If you’re like me, the joy of owning a rooftop tent was quickly replaced by the annoyance of trying to find a spot to store it when it isn’t on your vehicle. The ease of travel with a rooftop tent does not equal ease of storage. Rooftop tents can be heavy and cumbersome to move and once you have it down on the ground, how do you get it back up without breaking your back?
We have a pretty cool rooftop tent solution that worked well for us. If you have a garage tall enough to drive into with the tent on, this will cost you under $400 and will have you putting on your rooftop tent/taking it off in under five minutes.
Read on for a list of supplies and requirements and a step by step guide on how to install a rooftop tent pulley system in your garage.
Table of Contents
Why Take Your Tent Off and On?
Clearance
Winter mornings in Colorado are COLD. We have a big enough garage that we park both cars in, and on those SUPER cold days I even turn on a small heater to further take the bite out of the air. With the tent on the 4Runner though there is no way we are fitting in the garage. We are about 11″ too tall. In fact the 4Runner has 2-3″ clearance without the tent.
Other things to consider as to why you should take your tent off are parking garages, car washes, drive thrus, and so on. Tents can sit really high on some vehicles and if you forget it’s up there, you will have a very bad day. In fact you may make a blooper reel or two.
Gas Mileage
I commute 48 miles each way 5 days a week for work. Having the tent on top when not being used is wasted gas money. I will usually see a 1-2 MPG loss with the tent on. This adds up quickly.
Unnecessary Wear
Let’s be honest here, Mother Nature can be a real B! Having your tent on full time is great if you are using it, but if you aren’t then in my mind you are just subjecting it to harsh conditions. In Colorado they use Mag-Chloride to de-ice the roads. This is not good for really anything other than melting everything it touches. I don’t need that stuff on my tent seizing things up.
Rooftop Tent Pulley Sytem Mechanics
We made a simple pulley system to be able to lift the tent off the truck with only one person. We are lucky enough to have Megan’s parents live a few miles from us and have a shop with high ceilings and doors. But I talk a little about what to do if you don’t have a taller garage below.
We put eyelets in the ceiling joists for hanging points. We hooked single pulleys to each of the 4 eyelets. We ran wire rope to 4 corners and set the length the same distance from the floor. Once through the pulley at each corner the wire runs over to the corner to another set of pulleys that we used as a collection point. The 4 wire ropes meet just below the second set of pulleys. Our hoist hooks the wires and pulls them straight down. This way we had lots of room for a pull. We have about 7′ of play we can raise and lower the tent if we need too.
Supplies and Requirements
First thins first. You will need to know some stats about your tent. The biggest one to know is weight, the iKamper at one point in time was one of the lightest at 160 lbs. Keep this number in mind while you are shopping for supplies, as you will need to make sure you buy supplies that can hold your tent.
You don’t need wire rope that has 1000 lbs working load, but a working load that is higher than the tent weight is preferred. You would be surprised at how much some of that small wire rope can hold. (Our maybe you won’t).
We started at good old Harbor Freight. I picked up a cheap hoist, and 2 tree saver straps. Then we went to the local Ace Hardware (they seemed to have a little better selection of pulleys than Home Depot or Lowes). We got the following materials:
- 4 single pulleys (Pay attention to working load limits).
- 2 double pulleys (Again pay attention to working load limits).
- 60′ of wire rope with wire ties (This will vary depending on your measurements)
- A way to mount the hoist to the wall. (We used square steel tubing)
- You will need to make sure all your chosen hardware is rated for enough to pick up and hold your tent. We went with 1/8″ wire rope that was rated for 440lbs. The tent only weighs 160 lbs.
Step by Step Guide for Installation
Time needed: 3 hours
Follow these steps for easy installation.
- Game Plan
Figure out where you can set this up that will be easy enough for you to get in and out. Remember you more than likely will be backing in and out to put the tent on or take it off. My Father-In-Law already had eyelets hung in his ceiling for his Jeep top. This made the first step a no brainer for us.
If these eyelets weren’t in place we would need to figure out a place to hang the tent that doesn’t interfere with things like garage door operations. - Lay it Out
We knew we wanted to get as much pull as possible as the ceiling is 14′ high. This involved either mounting the hoist across the shop or down the wall. We went with down the wall as it would be easy to operate and there was a plug right there.
