Installation of Bundutop Bundutec tents
When Installing a Bundutop tent - your roof rack needs to be at least as wide as the tent.
The Bundutop tent needs support on its outside edge extrusion as the floor itself has little strength. It can be installed with overhang on shorter racks to maximum of 500mm - DO NOT mount a bundutop on a standard Narrow roof rack or you will destroy your tent very quickly. (The Floor is not able to hold the tents weight on its own and will seperate from the side extrusions).
Factory Sloted Mounts Underneath detail:
Bundutop tents have arrived from factory with 2 x North South M8 Bolt tracks recessed flush into the tent base since early 2023. The Tents come with typical 'Saddle' Fitting hardware making installation to simple East west bar type roof racks fairly straight forward. (Almost the same set up as is included on all common makes of RTT. It is noted however that the Bundutop still requires the tents outside edges to be fully supported by the rack - as per instruction above.
Through bolting detail:
For a Stronger rattle free instalaltion, You can Through Bolt the Bundutop straight to canopy tops or roof racks. The structure of the tent dictates the positions of suitable fixing points with the required strength for mounting. On the standard delux tents - the Standard tent is drilled through the internal tent structure at 1235mm wide - and then fastened to your rack, canopy or crossbars using 65mm long m6 or M8 (8mm) Bolts.
The King size requires the Mounting points to be at 1475mm - Again M8 Bolts are preferred.
Most common roof racks and trade racks are only 1220mm wide, and are thus not wide enough to fit a bundutop tent - Please measure your rack width before attempting installation.
Fitting Bundutop tents to vehicles with gutter mount racks:
In the case of your vehicle having gutters for roof racks - ensure that the roof racks are installed level from front to rear. If they are not - they will have to be before you can install any tent.
If you're doing a fresh install - we'd recommend adjustable roof rack feet for guttered vehicles as they are height-adjustable, meaning that roof curvature can be compensated for and you will get a perfectly flat and level mounting surface. (We like the ARB Steel rack feet best for GU, GQ, Frontrunner aluminium rack feet until R&D is complete on our New 'Tough Touring Gutter rails for the Ultimate Gutter mounting platform rack,
3 East west Bars across your roof are sufficient as long as no more than 500mm of overhang is present. 4 bars are better in most cases - especially if the preference is for aluminium - as less point load is placed on gutters. We can supply crossbars in either steel or aluminium if required - complete with rack feet to match your vehicle see our Tough Touring Roof rack page for more information
If your vehicle t does not already have a rail or rack fitted - see our Your Vehicles set up page for detail on recommended roof racks / Mounting platforms or for your truck.
Dual Cab Utes - Canopy Installation of a Bundutop Tent.
Your canopy must be at least 1350mm wide on the top (Same as the width of the tent) and free of obstructions. Be carefull that gull wing doors do not protrude / infringe on the available space on top of the canopy... Bundutop tents can overhang up to 500mm over the front or rear of a canopy unsupported - so typical dual cab canopies of 1600mm in length are OK for mounting. however Vehicle Stability is compromised with all the weight behind the back wheels leading to a poor handling vehicle (Regardless of the RTT Brand)
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Dual-Cab Utes - Over Cab Installation Best Practice:
For most dual-cab utes - by far the best position for installation of a rooftop tent is actually over the cab of the vehicle. (not the canopy)
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Over cab installations place the weight of the rooftop tent forward over the centre of the wheels - vastly reducing negative effects to the vehicles handling, body roll and climbing ability.
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When your tent is over the cab - you will still have almost full use of your rear tub/canopy for carrying gear.
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'Step up' onto the tray, step onto a box then into your tent. No ladders required. Much safer.
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If you're also running a canopy - GREAT - You now have a platform to get up onto to turn around before negotiating ladders - also somewhere to store firewood etc.
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Superlight and economical way to avoid full-length racks and still allow for vehicle twist.
Awnings (Even poleless awnings) can be mounted directly to the sides of the Bundutop with use of Tough Touring Awning to tent brackets
Dual Cab Utes fitting Bundutops will perform much better on and offroad when fitting RTT over the cab using our 'Tough Touring Cantilever roof bars" kit shown above and below on this Navara.
How to properly Set up and Pack up your bundutop Roof top tent to avoid Battern / string and pulley damage
Tough Touring Roof top tent roof racks for Bundutop tents:
Tough touring began manufacturing lighter, lower, wider and stronger Roof racks for the Bundutop tent in 2018 after years of frustration with commonly available roof racks in the market. They were all too high, not wide enough and or too heavy.
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Tough Touring currently sells specialist roof racks for the Bundutop tent for over 30 makes of vehicles. They are cheaper , lower , lighter and stronger and make installation and removal of the tent when not in use super easy. Check them out here - "tough touring RTT racks"
THE ULTIMATE TOURING SET UP - GEAR UP THE TENT WITH ...
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Poleless wing awnings (Ostrich Wing is our Pick)
(using our Awning to Tent brackets listed here), -
Bundu Suite downstairs privacy room and ladder shelter. Bare your Arse to no-one.
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Bundu Cube fast pull-out shower /change room
Keep prying eyes of your daughters :) -
Shovels and axes (toilet shovel, Firewood Axe)
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Max Tracks via our Trax mounting kit - All kinds of recovery gear
Close up of a Bundutop roof top tent mounted Over the cab of this Isuzu D Max Dual Cab. Mounting tents over the cab is achieved via Installation of our Stage one or Stage 2 Tough touring Roof racks - our Dual cab over cab Roof racks are the best way to balance the top weight of tents over dual cabs. More on this here - Tough Touring Dual Cab Racks
