Where do you store your RTT?

[HMR]

I finally found a used Maggiolina. It'll spend most of the next few months mounted to the top of my Tacoma. However, eventually I'll need to take it off and store it for awhile. I'd like to be able to raise it off my fiberglass shell and store it up in the rafters of my garage. I know Autohome sells a kit but I can't find any high-res photos of the design so I'm not sure if it'll work in my garage.

I have an unfinished ceiling with 2X6's spaced ~24" apart.

I'd also like to be able to attach/detach the Maggiolina by myself. Anyone using the Autohome setup?

Any other ideas?

How/where do you guys remove and store your RTT's?

Thanks,
Jeremy

 

[spressomon]

Haven't seen the Autohome but when Mike Spies gets back into web range he will surely chime in.

If not this may work:

http://www.autoaccessconnect.com/gacestsybyth.html

 

[flyingwil]

I store mine on my truck. :shakin:

I am thinking of adding a lift using a cheap harbor freight winch in the garage and making a hoist.

 

[spressomon]

I store mine on my truck. :shakin:

I am thinking of adding a lift using a cheap harbor freight winch in the garage and making a hoist.

That's exactly what I set up a few years ago to store my Yakima Rocketbox in my garage. The winch works great!

 

[HMR]

I am thinking of adding a lift using a cheap harbor freight winch in the garage and making a hoist.

DOH! Why do I always forget about Harbor Freight?! I spent HOURS sketching out different pulley setups and trying to figure out the ratios to get the load down to where I could hold the rope in one hand and guide the RTT onto the rack with the other. My wife was getting ready to kill me (I'm a little OCD about this stuff)! 5 minutes on the HF website made my original plan obsolete. I could either go with a hand-crank type winch or this thing: link. I can just see myself sipping my coffee while the electric hoist does all the work.:coffeedrink:

Hmmm... is 8 amps too much for a regular garage outlet? ***Edit- Nevermind, I see they also have a 440lb model rated at 4.5amps.

spressomon- Thanks for the link! Yet another interesting option...

 

[hoser]

Here's Racor Hoist similar to the one Spressomon posted.

 

[spressomon]

DOH! Why do I always forget about Harbor Freight?! I spent HOURS sketching out different pulley setups and trying to figure out the ratios to get the load down to where I could hold the rope in one hand and guide the RTT onto the rack with the other. My wife was getting ready to kill me (I'm a little OCD about this stuff)! 5 minutes on the HF website made my original plan obsolete. I could either go with a hand-crank type winch or this thing: link. I can just see myself sipping my coffee while the electric hoist does all the work.:coffeedrink:

Hmmm... is 8 amps too much for a regular garage outlet? ***Edit- Nevermind, I see they also have a 440lb model rated at 4.5amps.

spressomon- Thanks for the link! Yet another interesting option...

Regular 110/120V wall outlets are 15Amp...so you're good to go. I mounted my electric winch to a 2x10 and then lag screwed that to the wall studs right where they meet the ceiling. I lengthened the power cord so that I could move around the rig abit when raising/lowering the cargo box. Then mounted 3-pulleys and a hook at the end of the cable travel to anchor the winch cable to the ceiling. If I do this again I will mount the pulleys and hook to a 2x4 or 2x6 then attach it to the ceiling. I used plastic coated cable to make 2-slings with snap locks that are "attached" to the winch line with pulleys and then to the Rocketbox (or the Maggiolina in your case...and due to the weight of the Magg you might want to use some plumping insulation closed cell foam "pipe" to protect the Magg...or use nylon webbing for the bottom sling portion) that are anchored to the winch cable. I have my Yakima bars supporting my Rocketbox...so I just loop the winch sling ends around the bar ends...that way all I do is drop it onto the roof...attach the Yakima rain gutter mounts and I'm good to go. I'd take pics for you but the Rocketbox is covering everything ;-) Sorry...that's damn hard to explain with any great understanding...yep: A picture IS worth a thousand words ;-)

As you said...it's nice to be able to push the electric winch button with one hand...and be able to guide the cargo onto the roof with the other...or have a cup o'spresso in one hand ;-).

