Help needed for racking options

[etranger]

Hi

I just ordered my Supercrew Ranger (Canada) and I need some help on the best equipment I need to buy.
Let me tell you what I want and please let me know what do you recommend:

-Retractable tonneau cover (the most resistant to water infiltration)
-Bed drawer that take the less possible height

and the main question is:
-I want to fit a Tepui tent (model for 3-4 persons) on the top of the vehicule or similar model.
-and I want a racking system over the bed that will let me use the tonneau cover (similar to the Yakima set up at SEMA)
-I want to put a Thule combo box (Motion 7ft.) on top of that rack, long enought for skis 178cm and 2 MTB beside the box.

Those are all my criterias, I visited Thule and Yakima website and some details are confusing...
On Yakima, I can find a roof rack, but it tells me that the roof tent is not compatible???

and in terms of lenght I can't find if the tent will fit on the roof and the combi box on the bed...

I may also consider the RSI Smart Canopy instead of tonneau cover and racking put not sure it's available in Canada and what the price will be.

Thanks!

Also ... Is there similar cases on the market similar to the https://www.leitnerdesigns.com/accessories/gear-pod-xl but that will fit on a lateral side of the Yakima bed rack?

Sorry lots of questions... but I want to take the best decisions!

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[etranger]

Hi

I just ordered my Supercrew Ranger (Canada) and I need some help on the best equipment I need to buy.
Let me tell you what I want and please let me know what do you recommend:

-Retractable tonneau cover (the most resistant to water infiltration)
-Bed drawer that take the less possible height

and the main question is:
-I want to fit a Tepui tent (model for 3-4 persons) on the top of the vehicule or similar model.
-and I want a racking system over the bed that will let me use the tonneau cover (similar to the Yakima set up at SEMA)
-I want to put a Thule combo box (Motion 7ft.) on top of that rack, long enought for skis 178cm and 2 MTB beside the box.

Those are all my criterias, I visited Thule and Yakima website and some details are confusing...
On Yakima, I can find a roof rack, but it tells me that the roof tent is not compatible???

and in terms of lenght I can't find if the tent will fit on the roof and the combi box on the bed...

I may also consider the RSI Smart Canopy instead of tonneau cover and racking put not sure it's available in Canada and what the price will be.

Thanks!

Also ... Is there similar cases on the market similar to the https://www.leitnerdesigns.com/accessories/gear-pod-xl but that will fit on a lateral side of the Yakima bed rack?

Sorry lots of questions... but I want to take the best decisions!

Please, I need some advise if you have some experiences with the questions I asked above! Thanks in advance!

 

[HenryMac]

With all due respect.... I think you bought the wrong truck. You've got full size goals... for a mid size truck.

 

[etranger]

I am totally open to comments, so thanks!

This Yakima set up is really close of what I need...

The size of the combi box on the SEMA photo is too long (7’6”) ...reducing the size of the combi will clear up the space over the cab for a tent...

 

[HoosierT]

Do you really need a box for skis? If so, why?

How about this:
Max modular rack with bike mounts.
That goes over the bed. Use some Yakima fatcats on the top of the bed rack to hold the skis.
Then use a Rhino rack backbone on the roof of the truck to hold the tent. The bed rack will be low enough for the tent to overhang the rack and skis by a little bit.

 

[etranger]

Do you really need a box for skis? If so, why?

How about this:
Max modular rack with bike mounts.
That goes over the bed. Use some Yakima fatcats on the top of the bed rack to hold the skis.
Then use a Rhino rack backbone on the roof of the truck to hold the tent. The bed rack will be low enough for the tent to overhang the rack and skis by a little bit.

Thanks! I didn’t know these Max modular, but Yakima does the same,no? Yakima does have adjustable heigh or fix and lower, they have more accessories. I like the bike mount of Max Modular.
The box we use it in summer as well for kitesurfing equipment...

I’m curious about the Rhino rack you proposed , how is it fixed to the cab.? More solid than a regular roof rack.?

 

[HoosierT]

At this point I’m going to agree with Henry Mac. You’re not going to fit all that in the way you want. The reason I propose the MaxMod bed rack is because it’s lower than the Yakima. You’re not going to get a tent that holds 3-4 people that fits on the cab roof without it overhanging the bed by a bit. As such, you’re not going to pull off a setup like the one in the photo above where the combi box is at cab height and has a rooftop tent mounted in front of it on the cab. Why can’t you just put your kitesurfing stuff in the truck bed? You make no mention of what you plan to put in the bed aside from drawers and that’s a lot of usable real estate. Even with decked drawers, you should have room for kitesurfing boards on top of it.

 

[khyros]

Alright, let's break this down.

