What length Thule Cross bars for RTT? 50 or 58?

[vision-quest]

As the title says, I'm wondering what size Thule bars will work with my CVT rooftop tent? I don't want to have extra hanging over the side, so I'm hoping 50 will do fine, anyone with experience used this setup before?

 

[RunnerAK]

Unless you need them for other purposes, just go without crossbars. I mount our CVT Mt. Shasta directly to the roof rails, its simpler, sturdier, and lower profile than with crossbars.

 

[Luc r]

Unless you need them for other purposes, just go without crossbars. I mount our CVT Mt. Shasta directly to the roof rails, its simpler, sturdier, and lower profile than with crossbars.

No issues with the stock bars being too weak?

 

[vision-quest]

No issues with the stock bars being too weak?

This is my thought, Bobby at CVT said he didn't really trust the stock cross rails. That and it's a HUGE GIANT MASSIVE (I can't outline this enough) pain in the ass to get those nuts on and off with the standard rack. Took me an hour to get the nuts off last time.

 

[Styer]

No issues with the stock bars being too weak?

Luc r I think RunnerAK was referring to using the stock RAILS(running front to back) not the OEM crossbars(running side to side).

I just order a GordiGear RTT(same style as CVT) and from my reading 55"+ bars were recommended. I had some older 64" thule bars I was planning on using. even purchased some Thule Crossroads feet to attach to the stock rails. Never thought about attaching the RTT directly to the stock rails but may try that. I also want to be able to carry my chainsaw up top so kinda hoping there will be enough extra room on my bars to accommodate.

 

[RunnerAK]

Luc r I think RunnerAK was referring to using the stock RAILS(running front to back) not the OEM crossbars(running side to side).

Styer is correct, the roof rails are quite beefy, I ditched the stock crossbars.

Here's a photo of how I had it attached (silver tent rail mounted directly to black OEM roof rail):

On a side note, you guys may want to paint your tent's clamp brackets with something, as you can see mine were already rusting through the zinc coating after only one summer of use.

 

[vision-quest]

How much of an issue did you have getting the nuts off that? That's the issue I have with using the stock, just such a pain in the ass.. that's what I was hoping the Thule crossbars would alleviate.

 

[RunnerAK]

How much of an issue did you have getting the nuts off that? That's the issue I have with using the stock, just such a pain in the ass.. that's what I was hoping the Thule crossbars would alleviate.

No issues at all, the outer nut on each clamp has plenty of clearance for a wrench since it is outboard of the OEM roof rails. To take the tent off, I pop the black plastic cap off of the tent-rails, remove the outer nut from each clamp, then tilt the tent up on each side to slide all of the clamps out of the channel in the tent-rail. After that, it is just a 2 person job to lift the tent off of the roof, takes 15-20 minutes tops.

Reverse the order to install (the inner nut on the clamp has to be pre-threaded onto the bolt with the clamping bar since there isn't much room to reach in there once it is on).

Note that the tent's rails have to be mounted perpendicular (side to side) to the OEM roof rails (which run front to back) to mount it like this. The tent-rails are acting as your crossbars in this configuration. CVT provided no instructions whatsoever with our tent, but Tepui has a good installation video on their website which describes both mounting orientations for the tent-rails.

 

[vision-quest]

No issues at all, the outer nut on each clamp has plenty of clearance for a wrench since it is outboard of the OEM roof rails. To take the tent off, I pop the black plastic cap off of the tent-rails, remove the outer nut from each clamp, then tilt the tent up on each side to slide all of the clamps out of the channel in the tent-rail. After that, it is just a 2 person job to lift the tent off of the roof, takes 15-20 minutes tops.

Reverse the order to install (the inner nut on the clamp has to be pre-threaded onto the bolt with the clamping bar since there isn't much room to reach in there once it is on).

Note that the tent's rails have to be mounted perpendicular (side to side) to the OEM roof rails (which run front to back) to mount it like this. The tent-rails are acting as your crossbars in this configuration. CVT provided no instructions whatsoever with our tent, but Tepui has a good installation video on their website which describes both mounting orientations for the tent-rails.

Oh now I understand.. it looks like with the orientation of your tent you have it opening out the back correct? That's why it's much harder for me, because I had it mounted to it opens out the side, which puts the tent rails inside of the car's rack and massively restricts access to the nuts.

 

[RunnerAK]

Oh now I understand.. it looks like with the orientation of your tent you have it opening out the back correct? That's why it's much harder for me, because I had it mounted to it opens out the side, which puts the tent rails inside of the car's rack and massively restricts access to the nuts.

The tent still opens out to the side:



The tent-rails are actually rotated 90 degrees to run side to side before they are bolted onto the tent floor and trimmed flush. Just think of the tent-rails as your crossbars because that is exactly what they become in this orientation.

Check out around the 4:30 mark in this Tepui installation video, they talk about mounting the rails in the side to side orientation (the talk about the tent opening to the side or back is only if you are using them with separate crossbars):

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DuLe7DjewlU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I mounted it this way because I wanted the simplest/lowest profile possible while using the stock roof rails (although it was still an couple inches too tall to fit in our garage ).