- Get to Work
We started by hanging the pulleys up. The 4 single pulleys go in each corner. The 2 double pulleys are directly above the hoist at the ceiling. We ran a couple of 2×4 into the wall right at the ceiling for strength, then 2 eyelets in one of the 2×4 from the bottom. The double pulleys are held on the same as the singles with some stainless steel caribeners.
- Running the Wire
We had a 60′ strand of 1/8″ wire rope. We ran the farthest pulley to the double pulleys and figured out how long we needed it to be. Then we cut it to length. You will need some pretty solid wire cutters for this. All the other lengths were based off that first run. It doesn’t have to be perfect.
- Setting your Loops
Once the wire is run you need to take your wire ties and make a loop at each end of the cable. This is were you can make up for any differences in length. We found a good height and measured how far we were from the floor. Then we made sure they were all the same distance from the floor.
- The Hoist
We mounted the hoist about 3 feet off the ground on the wall. The hoist is designed to be hung from a beam or pole and work straight down. We had to make a few adjustments to it. Mounting it, we used some steel beam that we secured to the studs with lag bolts. We stabilized it further by putting a 2×4 above and below it. We also had to remove a little guard as we found out that it will shut the hoist off if it gets pulled into the coil.
To avoid damage to the body of the hoist we cut a small section of pipe to put on the metal housing to act as a fairlead. (You can see in the picture below that we needed to make it bigger). The hook of the hoist gets pulled up and hooks on to your wire rope JUST under your double pulleys. This way the hoist is only going straight up and down. (Or straight sideways if you want to get technical).
- Finishing up
To finish everything up, we hooked the tree savers to each end of the wire rope. They run side to side so that you can loop them under the front and back of the tent. This way we don’t even need to unhook either side. We used simple stainless steel caribiners found at Home Depot or Lowes to hook up the tree savers.
- Test Opperation
Plug the hoist in and make sure everything works. If you got your lengths at least close, then you should be good. It doesn’t have to be perfectly level. Look for binding at any intersection, then get your tent and lift it up. We ran ours up and down a few times just to make sure everything looked good. You may need to find that perfect spot to park, but you will be able to swing it a little either way.
- The Safety
Not that I don’t trust a Harbor Freight hoist, but I don’t trust a Harbor Freight Hoist 100%. We put in a little safety feature so that the tent is not solely hanging all the weight on the hoist all the time. We put in a hook about 12″ above the hoist in a stud. Then we hooked the 4 wire rope loops to it and let the tension off the hoist. This way there is no chance of a mechanical failure and the tent to drop. When you want to lower your tent just run the hoist down a bit and unhook from the wall.
Things to Try if You Don’t Have a Tall Garage
Before we rigged up this fully system I had a few ideas I was tossing around. See we thought the in-laws were going to sell their house so we didn’t set this up right away. Well turns out they decided to stay, so we were in luck.
One idea I had I can’t fully take credit for, but I had the thought that I would make a stand that would hold the tent on one side. I would put some hooks on the top so it could be hooked onto my roof rack. Then with an eyelet on the bottom I would hook that to a simple drill winch that I would hang form just outside my garage door. The thought was to lift the bottom up enough that you could slide the tent over and on to the rack. I even contemplated putting caster wheels on the bottom of the stand so I could roll it around and really just store it on there.
For the record I never even attempted this. I did take it off last fall by basically sliding it down two 2x4s off the side of my 4runner. It took 3 people to not completely destroy the tent, but we did we did suffer minor damage. My big concern at that point was how the heck am I getting it back up there. Well I got lucky and we made the hoist. I ended up sliding the tent on a trailer and taking it to the hoist.
Final Thoughts
I know not everyone has the option of mounting a pulley system to their garage ceiling. Maybe you have a way to get it off your truck and set this up as a way to store it. Every scenario will be different for everyone. This is just how I set this up with about $400 in supplies. You may be able to save a little here or there. You could possibly find a hand crank, you could use rope instead of wire, or you could skip the pulleys and just go through the eyelets. These are all decisions you will have to make. This is just what worked for me, and it works like a charm.
I put the tent on on Thursday night by myself and drive it to work on Friday. When I get off work I race home and pick up the family. We camp all weekend, then drop the tent off on the way home. The wife and kids sit in the 4Runner while I hoist it up. On and off takes roughly 5 minutes and that’s only because I have to loosen 4 nuts on my Gobi rack to release the cross bars. I leave the tent on my crossbars for easier installation. When you are camping with kids, speed is key.
Keep in mind we have only had this for a few weeks now. As we use it for a few months, I’ll come back with tweaks I’ve made and more tips for use.