Its almost adventur time. Rack and Tent install.

[SirNik83]

Hey there!
Some of you may remember last year I took the Tercel on an off road adventure with my friend and their big trucks. This year I'm doing it again! and hopefully no mechanical issues on the trail
In preparation for this years trip I got a roof top tent. I've wanted one for years, but this year it happened. I got my friends hooked on an YouTube show called Expedition Overland. If you haven't seen it you might like it:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ExpeditionOverland
Anyway, after seeing these guys live out of their roof top tents my friends were behind the idea. So with a little peer pressure I decided to get one too. Many jokes ensued about the little tercel with a tent on its head. But I know the car can take it. My friend stopped by and dropped off a nice weather guard rack that once held a ladder on his van. With a little cutting I got the racks to fit the Tercel.

After riding around thinking about it I decided I wanted to modify the racks further and weld them up solid.

I then measured for the tent and installed some bars joining the front and rear cross bars.


You can see there I welded the word front on the rack, because despite the roof to the tercel looking square, its not. I feared scratching up the paint, if it ever had nice paint, by putting it on backwards in the future.
After some debating I decided to weld in the middle cross bar, I had it might as well use it.

With the rack fitting perfect it was time to paint.


After a nice coat of primer, I painted with white to go with the blue and white theme of my tercel.


She's all ready for the tent!

[SirNik83]

Today was tent day!





I had a few friends ask how the tent folded up. so here is a picture show.




(sorry I'm not a better looking actor )

This is what she looks like all button down and ready for the road.

[ARCHINSTL]

Just - WOW!. You pups!
Tom M.

[BaileySims]

So amazing! I saw one of those in a magazine awhile back and have always wanted one. Damn good job!!

[Mark]

I have one of the old canvas ones from the 1960's that we got from my wife's grandparents. Your roof rack is much more heavy-duty.

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[SirNik83]

Heck yeah, I like your old tent. I hope my tent last as long as yours has. The tent cost $1600. was a hard pill to swallow when I originally bought the tercel for $80. Yeah, the tercel was a shell when I bought it, but still. My friend pointed out that now the car is worth $1680 But I figure if my tent last 10 years its a good investment. I love seeing that you have a tent from the 60s!! I can't wait to take it camping.

[dlb]

that's a burly looking tent, sirnik. looks awesome. good luck on your trip, hope there are no bad surprises this time out.

[Gottolovem]

SWEEEEEEEET

Where you guys hitting the trail this year?

[SirNik83]

We're going to drive the High Rock Canyon north of Black Rock Desert. Planning on driving from the north end of the canyon down to the back rock desert and then base camping there. Driving out on day trips to the near by hot springs, or maybe we camp at a hot springs.

Here is a video of a guy driving the High Rock Canyon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt6HisQGq5w

I'm really looking forward to the canyon drive and then swimming in the hot springs.

[Petros]

looks like a good place to go in the spring. May already be heating up there already. Hope your Tercel has the clearance for that road.

I have always loved those roof rack tents, but my budget does not allow me to get one. perhaps I can find one used some day...or make my own. I have a number of hiking dome tents, all I need is a platform and perhaps I can adapt it to work the same way. Though I would not have the slick fast set up of course.

[SirNik83]

Thats what I wanted for years, just the platform and put a dome tent on it. Then I shelled out the cash for the fancy one. If you get the dome tent set up post pics! I've thought about it so many times would be neat to see how it works in reality.

[knot2shabby]

I so badly want to these pictures, any chance @SirNik83 can repost them somehow without photobucket, seems you closed your photobucket account. I really want to look into roof top tent options.

Thanks for sharing.

[Mattel]

Photobucket have cancelled everyones account unless you pay them $5 a month. I had an email about this yesterday. So annoying.