Non-Rivian rooftop tents

[Singletracker]

This whole Rivian crossbar/tent thing is a problem, especially for those who are getting an R1S. Mostly, it is a crossbar spacing (36”) issue on the R1S, and possibly the R1T, as well. On the S, it appears to me that anything larger than a basic 3-man, folding tent, with the 48”x56” folded footprint, will not fit and be properly supported. This has nothing to do with clamping, although the Rivian bars do appear to be kind of thick. It has more to do with that 36” bar spacing. Also, it appears the mounting position on the R1S is too far forward on the roof. This will almost certainly increase wind resistance and cabin noise. If one intends to use most hardshell tents, I suspect the tent footprint may simply be too long for the 36” rack spacing. I have said before, the solution is a roof rack, not crossbars, that would provide variable equipment/tent mounting options and positions. The quick clip-on Rivian mounts and portals are very cool, but may present real issues when it comes time to mount tents. After all the incredible design features Rivian has come up with, I’m surprised they completely whiffed on this issue. Having normal bolt ports, while not as fancy, would have eliminated this limitation. This would have made it easy for any aftermarket company to make racks, bars, or whatever. I have owned a 3-man folding RTT similar to what Tepui, CVT, Yakima, and others offer. Mine was a Tuff Stuff tent. Great, durable tent and served me well. I now own a hardshell tent that simply won’t fit on my preordered R1S ? Anyway, just something for those looking at RTT’s to be aware of.

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[jjswan33]

I hope you're right but this is their approach to software... among other things.

They often talk of "partnerships" -- up to the reader to decide if those "partnerships" are going to be the best thing for the consumer.

I don't think there is any conspiracy here. Rivian designed the cross bars in a way that they telescope to fit different placements on the roof or the bed of the truck, this means that it needs to have more width to hold the weight than typical static crossbars.

The standard Yakima mount is designed to work with the bulk of different crossbars it just happens that the Rivian designed bars are too wide. They may change that in the future otherwise they will lose business to other tent manufacturers that don't hat that limitation.

 

[SurlyBurris]

Please let me know. It seems the Rivian/Yakima crossbars were made specifically to latch to the Rivian (which is fine), but they're also an abnormal width compared to other crossbars on the market. I'm guessing people have made some modifications to their current RTT setup and just aren't willing to share or don't really know.

I have a Thule Tepui Explorer 3 and this is mounting plate. It's exactly 3.5" between the 2 outside holes. Hoping it will fit or I'll have to make new plates.

 

[Davethadog]

Somebody post some photos of the clamp problem. I have a HAAS vf2 sitting in my garage waiting for something fun to do…

 

[Jiri]

I just got the snowboard rack from Rivian and the attachments to crossbars and standard off the shelf. So the same “clamps” as on the fatcat and other racks will work just fine. The crossbars aren’t that unique in that case.

 

[Dark-Fx]

I ended up ordering a Thule Tepui Kukenam. I'll take some photos once it comes in and I'm working on getting it installed over the bed.

 

[R1T7777]

Oh man thanks for that information. I had planned on buying one of the smaller Yakima tents. I guess I will have to look elsewhere.

How would the clamp size be the issue? They are making a tent to clamp on these racks...and the cross bars aren't that much wider than the Yakima Aero bars from what I can tell.

 

[jjswan33]

How would the clamp size be the issue? They are making a tent to clamp on these racks...and the cross bars aren't that much wider than the Yakima Aero bars from what I can tell.

No personal experience just know what a rep at Yakima told me. I don't think it would benefit them to mislead us since the Rivian version isn't available, they are losing business by not having clamps that fit.

Go ahead and buy one and let us know if it works out, I'd be curious to see what the issues is.

 

[PoorPilot]

Based on information that I have gathered- the Rivian/Yakima crossbars are about an inch wider than most on the market. This prevents the normal RTT setup, but I've seen several on Instagram that are using different types of RTTs. I don't know if they have manufactured their own mounting bracket or if they're using the standard bracket for a photo-op and just hoping for the best, or what? I can't get a clear answer from anyone that I have contacted other than Yakima reps stating their standard, off the shelf brackets, do not fit the Rivian crossbars. I reached out to Thule today and they 1. didn't know what a Rivian was (even though it's a vehicle choice on their website, and 2. they told me to call back in 4-6 weeks and they might have a mounting solution for their RTT. Hopefully someone can come up with a fix for this without too much hassle and we can all move on.

