Homebrew RTT Build Completed

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:
  • 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

yxqmP2g1_1FZ2uPXSHntAH5AHQ5IG3L-QViMKuF7LCg=w1303-h977-no


Second Iteration with a Alum. Box. Also too hard to get into the box. Plus not as large as the Thule Box.

IMG_0437.JPG
 

coax

Adventurer
Start with a basic design, with inspiration from a few tents out there:

Design%2B1.JPG


Design%2B2.JPG


So the construction continues.

Start with a piece of plywood and a bunch of aluminum:

Base.JPG


Cut the plywood in half as well as the plastic 4x8 sheet in half with a table saw. Then use a 1/8 round-over bit on the edge so the curved inside of the Angle Aluminum will snug up.

Router.JPG



Line around the edges with angle aluminum.

IH-jJvx57JtDx3HjNSp7ayCKeAZh2oGMpkIdDFmJKvc=w733-h977-no


Fab some brackets roughly the right size.

Hinge%2BRough.JPG


Make the other poles and drill into brackets for these:

Hinge%2BRough%2B2.JPG


Decide you need extra brackets on the outside for stiffness:

Hinge%2Band%2BPoles.JPG
 
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coax

Adventurer
Mockup the poles and height:

Poles%2BMockup.JPG


oOnxOJZ2Z1m1hDbHt_gZKu55i6g-j_rjxLKLsbSh0YE=w1303-h977-no


Make sure it collapses down OK:
Closed%2BRough.JPG


Order up some material:
HMaoK3l6WhxRoMeEQ0cmg_0Z74qVsU1ccSvvgmeXEHY=w733-h977-no


Start working on material once pole height was determined. Spend a **** ton of time working tent :)

VQmUJSsHSmrGxYgbJHb4I-DF2JHXJGM4l4v5RXfC18Q=w733-h977-no


Once tent body was finished, tear down and sand/seal the plywood, and silicone the aluminum around the edges:

Base%2BSeal.JPG


Take over garage to do the sealing:

Garage.JPG


File and sand rough edges on hinges:

76aL1kLgJbBGMgn1bmXa_cbUkFUfBdjYIjNogZB-Br8=w1303-h977-no


Attach welting to tent and track to frame:

Corner%2BWith%2BWelting.JPG


Mock up final pole height after telescoping:

izIGuwYbTkdniwXvp2MR1E0lQkIqEi_RG2Z-IXQFa1o=w1303-h977-no
 

coax

Adventurer
Sew up a cover for it. Attach cover with one side of welting and the rest of webbing and grommets. In retrospect the webbing grommets do not work well so will be going to some sort of zipper:

SIyLvIywxYZYbYeutgXE6opt3H2rIB4JwHL9oSH6V4c=w733-h977-no


Cover.JPG


Add some roof rack attachments:
rqAtPqPBWkQXtt1WEBXOI_2647vewvHPRZNG1Oe3AGY=w733-h977-no


Add spring poles from ARB to stretch out awning over door as well as guy points for windy conditions to the flat sides:

Awning.JPG


Test fit on car:

On%2BCar.JPG


Inside%2BPano.JPG


Add a ladder (sorry no pics) and the foam (also no pics).

Drive car to LA to ship to South America and camp in Utah along the way.

asQMQ51dBS0kRFkeyXgDarEI05558qyrkKNXKiUnnYo=w1303-h977-no
 
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coax

Adventurer
So, overall fairly happy with the tent. A few thoughts:

  • It was a ton of work to do, and came out overall pretty well.
  • I'm not too happy with the pole system. I looked for a while to find better poles but ended up just using square tube instead of round, as I didn't have a way to either bend or weld the round stuff.
  • Its a bit heavy (maybe 110 lbs?) so heavier than production tents but not horrible.
  • The inside dimensions of 7.5 x 4ft are snug but not too cramped.
  • The color of the fabric allows in more light than the dark howling moon.
  • The cover flips open to the side backwards of most tents. This is good for setup/takedown but under heavy rain may accumulate water in the cover while tent is deployed.

So, for a first shot at building the tent it came out pretty well. It will get a ton of use here shortly so I'll see how it holds up!

Corey
 

theBostonianX

Adventurer
Very nice work! Wow.

Maybe next time, make the leading edge of the tent "bulleted" , for aerodynamics during travel.

Anything you would do differently?
 

coax

Adventurer
Wow. That is pretty impressive.

Thanks!

Very nice work! Wow.

Maybe next time, make the leading edge of the tent "bulleted" , for aerodynamics during travel.

Anything you would do differently?

Yea I would have liked to make it somewhat more aerodynamic. pretty much ran out of time. I figure just by having only 2 feet instead of 4ft wide its twice as good as the old tent :D

Lost of things I'd do differently.
  • Using a SIP would have been much nicer than plywood.
  • Zipper for attaching the cover instead of webbing.
  • Find better telescoping poles, that are round.

Those are the big ones, lots of other small stuff that I'm hoping won't be that big of a deal.
 

proper4wd

Expedition Leader
This is very impressive - there should be a good market for a tent like this. I personally would love to have one so I could keep a canoe or kayak on the other side of the rack. Or, you could have two of these tents to sleep 4 people up there pretty well.

Great design, great execution.
 

K2ZJ

Explorer
Make sure it collapses down OK:
Closed%2BRough.JPG



File and sand rough edges on hinges:

76aL1kLgJbBGMgn1bmXa_cbUkFUfBdjYIjNogZB-Br8=w1303-h977-no

That is awesome. It looks great and I hope it works well for you. Could you turn those outside brackets around and move them closer to the edge. I realize this would net you maybe another inch inside, but it is a little more. Or will the bolt heads interfere with tent?
 

coax

Adventurer
very nicely done.

Very nice.

This is very impressive - there should be a good market for a tent like this. I personally would love to have one so I could keep a canoe or kayak on the other side of the rack. Or, you could have two of these tents to sleep 4 people up there pretty well.

Great design, great execution.

Amazing work. thank you for posting this. Pure inspiration.

Thanks for the comments!

Also, if you ever decide to make a "V2"... these connectors would allow you to build the frame corners a lot quicker (I have looked at using these for a homebrew awing I want to build)

http://www.estoconnectors.com/

521075-LG_480_480_99.jpg

Hrm those connectors look like they would work awesome and probably fit the 3/4 and 1" tubing I have. Wisher they were a bit cheaper, with 4 per pole it would cost be about $80 in fittings :Wow1:

That is awesome. It looks great and I hope it works well for you. Could you turn those outside brackets around and move them closer to the edge. I realize this would net you maybe another inch inside, but it is a little more. Or will the bolt heads interfere with tent?

The brackets could probably be turned around for sure. Especially if the bolt was replaced with a Pan Head Allen bolt, then no problems if it hit the tent. I don't notice it too much though, tent is about 7.5ft long and the hinges are right in the middle of the tent so doesn't interfere with my feet or anything. I was kinda designing on the fly so not the most efficient use of space :)
 

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