BajaTaco

Yessir!




Although I recently got a receiver hitch mount that I will be using more often than the rack mounts. It is cool to have the ability to carry 4 bikes though if I want to transport for friends too, or carry two bikes plus the canoe (haven't tried that yet).

d.b.

Just wanted to say thanks for doing the write up on your shell. It was the deciding factor when I bought a shell for my truck a few weeks ago. Just one question, did you install the faux rain gutter mounts for the roof rack or did you order it that way from the factory?

Mine:


Thanks,
Dave

914runner

Very nice camper! We put one of the ARE raised roof shell on my dads Superduty. It is very nice. Im surpirsed you didnt go with a raised roof model, for the extra roof for sleeping.

4Runner4Christ

I had a similar shell on my old GMC Sonoma. You will really like those side windows!

BajaTaco

Thanks Dave! Nice truck! (and just the right color too ) To answer your question, I installed the raingutter brackets myself - they are made by Yakima. FWIW, a member here at yotatech (Crawler#976) just did the same thing with the raingutter brackets, except that he made his own, and they span all the way from front to back with one piece of steel. Very strong, and a better choice IMO. I just got some replacements for a couple of my Yakima gutter mounts which have deformed at the very corners after many, many years of abuse.

The extra headroom would be nice, but I am already dealing with a high profile due to the roof rack and spare tire, so the hi-top shell would make it way too high for my tastes. Higher COG, worse fuel economy, more conflict with overhanging objects, and further to reach to access the roof rack and load the canoe.

d.b.

Thanks for the info. The reason I asked about the rain gutter brackets is because my canoe happens to be the same exact width as the roof rack tracks I had installed from the factory. I can't load my canoe centered on the truck because the gunwales are resting on the tower instead of being able to rest on the gunwale bracket. I was thinking if I went the route of the rain gutter, it widen the stance between the brackets just enough that I could load the canoe in the center.

I hate to ask any favors, considering how much time you've already put into the details of your writeup, but could you possibly measure the cross bar distance between the two Yakima 1A towers?

That full length rain gutter sounds nice, I'll have to look that up. One of the reasons I went with the track on the roof over the rain gutters on the side is because I wanted to be able to adjust the distance between the two cross bars.

BajaTaco

It is 44.5" between the inside face of the metal clamps that clamp onto the crossbars.

I see what you mean about the gunwales. Bummer. Can you by any chance just flip the towers around 180 degrees? Would that work? I realize it might look a little odd and not have the same strength, but I imagine for a canoe it would be fine.

d.b.

Thank you very much!

That is an idea that had not even crossed my mind! I will check it out.

BTW, did Crawler#976 post about the raingutter brackets he fabbed up? I searched quite a bit and never turned anything up.

BajaTaco

Cool. Let us know if the tower-flip works.

Just send him a PM and I'm sure he will give you the details.

Epic Ed

OK -- am I the only one who wants to know what in the heck that rock formation is in the background of the pic above?!

I'm guessing Ship Rock in NM, correct?

Ed

BajaTaco

Yes, Shiprock. An incredible sight to see.

photoleif

did you have to obtain navajo permission to drive there? i thought the whole area was kinda off-limits to us gringos. (may show you how little i know, haha....)

d.b.

Looks like that gives me about three inches of more width between the towers. That might be just enough, I'll have to do a dry run this weekend. It feels sturdy enough inverted, I think it'll work fine as long as it adds enough width. Thanks again for the idea, it probably would have never even occured to me to try that.

At first I thought you meant the picture I posted. I was like WTF that's an office building!

Epic Ed

LOL -- no, I'm obsessed with rock climbing and I have never seen that formation from that angle nor that close up. Absolutely stunning -- it's begging to be climbed! It hasn't been done legally in many years since it's on the Rez. Baja -- how did you get that close?

Ed

BajaTaco

d.b. - hopefully that will do the trick!

Leif, you are absolutely correct. As mentioned in the caption for the photo on the trip gallery, I actually had just pulled off the highway, into a big clearing for vehicles, and barely onto the entrance of that dirt road to snap the pic. I used a zoom lens to get big depth of field and make the rock appear larger in the background.

Ed, that would certainly be an Epic climb. There is a web page floating around somewhere with pics that a couple of guys took when they climbed it. I completely respect the Navajo's protection and reverence for it. Just seeing and being as close as we were was a blessing. I guess it's kind of like someone going and putting bolts into the vatican and climbing it? It would be cool to do it, but somehow there's an edge to it, and a vibe that maybe just isn't right. Lots of people would be pissed.

d.b.

Carried the canoe this weekend with the inverted towers at highway speeds and on gravel roads, worked perfectly.

snap-on

Dave! welcome to the boards man! (i know him from a local club)

(i gave him a link to this thread when he was looking for info on toppers) yall can blame me

BajaTaco

SWEET! :bounce2:

d.b.

Thanks again for the link snap-on. Like I said, the thorough write up done by BajaTaco was the deciding factor for me. It was real nice not having to worry about driving back in the rain with all our gear in the bed on Sunday and the win-doors made loading and unloading a breeze...almost as easy as an open bed.

BajaTaco

Over two years later and I'm adding a little update to this thread. I've had the truck for well over 10 years now and have done countless trips and expeditions with the camper setup. The last trip that I slept in the camper was a trip to Southern Arizona a couple of months ago. Since then, I've installed a rooftop tent. I removed the Wilderness roof rack and left only the Yakima crossbars, to which I mounted a Hannibal tent. The spare tire, Hi-Lift, shovel, & axe all got moved inside the truck bed/camper area. I've since used the tent setup on two trips: The first locating a significant historical battle site in Mexico last month, and the second being a week-long overland trip to the Colorado river with four days of canoeing and six nights camping (last week). I've been using RTT's quite a lot in the past few years with my work at Expeditions West and Overland Journal, but I've been holding out on using one with my own truck because I already had the camper setup. So, what are my thoughts? I dig it!

RTT advantages:

• extra space and headroom
• no need to move any gear when two people want to use the mattress (gear is kept inside the camper)
• Good ventilation in moderate rain due to fly and awnings

RTT disadvantages:

• Noisy in the wind. I'm a light sleeper so I have to use earplugs when it is windy.
• Climbing up and down the ladder. This is not a big deal to me, but my wife doesn't like having to do it in the middle of the night. (there are ways around that though).
• When I am traveling solo, the RTT takes longer to set up than my camper sleeping deck. With the deck, I just throw my bag down and crawl in. With two people, it's about the same time.

Camper/sleeping deck advantages:

• Hard shell is great in wind and bad weather, especially for a light sleeper
• Fastest setup when traveling solo
• Great ventilation in fair weather
• Stealthy camping option - you can park on any street and sleep in the back and no one knows you are camping

Camper/sleeping deck disadvantages:

• Poor ventilation in rain/storms - front slider window is only vent option
• When two people camping, gear must be moved off of mattress for sleeping
• Low head room