Roofnest sparrow / carrying stuff on top (1 Viewer)

[whaler]

Ive had this tent for 3 years now. I have an 80 series and its mounted up on top almost all the time. Ive got 2 kayaks now that I want to figure out the best way to carry.

Has anyone drilled the top of their tent roof and installed a couple bars on the top? Im thinking some big washers, seal it with silicone. Ive carried one kayak on the bare roof of the tent just fine but now with two im thinking that it may be sketchy laying them both on the top and strapping them down. I would just put 2 J kayak carries on the bars. Itll be tall as hell but I cant figure out a better way at the moment.

The other thought is installing two long bars on the underside of the roof rack (ARB style rack). Some solid thickness Steel Tubing, running across the underside. Then I could put the J kayak racks on each side of the roof rack. Will make it less vertically tall by a lot.

For the life of me, I cant find any examples where people have done this.

 

[titanpat57]

I think you could do that, but I'd be concerned about the hydraulics that lift the top, if they can handle the additional weight.

 

[whaler]

Well I would remove the yaks if I was raising the tent.

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Im thinking that I should weld 2 of these on each side, for front and back bars, under the roof rack and run some sturdy steel tubing bar across. That way i can always remove the bars when im not carrying the yaks and down want the extra width hanging off the side.

 

[Exiled]

My preference depending on how tight the trails are that you normally visit would be to run them NEXT to the RTT instead of on top of them. I know I've seen that setup somewhere here in town (I'm in Round Rock) but it wasn't on a Land Cruiser, maybe a Rover? They used the kinds of mounts that have the kayaks sitting sideways rather than upside down.

 

[cruiserpilot]

Ive had this tent for 3 years now. I have an 80 series and its mounted up on top almost all the time. Ive got 2 kayaks now that I want to figure out the best way to carry.

Has anyone drilled the top of their tent roof and installed a couple bars on the top? Im thinking some big washers, seal it with silicone. Ive carried one kayak on the bare roof of the tent just fine but now with two im thinking that it may be sketchy laying them both on the top and strapping them down. I would just put 2 J kayak carries on the bars. Itll be tall as hell but I cant figure out a better way at the moment.

The other thought is installing two long bars on the underside of the roof rack (ARB style rack). Some solid thickness Steel Tubing, running across the underside. Then I could put the J kayak racks on each side of the roof rack. Will make it less vertically tall by a lot.

For the life of me, I cant find any examples where people have done this.

My first move would be to contact the manufacturer about if or how much weight it can take.
Then go from there.

 

[whaler]

My preference depending on how tight the trails are that you normally visit would be to run them NEXT to the RTT instead of on top of them. I know I've seen that setup somewhere here in town (I'm in Round Rock) but it wasn't on a Land Cruiser, maybe a Rover? They used the kinds of mounts that have the kayaks sitting sideways rather than upside down.

Yea, Im currently thinking the same thing. I just need to mount some hangers on the underside of my roof rack somehow. Then run some long steel bar through, mount the J frames on each side. I think it may work.

My first move would be to contact the manufacturer about if or how much weight it can take.
Then go from there.

Im going to go out on a limb and say roofnest would not agree to drilling into the roof of the tent and putting 100 lbs of kayaks up there. Liability aside, I think theres a high chance of some sort of failure with the roof of the tent, not being designed to handle that load.