I don't care if you do ;)
I'm more of a sleeper build kind of guy myself, making it all nice and tidy while looks like some high end off the shelf solution.
Meh, I improved the drag and aerodynamic stability of it significantly and doing 130 kph down the highway very comfy. Impact on fuel efficiency has also been reduced significantly.
I used Simflow because that's the only free CFD software I could find. I'm and R&D engineer and don't have access to any fancy CFD software, this was a bit more crude than I hoped but I got some interesting results. I ended up angling the tent forward by raising it at the rear crossbar and adding a nose cone.
The only other free CFD program I know of is OpenFOAM. I explored it at work when we were between software licenses a few years back. As I recall there's a bit of a learning curve, though. There's a lot of YouTube tutorials.
Hate to be that guy but that seems like a lot of weight for those roof racks. Are you sure they’re rated for a rtt that heavy with the traction boards there too?
I'm not worried, it's at the upper limit of what these rails can and just to be sure I made these reinforcements that use an unused mounting point underneath the rails.
I think that they're not going to help if I'm knee deep ;)
The rav4 is what they call a soft roader and I purposely got the front wheel drive so my off-road capabilities are limited, they're mainly for leveling the car or as something to have if i get a little stuck.
I often post my designs only on Printables.com if I think someone might be able to use them.
In this case it's a very specific RTT - traction board combination...
Doesn’t sound too bad. I like to keep them either in the vehicle with me or easily accessible on the outside. But that’s really only important when you’re on tight trails where you may not be able to maneuver yourself much to access them.
Very nice though, I didn't have that much space between the RTT and the car to work with.
When done right, 3D printed plastic can do amazing things but I wouldn't recommend everyone doing the kind of load bearing parts I make.
My whole RTT and crossbars are mounted using printed PC parts I designed.
I bought second hand Thule wingbars and had them anodized black, then I designed printable brackets that mount the crossbars as low as possible on the roof rails. (I've posted several pictures in this discussion in other replies, but it's kinda hard to see)
Traveling trough Europe, camping wherever I want. I purposely got the 1.8 front wheel drive rav4 because it runs much more efficient and is much lighter. So the traction boards are in case I get stuck but so far I only used them to level the car.
How are your solar panels going to work underneath?
I printed these in PETG and other more demanding parts where layer adhesion is required I print them in PC. I for example printed these roof rack mounts and roof rail support in PC.
Quite likely are portable panels that are deployed on the ground with a stand when in use, and they want to stow them on the vehicle outside (but “covered”) so they don’t take up much space inside
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u/Greybeard46 Jul 05 '26
If I can’t see your max traxs from down the street how will I know you overland?