Your tent footprint is 6' x 4'.
Your Skybox is 7' x 3'
Your bikes are ~6' x 1'

Now, your space to work with is over the bed, which is 5' x 5', and over the cab, which is approx 6' x 6'. Note this cab estimate is based on the L700 measurement (https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/threads/2019-ford-ranger-dimensions-layout-and-specs-pdf.1298/) of 108'', less 1' of hood behind front wheels, and 2' of windshield length. Feel free to further refine this, but it's a good ball park number for figuring stuff out to begin with. However, your mounting area for the bed is about 4' x 4' and the cab 5' x 5'.

So, if you mount the tent over the cab, stating that you will not be overlapping the bed at all, the width of the mount is fine, but it would overlap the front of the windshield by about a foot, which would further mean that you would be mounting it 18'' behind the front of it. That's probably okay from a mount point of view, but I'm not sure how exactly that 1' of overhang would do for the visibility of the truck.

Getting the bikes AND that specific skybox might be a bit tricky, but keep in mind that the handlebar of the drivers side bike can extend up until the edge of the mirror. If you space that one all the way to the end of the crossbar, and then stagger the second one to be orientated the other way (for handlebar clearance), you should be able to get those to both fit and have enough space for your skybox, but it will be a tight fit, especially opening the box. You might have to position the pedal in a specific orientation in order to accomplish it. Note that the box is going to overhang by 1.5 or so feet off the rear of your truck.

Now, assuming you're okay with something hanging over the back of your truck and over top of your windshield, let's talk about how you'd do this. Currently, the only official solution for a cab rack is a Rhino Rack, but you can install the factory wildtrak roof racks with quite a bit of work. You can get cross bars for either of these solutions, though I'm not 100% sure you actually need them. Depending on your tent of choice, it looks like just having the roof rails is enough to mount the tent.

On the rear, I'd honestly take a look at the non-HD truck series of stuff from either Thule or Yakima (or your favorite other place). Since you have the T slots, why bother raising the CG of your already elevated truck? And by keeping things low - you actually have a chance* of overhanging the rear of the tent a bit, gaining you some light over top of your windshield.

*Chance: So, in order to do this, you have 18'' from the tonneau cover to the roof line of the cab. If you go with a Rhino Rack system and mount on top of that, figure another 6'' to the bottom of the tent. Then, on your skybox side of things, if you go with a low clearance mounting solution, it might only take 2 inches, leaving you with 22'' of clearance between the two things. Looking at the specs of the skybox, it sits 15.5'' above the rack, which leaves you 8.5'' to open, slightly more since the highest part is centered on the box. So you might get about 10'' of an opening with the tent over top of it. This is probably enough to load/unload skis, but unlikely to be enough to fully open it. The other consideration for this is the bike tires. The good news is that you can probably slide the bike trays back a bit so they overhang off the rear of the truck and provide a bit of a gap to the cab. Though looking at that specific skybox you picked out, you're going to have to position the cross bars based on the box anyways, which will move the bikes back.


Alright, so we've deemed that it's possible to fit everything here. I question how easy it'll be to use everything, but that's a different topic. Now let's turn our attention to another aspect of this - weight. The skybox is 45lbs, the Rhino Rack is 40lbs, the bed rack is 20lbs, your two bikes are 30lbs each, your skis are 5 @ 20lbs, your tent is 250lbs, your tonneau cover is 150lbs, your drawers are 100lbs. So without any people or additional gear, you're sitting at 765lbs, well on your way to your 1600lb payload rating. Add 3 people at 150lbs, 18 gallons of fuel at 6lbs, 3 people's worth of gear at 50lbs, and you're at 1500lbs. So you're at capacity for the truck. But you're not exceeding it. So I guess that's good.









Real question here though - why not go to a skybox over the cab, a trailer hitch bike rack, and a bed mounted tent? You'll have the same issue where the skybox overhangs the front of the windshield, but it shouldn't be as wide and obtrusive as the tent. The tent you can mount at the 13'' Outpost HD height, which provides *some* visibility seeing out the rear, and it lowers that weight a good foot. It overhangs the back, but the bikes extend beyond it even further so who cares (note you may need a hitch extension to get the clearance to the RTT).

And for accessibility purposes, the bikes are clearly easier to access being on the rear of the truck. f you get a swing away bike rack, you can fully access the drawers. The bed itself would be easier to access with 13'' clearance over top of it. The RTT is lower, so easier. The Skybox is the only gray area, but I would argue that with it having the clearance to open and stay open, it makes the overall experience better than a lower skybox that's obnoxious to get stuff in/out.


So if mounting all of that stuff was my goal, I would go with the following:

Retrax/OEM tonneau cover
Whatever bed drawers you're interested in
Rockymounts SwingAway Bike Rack
8'' Hitch Extension
Anti-wobble hitch plates/secures
Yakima OutPost HD
60'' HD Crossbars
OEM Wildtrak Roofrails (installed at dealer because it sounds like a PITA to install them)
Thule crossbar of your choosing
Thule Motion skybox
Tepui RTT

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