It feels naked

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Others have said rear window gets dirtier with spoiler removed.
 
1. Keep it off.
2. I need some of those Lexus pink panty stickers.
3. You must have smaller hands than me because the only way I can get my RTT mounted is by accessing the front mount points via the sunroof.
4. I don't really see any reason why the tent wouldn't handle being hung off the back a little. What end of the bars would you need to chop off? If it were me I'd probably want to leave the bars on the end that would hang over but I'm probably heavier than you too.
 
I hated how mine looked too, but the ladder helped the appearance.

I still like how the spoiler looks better than with it gone, but its just so damn functional without It. It is so easy to get on the roof, and I don't have to baby it when I load my kayak.
 
I just noticed your 3rd tail light is not in.

Mine looked way better once we installed that light and looked less "naked."
 
Would you be hesitant to have the tent that far back plus it's shifted to the driver side by about 4" so not centered on the roof?

No big woop at all, well the last set of roof mounts will be under more stress (They are under compression anyway, well depends on the rigidity of the rack too) but is to complex to gauge how much of a difference it makes..

Actually I take back my comment, I was sure your rack was a "Double tube Trellis" But looks like you have two vertical mounts for the last set of rivnuts on the roof, that can be a issue is your roof rack flexes (bending the metal on the roof is not such a big deal, but if the metal surrounding the rivnut get deformed they stop holding (The clamp to the sheet metal, like a rivet with two faces)

Any chance of more detail pictures..??

Ps: By far the Wale is my favorite, but they are a pain with racks and baskets (Had one in my Outback and by now is totally scratch up from the bike racks and basket)

I don't want to go all Hyper geek on your guys but if you are interested in part of the reason for the whale and the "Black thing" here are some very solid scientific concepts..
kann affect airflow dynamics - Google Scholar
 
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1. Keep it off.
2. I need some of those Lexus pink panty stickers.
3. You must have smaller hands than me because the only way I can get my RTT mounted is by accessing the front mount points via the sunroof.
4. I don't really see any reason why the tent wouldn't handle being hung off the back a little. What end of the bars would you need to chop off? If it were me I'd probably want to leave the bars on the end that would hang over but I'm probably heavier than you too.

That's the reason I wanted the change. Putting the tent on via the sun roof was a pain in the ass. Now tent goes on with 4 bolts. It cut time by half.

IMG_20161021_151745.webp


With my tent bars perpendicular to the direction of the car, I can mount all 4 corners of the tent using the bolt holes of the rack and not deal with the 2 bolt strap bull.
 
My personal rankings of the rear options

1 Whale Tail
2 Naked
3 getting run over by car
4 the Black thing

I have the black thing. There are times I want to get rid of it, but I think it is supposed to help clean the rear window? I think the whale tail look much better than naked imo. We owned a Sequoia that has a whale tail, and maybe we just get used to that look.
 
No big woop at all, well the last set of roof mounts will be under more stress (They are under compression anyway, well depends on the rigidity of the rack too) but is to complex to gauge how much of a difference it makes..

Actually I take back my comment, I was sure your rack was a "Double tube Trellis" But looks like you have two vertical mounts for the last set of rivnuts on the roof, that can be a issue is your roof rack flexes (bending the metal on the roof is not such a big deal, but if the metal surrounding the rivnut get deformed they stop holding (The clamp to the sheet metal, like a rivet with two faces)

Any chance of more detail pictures..??

Ps: By far the Wale is my favorite, but they are a pain with racks and baskets (Had one in my Outback and by now is totally scratch up from the bike racks and basket)

I don't want to go all Hyper geek on your guys but if you are interested in part of the reason for the whale and the "Black thing" here are some very solid scientific concepts..
kann affect airflow dynamics - Google Scholar

I don't think theres an issue with the weight on the roof rivnuts. it's rated pretty high for static loads. My concern was more with the tent being further back and how that would effect the vehicle in a dynamic way. Up till now my tent had always been pretty far forward.
 
I know the shape is the same, but is the "spoiler" metal or plastic?

The black blade spoiler is a really hard plastic. At least mine is on my 98.

And to me, and I know I'm bias, I prefer the black blade to the larger whale tail type pieces. It is less noticeable and fits tighter to the body.
 
At first I was going to say it looks like it would really be putting some excess stress on the rearmost set of feet. But after thinking about how our RTT gets used that is the edge of the tent so there's not any weight being cantilevered out past it per se since it opens to the drivers side from what I can tell. Usually the edges to the sides of the tent are dead space for clothes/lights/gear which are all relatively light. It also looks like you have the channel of the tent over the feet directly, I would not go back any further than that for sure.

One thing that did just pop in my head though is can you have the spring rods for the window in place and still have clearance for the top hatch? Looks like it; but it looks like it may be close too.
 

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