 

[jjswan33]

Based on information that I have gathered- the Rivian/Yakima crossbars are about an inch wider than most on the market. This prevents the normal RTT setup, but I've seen several on Instagram that are using different types of RTTs. I don't know if they have manufactured their own mounting bracket or if they're using the standard bracket for a photo-op and just hoping for the best, or what? I can't get a clear answer from anyone that I have contacted other than Yakima reps stating their standard, off the shelf brackets, do not fit the Rivian crossbars. I reached out to Thule today and they 1. didn't know what a Rivian was (even though it's a vehicle choice on their website, and 2. they told me to call back in 4-6 weeks and they might have a mounting solution for their RTT. Hopefully someone can come up with a fix for this without too much hassle and we can all move on.

Not sure how soon I will get my tent but this is what I ordered.

https://ikamper.com/products/x-cover-2-0-mini/

If you watch the video you can see how their included mounts work, my expectation is that it should work fine. The manual lists minimum mounting width for the cross bars but doesn’t specify a max crossbar width.

Edit: I got this response from iKamper: “The X-Cover 2.0 Mini will come with the new 3.0 mounting brackets, which fit crossbars up to 5" wide x 2" tall.”

 

[Zac]

Rivian's crossbars are 3.625 in wide. Most RTT mounts fit 3.5 in crossbars. It appears to be an issue to me.

 

[Zac]

If you watch the video you can see how their included mounts work, my expectation is that it should work fine. The manual lists minimum mounting width for the cross bars but doesn’t specify a max crossbar width.

That's the distance between crossbars, not the width of the crossbar. I measured the distance between crossbars on the R1T and they are 33 in on the bed and 36 in on the roof. So, those should meet the min requirements for distance between crossbars for most RTTs.

 

[Singletracker]

The RTT’s I have had experience with mostly use a pretty simple mounting method. The will have some sort of tracks mounted to the bottom of the tent. Bolts will slide into the track where the hex head bolt will not be able to turn. The bolts then extend past whatever rack they will be mounted to and through a metal bar/bracket (see SurlyBurris photo above) where a nut will cinch the bracket down to the rack. It’s all pretty basic and pretty universal. Some, companies may try to over think the whole process by coming up with proprietary mounting systems that can present issues and incompatibilities. There’s a lot to be said for the KISS system.

My tent mounting issue will look like this. Because of the length of my hardshell tent and its mounting rails, it is not compatible with the Rivian system, as it now exists on the R1S. BTW, this very expensive tent uses the same simple mounting bracket system as described above. Back to KISS ?

 

[Pherdnut]

Rivian's crossbars are 3.625 in wide. Most RTT mounts fit 3.5 in crossbars. It appears to be an issue to me.

It's weird they wouldn't have kept it just a smidge less wide but it wouldn't be hard to fudge an eighth of an inch. Just screw a little bit higher one side, a little bit lower on the other. The angle would be barely noticeable. I tightened a couple of mine too hard and they bent a little. No detectable slippage and that tent's been on my roof over a year now. Got nowhere to store it. Don't commute. It lives on the SUV which is parked in a fenced in lot.

 

[jjswan33]

That's the distance between crossbars, not the width of the crossbar. I measured the distance between crossbars on the R1T and they are 33 in on the bed and 36 in on the roof. So, those should meet the min requirements for distance between crossbars for most RTTs.

Not sure what you mean.

The tent brackets for the X-Cover 2.0 Mini that I ordered will attach to rails up to 5" wide and 2" tall that is what I was referring to. The cross bar spread has to be between 22" and 50" so the R1Ts 33" are also fine. The static weight of the tent is 119lbs which is well under the 250 lbs that the bars can support. So I don't see any reason why it won't fit.

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