 

[Martyn]

Your RTT probably weighs 125 lbs max, which really isn't that much. I'm assuming you have a 2X6 roof truss system that you want to attach the lift system to.

I would advise spreading the load over 4 trusses by laying a 2X4 or 2X6 over the lower portion of the trusses. I did the same thing when I installed a small pulley system for lifting RTTs.

Theoretically you aren’t meant to apply any extra load to the trusses but they are usually engineered to support sheet rock, which you don't have. Being 24" on center I don't think you have any snow load calculated for your roof so there shouldn't be any additional seasonal stresses.

 

[HMR]

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.

 

[HDM]

Here are some pics of how I set up a Racor hoist. Easy installation and it works great. Cost was around $150 for the hoist, hardware, etc. Note, the four weights (one on each cable end) are used to keep the the cable from unwinding on the axle when not under load. Raising and lowering is via a long winding crank. Make R&R an easy one man job. Highly recommended.

 

[Mike S]

There are a lot of solutions available - including the motorized ones that some of the other posters have illustrated.

We sell a manual lift made by Harken - the Harken Hoister - in the USA for $139. This is a nice, simple solution. One of its best features is control of the load both lifting and lowering - if you let go of the line, it stops the movement of the load. With this device one person can easily handle mounting and dismounting of a tent. It also provides a permanent storage facitlity out of the way in the garage.

Here is a link to Harken's site describing the product - http://www.hoister.com/

To attach the lift, it s a good idea to secure a 'strongback' of 2 X 6 across the bare rafters. This spreads the load and eliminates deflection of any individual joists.

I thiink a lift is essential equipment for a roof tent.

Enjoy your Maggiolina!

Mike S

 

[Martyn]

I saw this product at the APEX show in Las Vegas the "Garage Gorilla" www.garagegorilla.com

I haven't used the product and unfortunately there was no one at the booth when I walked by but it may be a solution to the storage issue.

 

[HDM]

As an add-on to my earlier post, the Racor lift I have is so simple to install and easy to run up and down, I can't imagine why you'd need the complexity and cost of a more sophisticated system. Not that I'm against overkill, mind, but with the Racor (and, likely others of the same ilk) my little niece (age 14) can raise the tent from roof top to rafters in under 15 seconds - a bit faster coming down. That's pretty speedy. Best of all, the tent is held firm whenever you stop winding so you can easily position the tent onto the roof rack a little bit at a time. This combined with having the ideal location of the winding crank make R&R an easy one man job. (Incidentally, I set up my lift with the cables an inch lower on one side of the tent than the other so I just wind the tent down to contact on the low side, check the position, then lower the other side all the way. This arrangement works very well using the Thule load bar and towers, anyway.) The lift has a secure and foolproof locking mechanism for when it's left unattended. To be honest, I did go a bit overboard with how I mounted the lift to the rafters, but then again, I didn't want the thing coming down on top of the truck in an earthquake. I'm not trying to push this particular lift as I'm sure there are lots of great options, but this one is widely available, reletively cheap (well, compared to the the cost of an Eezi-Awn, anyway), and I have been very happy with it. Costco.com sells them for around $140 - if you hunt around, you can probably find them even cheaper. Here's a link to the Racor website: http://www.racorinc.com/products.fx?id=150

 

[Dave Bennett]

Cool setup HMR. :bigbossHL:

 

[cshontz]

First, my wife helped me lift it off the top of the Cherokee. She wasn't too pleased about that, but she was a good sport after it was on the ground. Then I used my son's Amish-made wagon to wheel it into the garage. I drilled two 1" holes through an exposed stud, threaded a long nylon rope through the holes and the RTT rails, and used my winch to hoist it into place.

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