Heavy Rooftop Tent on 2-Door w/ ZROADZ Rack Worked Great!

[350vudu]

Looks very good. I got a GFC V2 RTT that I’ll be pairing with the Zroadz rack. I do agree that the Zroadz rack is currently the most aesthetically pleasing rack currently out for the bronco. It fits well with the bronco lines. Just waiting on my actual bronco now lol

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[ZROADZOFFICIAL]

Looks very good. I got a GFC V2 RTT that I’ll be pairing with the Zroadz rack. I do agree that the Zroadz rack is currently the most aesthetically pleasing rack currently out for the bronco. It fits well with the bronco lines. Just waiting on my actual bronco now lol

That's what we like to hear! We are excited for you. You'll have to share more pics when everything is installed

 

[SaMcRo89]

Finally got the tent up and took the Bronco out for her first, and long overdue camping trip!

Zroadz rack and the Bronco roof held up great to the 141 lbs tent, felt very stable and never felt like we were overloading the roof or the rack. With me and my wife and our bags and bedding, we had probably 530 lbs sitting on the rack.

While driving, you barely even notice the tent up there, maybe a little more body roll when going around a highway clover. I kept speed down to about 65 mph max just to be safe since it was my first time driving with it up there. Wind noise seemed pretty much the same as having just the rack with no tent, I expected it to be a lot worse with that up there. Didn't do any offroading this time but the gravel roads did get a little bumpy and the roof didnt make a peep about it, handled the jostling just fine at about 25 mph. Also, I expected my mileage to be a lot worse but I was getting the same mileage with or without the tent, about 20.2 mpg. Without the tent I definitely drive faster and harder, so makes some sense that I was getting the same mileage driving like my granny with that up there.

Two tips I have for anyone considering the Zroadz rack for a RTT:
1. If you can't use brackets around the crossbars and have to install the tent using bolts through the holes in the crossbars, I would suggest taking the rack off the Bronco, install the tent and tighten the nuts, then install the rack back on your Bronco with the tent already on it. The space between the roof and the underside of the crossbars is so tight that it was hard to get the nuts tightened down. Also, due to the shape of the rear crossbar, you can get about 1/20th of a turn each time, so even with a ratchet wrench it took me forever to get the nuts tightened down. Which leads to my next point.

2. I should have replaced the bolts that came with my tent with shorter bolts. With how hard it was to get my hands in there, it was really a bummer to have to tighten the nuts almost 2 inches up the bolt getting tiny turns each time because they were locking nuts and were too tight to spin by hand. Also, the ones that came with my tent stick down a little farther than I would like. When removing the front panels, I have to be really careful to not drag the sharp end of the bolt across the roof panel.

Overall, I'm very happy with the rack and how it handled a 141 lbs tent. Very glad I sold the OEM rack and got the @ZROADZOFFICIAL rack!

Hey just confirming that your tent is the Alpha and not the Alpha 2? I wanted to get the bigger one myself but wasn’t sure it would fit on top of the two door. Great looking ride brother!

 

[Julz670]

Hey just confirming that your tent is the Alpha and not the Alpha 2? I wanted to get the bigger one myself but wasn’t sure it would fit on top of the two door. Great looking ride brother!

Thanks! Mine is the alpha 2 though, not sure the dimentions of the bigger alpha but it would probably be a little too big on top of a 2door

 

[Maul_ii]

Love my zRoadz Roof rack and iKamper Mini Combo, as far as I've been able to find I seem to be the the only one running this combo.

My one complaint was that zRoadz doesn't make a wind faring for their roof rack, but I partnered with a local fabricator and built a custom fairing to my own specifications, and I couldn't be happier with the end product.

The great thing about this combo is it still gives me some useable space on the roof rack for a small cargo cage and/or some roto packs.

I intentionally designed the fairing to be taller than normal to cover any cargo and provide additional protection and aerodynamics for the RTT.

I've attached some pics of the set up with and without the wind faring.

I can also share the contact info for the shop that I worked with to make my fairing if anyone is interested in having them make one for you. The cost was roughly $900 + tax and included the Aluminum, welding, shaping, and powder coating. DM me if you are interested

 

[Julz670]

Love my zRoadz Roof rack and iKamper Mini Combo, as far as I've been able to find I seem to be the the only one running this combo.

