- 1/2 Marine A/B plywood from a local lumber yard. If you really want to do this better/stronger/lighter, use a Structural Insulated Panel (SIP). They come in aluminum on both sides with polystyrene (Styrofoam) inside. Not too expensive until you factor in shipping. This was gonna cost me a total of about 350 for the SIP plus shipping. I opted for the piece of Plywood for about 60 bucks.
- 1x1x.125 Angle aluminum from Online metals. This trims the base.
- 1x1 and .75x75 aluminum for the poles.
- Awning Track and welting for securing to the base.
- Vinyl for the cover. ( I really didn't want to use vinyl due to its toxicity but sheets of Hypalon are crazy expensive.
- Weathermax80 for the tent body.
- SeamGrip for sealing seams.
- 80/20 metric 25 series extruded aluminum for mounting and base reinforcement. Also a bunch of the M6 economy inserts.
- 3/4" cross linked polyethelyne for the pad inside.
- 1/16" HDPE plastic for the outside base.
- A random few pieces of angle steel. Used to attach a server cabinet to the pallet for shipping. Appear to be low carbon steel so should hold up to the elements.
- Silicone sealant for around the base.
- Shellac for sealing the plywood.
- A crapton of various m5 and m6 fasteners, as well as some larger bolts for the hinges and carriage bolts to attach the extruded aluminum.
- Various zippers and mesh for the doors.
- A whole lot of my time and a friends time to do the construction and sewing.
Cost
- I stopped tracking this as I went over budget but expect the whole thing to come in around 1200. Fasteners took me way over as I bought twice multiple times and went to ACE for a bunch. If you plan ahead and order from mcmaster it would be much cheaper.
First Iteration of Old Tent:
This was how I tried my Howling Moon + Roof Box. Way too wide and a pain in the but to collapse and pack up the tent
Second Iteration with a Alum. Box. Also too hard to get into the box. Plus not as large as the Thule Box.