Where do you store your RTT?

[xcmountain80]

I just lean mine up against eh wall and it stays there. Though getting it off is another story. My brother usually helps but he lives 230 miles away . So I called my new friend (probably not for long after this) and I was like I need help to get my RTT off. He more than likely though hmm tent 20-40 lbs. Well when I figured out we couldn't just lift it off like my brother and I do I just couldn't understand.

Though he is training for worlds strongest man! JK Anyhow I moved in July to these nice town homes which not a whole lot of people have moved in oddly enough. I often envisioned a winch the top off like in Gods Must be Crazy. But my problem was I can't get into the garage because of the the height of my rig. So I though fast. Well I'll attach a snatch block to my balcony railing (after inspecting it was anchored in cement and tapconed to the pillars). I hooked up the snatch block and ran a climbing rope though made a harness for the tent out of 1500lb rated ratcheting tie downs and began. Well damn he couldn't pull the darn thing off the roof either, I'm not sure what the ratio was after the pulley but the angle seemed good. I thought quick and came up with ahhhh Hi-lift the hand winch to save the day. So I anchored that to the adjacent hollow poll with concrete base (wanna talk about sketchy). I then proceeded and all went well. We did have to use him as a human anchor and run the hi-lift over the end to get the tent back down, but all was safe enough.

Aaron

 

[xcmountain80]

Was trying mimic this

Aaron

 

[Rezarf <><]

just a few eye bolts and cheap-o pulley's

Not too hard, just takes about 15 minutes to get on the truck, a bit longer to get it back up in the air.

Drew

Edit: this is an old shot I will show the new setup when I can snap a new pic.

 

[RSB]

HMR, thank-you for sharing with us how you did this. It undoubtedly saved me the 15 hrs of R&D you spent developing your design. Per your instructions, I managed to replicate your results pretty close! I was fed-up w/essentially losing the 'pick-up' functionality my truck once had. In 10 min, I can have the canopy removed or installed by myself. Here's how it turned-out...

with the heat this time of year, it took an entire weekend to complete. The straps are the most difficult part to prep, as they must each be fed between the rails and bottom of the canopy, every time.

overall, I'm very pleased. I've got my pick-up back again when I need it. All it needs now, is some padding!

Thanks for the help everyone. I spent about 15 hours last week designing/building then redesigning/rebuilding my custom hoist. It had to fit in a tight spece between the bottom of the trusses and the top of my garage door rails. I have about an inch of space between the RTT and my open garage door. It's pretty slick- I can drive in, unlatch the Yakima Q Towers, and remove the Maggiolina by myself in just a few minutes.

I bought the 440lb hoist from Harbor Freight and placed it between two sets of trusses:

I used a pulley to slow the up/down speed of the electric hoist. The hoist is plenty strong to lift without the pulley but it's way too fast to keep the RTT from slamming into the ceiling or truck. The pulley cuts the speed in half which is just about perfect.

I went with this design to keep the weight on the bottom of the Maggiolina. It would've been easier to just attach the straps directly to the lifting hook but it squeezes the top of the tent which seems like it would screw up the fit after awhile:

When stowed, the wooden cross bars sit flush against the trusses. The yellow thing is the hoist control and I use the nylon rope to guide the tent onto my truck. When not in use I attach the controller to the rope and it keeps everything up, out of the way:

It would be cheaper to buy one of the purpose built hoists listed above (I think my total costs were ~$200) but I'm really diggin' my "push button" version.

 

[HMR]

HMR, thank-you for sharing with us how you did this. It undoubtedly saved me the 15 hrs of R&D you spent developing your design. Per your instructions, I managed to replicate your results pretty close! I was fed-up w/essentially losing the 'pick-up' functionality my truck once had. In 10 min, I can have the canopy removed or installed by myself. Here's how it turned-out...

Nice work!

 

[Life_in_4Lo]

The whole thing is as sketchy as hell. Fortunately, the Miata is there to break its fall.

LOL :coffeedrink:

 

[SilverBullet]

any problem with spinning with a single lift line? When I made one of these for my old 87 4runner, the top spun with every little air movement. I made a tie line off the corner.

 

[HMR]

any problem with spinning with a single lift line?

Mine is still going strong 3 years after I started this thread. I haven't had any problems with spinning. If needed, the RTT is able to rotate approx. 30 degrees in either direction which helps with mounting. It doesn't look like much but the double line created by the pulley adds a lot of stability. I can lower the tent all the way to the floor and raise it back to the ceiling and it ends up in the exact same position each time.

 

[RSB]

thanks! The 1" straps that need to be fed between the rails and bottom of the canopy are a problem though. They're actually bending the fiberglass. A thick piece of 1/4" rubber installed between the straps & canopy aren't good enough to spread the load. With the canopy back on the truck, however, the damage seems to disappear after a few days (nature of the fiberglass?) Anyway, I'm looking for a better solution for using the straps. Obviously, sticking a few 2x4's underneath the canopy would solve this problem. However, this would be even more difficult, if not impossible to try to slide underneath the canopy. I also thought about securing the hoist directly to the roof rack, however, this would put all the weight on the bolts of the roof rack. Perhaps if the bolts were reinforced w/strips of galvanized steel? It sure would be easier to hook-up to the roof rack instead. Appreciate any feedback you guys might have! :sombrero:

Nice work!

 

[RSB]

agreed. I see the same thing w/mine w/close to a 300-330 pound load! I only tie it off to keep it level.

Mine is still going strong 3 years after I started this thread. I haven't had any problems with spinning. If needed, the RTT is able to rotate approx. 30 degrees in either direction which helps with mounting. It doesn't look like much but the double line created by the pulley adds a lot of stability. I can lower the tent all the way to the floor and raise it back to the ceiling and it ends up in the exact same position each time.

 

[RSB]

no ideas??