RTT question? Billie bars install/distance

[Savagedavid33]

Hello out there. I just purchased a set of Billie bars and I am planning on purchasing the Smittybilt gen 2 rrt XL later on. I am hoping only to have to undo my tonneau cover rails once for the bar install. Can anyone tell me how far apart to space my bars for this tent? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on this topic. This will be my first bar system and rtt. thanks!

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[aprez27]

I would think the instructions would say how far apart. Pretty sure the rule of thumb here is 29" apart.

 

[Cruizer8]

Hello out there. I just purchased a set of Billie bars and I am planning on purchasing the Smittybilt gen 2 rrt XL later on. I am hoping only to have to undo my tonneau cover rails once for the bar install. Can anyone tell me how far apart to space my bars for this tent? I would greatly appreciate any suggestions on this topic. This will be my first bar system and rtt. thanks!

I am getting that same tent tomorrow and have been wondering the same thing. I pulled up the manual online and it doesn't really give any hard numbers. It only says that you should have 2 cross bars for the regular size tent and 3 crossbars for the XL. Based on that and evenly spacing the bars, the distance for 3 bars with the XL would be 19". If you only used 2 cross bars that distance becomes roughly 25".

I have the Trukd bed rack which is similar to the billie bars and there are only 2 cross bars. Like aprez27 said, I have seen 29" thrown around on other sites so I may do that instead of 25" but am not sure yet. I am a bit concerned about not having a third cross bar but I guess I will see how that holds up.

 

[MPMB]

Usually there is a range. I just looked through Tepui's instruction and there are no instructions for how far the bars have to be spread apart.

I would shoot for dividing the tent base into thirds and use that for a minimum spread. If the base is 56", then 19" spread. 48" base would be 16".

I have mine opening to the rear, with the tent's mounting bars going left to right. I bolt it straight thru the bed rack's rails, not using the clamping method.

 

[aprez27]

I bolt it straight thru the bed rack's rails, not using the clamping method.

Do you think this way is stronger?

 

[MPMB]

Do you think this way is stronger?

Not necessarily. Just a s**tton easier. Also, with my bed rack rails going front to rear, a clamping method, if not tight enough, can allow the tent to slide forward under sudden stops.

I'm no structural engineer, so I can only googlefu my way through strength estimates. M8 bolts have a shear force of 7.03 kN for the lowest (weakest) grade. Online calculator puts that as just over 1500 pounds. For a tent that weighs <120 pounds, 10x factor good enough for me.

My bed rack top rails has slotted holes, so I just utilized those. And anyone who has installed a RTT like a Tepui knows the bolts sometimes pop out of the puck that's inside the Tepui rail, making the install frustrating. This way I only deal with 4 bolts instead of 8.

In this picture below, the short pucks slide into a extruded channel that bolts to the floor of the tent (which that will be the point of failure, not the mounting brackets). There's nothing on the top to prevent the bolt head from lifting when you start to tighten the nut.

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