RTT on trailer...Side or rear opening????

Rbertalotto

Explorer
I just finished my Off Road Trailer. Mounting up my Smittybilt RTT. I can go off the side or off the rear. When on the cap of my truck, I open to the rear as it takes up less room at a rest area and it gives me a canopy over the rear opening of the truck. The cap is about 8' high.
On the trailer, neither of these things matter as the trailer is too low (44" to bottom of RTT) to create a canopy and most likely would not be using it in a rest area.
What say you and why?

Thanks
 

Airmapper

Inactive Member
I did off the passenger side. I'll be mounting a receiver hitch on the rear of the trailer for a bike rack or anything else I want, so it prevents any future conflicts.

I can usually orient the trailer any way I'd like, but I went for passenger as some campgrounds I like have sites with the camp road going right by your site, makes it easier to put my entrance away from the road.
 
Passenger side as well just because it seemed to make sense... I put my awning on the other side I considered the back but with an annex I didn't want to block the tailgate.
 

NatersXJ6

Explorer
I’m in process of setting mine up on the trailer for the first time and will be going over the side to the hinged side. This means the RTT hinge and trailer hinge are together, so that the trailer lid can open with the tent open. Tent folds up and ladder portion stays flat. For me, passenger side was preferred. PO had trailer lid hinged on drivers side, so I had to flip the lid around and move the hinges. On my AT Chaser, this was about an hour for 2 people, although I later realized the helper was unnecessary.
 

NatersXJ6

Explorer
Sure wish someone made a turntable for these tents. Then you could orient it any way you like.

Something like this would be easy to build, yet I suspect largely useless. I say this for 2 reasons: First, you probably won’t rotate it all that often, as it is easy to just park a different way. Second, unless your tent is a perfect square, the positioning on your vehicle or trailer will probably not be quite right. For instance, my Tepui on top of the Jeep moved back about 8” when opening off the rear versus the side due to ladder/ door interference.

Based on this uselessness, I think you could put an “overlandy” looking logo on it, make several parts out of titanium, and sell thousands of them!

Best of luck to ya!
 

Mass_Mopar

Don't Litter
We open ours to the back for a couple reasons - it mostly covers our rear galley/kitchen area and the “front door” of the tent (non ladder side) allows us easy access to the roof deck! We’ve found it to be pretty convenient in campgrounds because most spaces are designed for vehicles with larger overall footprints.

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zerotrev

New member
Mine opens to the back as well, I have my awning on the passenger side. I don't like the idea of the tent entrance being so far away. I feel this gives me more parking options.
 
We have ours on passenger side on trailer. We had the builder change his design so we could mount the tent further forward so we can access the annex through the trailer. It gives us a place to change then crawl in trailer
 

Rbertalotto

Explorer
Well, I went with rear opening. Works great! Although my tent isn't up very high, I can still quite easily access the contents of the trailer. With the rear stabilizers deployed it is rock solid!

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billum v2.0

Active member
I did off the passenger side. I'll be mounting a receiver hitch on the rear of the trailer for a bike rack or anything else I want, so it prevents any future conflicts.

I can usually orient the trailer any way I'd like, but I went for passenger as some campgrounds I like have sites with the camp road going right by your site, makes it easier to put my entrance away from the road.

x2
 
A word of caution to Rear Door mounts, make sure your cover is always well secured, no torn zippers or worn straps. A friend had his rear mounted with a zipper that was working its way loose from the stitching. So even with a ratchet strap addition, the tent deployed driving down the highway. The tubes had to be replaced and a whole new cover was quickly ordered.
 

verdesard0g

Search and Rescue first responder
Since my trailer builds have been bigger than a teardrop size I have put the door in the rear. That works in just about any place I want to camp.

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