My one complaint was that zRoadz doesn't make a wind faring for their roof rack, but I partnered with a local fabricator and built a custom fairing to my own specifications, and I couldn't be happier with the end product.

The great thing about this combo is it still gives me some useable space on the roof rack for a small cargo cage and/or some roto packs.

I intentionally designed the fairing to be taller than normal to cover any cargo and provide additional protection and aerodynamics for the RTT.

I've attached some pics of the set up with and without the wind faring.

I can also share the contact info for the shop that I worked with to make my fairing if anyone is interested in having them make one for you. The cost was roughly $900 + tax and included the Aluminum, welding, shaping, and powder coating. DM me if you are interested

Nice setup! The matching tent and hardtop are pretty sweet! You mentioned that you haven't seen that combo on anyone else's rig, I'm guessing its because the weight of the iKamper Mini wouldn't really require a beefier rack than the OEM rack. That was the only reason I bought an aftermarket rack, the OEM rack is weak af.

Did you decide to get the wind fairing because of a noticeable increase in wind noise? Just curious because I did not notice much difference in wind noise after adding the rack by itself, then again did not notice much difference once I added the tent too. I also expected to lose a little in MPGs after adding the tent, but not much difference at all for me.

 

[Maul_ii]

Nice setup! The matching tent and hardtop are pretty sweet! You mentioned that you haven't seen that combo on anyone else's rig, I'm guessing its because the weight of the iKamper Mini wouldn't really require a beefier rack than the OEM rack. That was the only reason I bought an aftermarket rack, the OEM rack is weak af.

Did you decide to get the wind fairing because of a noticeable increase in wind noise? Just curious because I did not notice much difference in wind noise after adding the rack by itself, then again did not notice much difference once I added the tent too. I also expected to lose a little in MPGs after adding the tent, but not much difference at all for me.

Julz670

The rack itself was no louder than the factor roof rack (I did the same thing ordered the factory option only to find out it did not have the Dynamic load capacity for the RTT).

Once I added the RTT however it became quite a different story. I tried moving the RTT into various positions (all the way forward, middle of the rack, all the way back).

While there was slightly less noise when all the way forward (still loud, but slightly less than mid or rear mount) this blocked the hard top panels from being removable.

I reached out to zRoadz, and while they were helpful and mentioned one was under development, they did not have one available, and had no timeline.

when I looked at other racks now available for the bronco 6 Gen that did have fairings (Prinsu, RCIMetalworks, TrailRax) they all stopped at the height of the first cross member.

While this does help some, if you have a gap between the top of the fairing and the RTT it can create a vortex as the wind is sucked back under the RTT.

This can be even worse if you add a basket or other non-aerodynamic item closer to the front of the vehicle.

Add to the practical aerodynamic benefit of the slightly taller fairing,; and considering the boxy style of the Bronco, personally, I like the look and aesthetic style of my taller wind fairing.

 

[Maul_ii]

Julz670

I just realized I didn't address your MPG concern. I actually saw an increase in my MPG after the wind fairing.

Just adding the RTT didn't seem to change my highway mileage much, which is where I expected the decrease, but I was still averaging 17.8 MPG.

When I added the wind fairing and went for a checkout camping trip (i.e. Bronco fully loaded) I got an average of 19.2 MPG on the way down, and with a pretty serious side and headwind when I came back (12 mph consistent with35 mph gusts) I was still getting and average of 18.1. According to the trip computer anyway.

 

[Julz670]

Julz670

I just realized I didn't address your MPG concern. I actually saw an increase in my MPG after the wind fairing.

Just adding the RTT didn't seem to change my highway mileage much, which is where I expected the decrease, but I was still averaging 17.8 MPG.

When I added the wind fairing and went for a checkout camping trip (i.e. Bronco fully loaded) I got an average of 19.2 MPG on the way down, and with a pretty serious side and headwind when I came back (12 mph consistent with35 mph gusts) I was still getting and average of 18.1. According to the trip computer anyway.

That's awesome that the wind fairing helped MPGs that much! I might have to consider getting one. I didn't put any more thought into it after I realized that the wind noise didn't get any worse having the tent up there.

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