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First Additions to OEM Roof Rack - 2024 TRD Pro
Installed
1. All Top 4.6’ x 8.2” awning
2. All Top Shower / Bathroom
3. Easeord 8 gal pressurized water tank / shower
4. Square T-slot Bolts for Roof Rack Track
Process: Totally solo-able. I used my Little Giant ladder (though most A frame or painting step ladders would do). I did load the awnings and the shower tank onto the roof racks from the bed of the truck. This way from the ladder I could line up the hardware and mounts easily and install without issue or extra help (wife’s 4’11” and 103lbs; not useful for these things)
Cost: $152.99 (awning) + $179.99 (shower) + $272.89 (water tank) + $21.99 (bolts) + $53.85 (Add’l Hardware / Tools) = $659.72
[OEM Roof Rack came pre-installed from factory. Also, bought the items during Prime Spring Days; saved ~$100 on this setup]
Issues (learn from my mistakes)
- As with many things bought online, there are issues. The over quality of my new gear is great, but I did receive the large awning with some of the wrong hardware. So I had to pick up some replacements to make it fit (which was done and installed before the company responded; Amazon has made fixing issues really hard; had to go thru their actual website to even get a hold of them).
- Additional hardware issues: the Easeord shower had perfectly workable hardware. 2 issues for me - 1) I saw in a review video that the included mounting bolts were long. Installing bolts on a rooftop rack is hard enough under the cross bars. An extra 30 turns is needless for most rack (though these seem long enough to mount to a 3” round fence pole; overkill for my rack and almost all square racks/bars) 2) Because I have the Pro, I have the sunroof/moonroof. Great for cooling off and opening it made installing the front of the tank easier cause I sat in the seat and installed through the open roof. But, those 3” bolts meant that if I opened the moon roof with them installed I would have shattered the glass when it opened. Subbed out for 2” bolts which still fit great on my rack and I can open my moonroof safely. Both problems solved with slightly smaller bolts.
- Gen 4 issues: nothing is really compatible with the new Tacoma yet and searching for things in an online world is tough (more on that when I give impressions / what’s next). Even as simple as finding the right installation hardware to use the OEM roof rack slots. First set I ordered that was listed for the new 4G Tacoma fit the T slots for the bed accessory racks, but not the roof rack). Luckily I figured it out, but took time and a wrong order to get it together. Posted on here and sadly no responses. Called my dealership and no help. Finally found a random Reddit post that helped me find the right ones (here’s the URL so you don’t have to deal with it - https://a.co/d/aBK9QSQ)
- Quality isn’t always a win. The forged and powder coated mounting hardware for these awnings is solid. So much so, you can’t drill them with titanium drill bits. The reason I needed the extra tools and hardware that ran ~$50 was because I needed $40 worth of Stinger Mach-Blue high speed impact driver drill bits to enlarge the holes on the mounts to make them fit the above Square T-slot Bolts.
- Tip: 1) Put a towel down on the roof to safely set tools and hardware down and in case you drop anything. 2) Buy/Borrow ratchet wrenches to make installing under cross bars easier (socket wrenches don’t fit underneath). 3) Don’t just borrow the above tools. Have a full set of sockets, ratchets, and hex wrenches that fit all of your installed gear with some spare nuts and bolts should you need to fix/adjust/remove anything on the road or at camp. 4) Beware of stuff that says it fits the truck, even if you fill out the “my truck / my fit” questionnaires. I sadly had issues with this x2 where it wasn’t accurate and stuff didn’t fit. This is where dealing with US based companies with good customer service comes in key. That allowed both of my other issues to be easily fixed and one that worked even better to my benefit (see what’s next below…)
Overall Impressions: I’m really happy with the quality of the purchases.
- The awning is great. There are tons of companies that make these. Some cheap and some not. Some with great reviews and again some not. I went with one that was cheaper, yet has great reviews, but the biggest reason I chose All Top was I wanted a size that fit the roof rack without looking ridiculous. The top of the rack is right at 4’ long and the bottom because of the tapered front fairing is ~5ft. The 4.6ft awning fits and a looks good on a midsize truck IMO. But then to have the 8.2ft length and 7ft max height meant I could easily put a table and 3-4 chairs underneath giving my family a nice shaded and weather protected area to eat. And in bad weather a large enough space to cook while sheltered, too. This size also lets you put this thing up and down solo in about 2mins.
- The shower was more about matching the same as my awning. It was an added bonus’s that it also had a decent price to quality/review ratio. It also has a feature that many of the others I looked at lacked; a bottom basin. There’s a bottom basin that detaches and folds up (it’s actually on my tonneau cover in some of the photos in a khaki colored bag). It not only allows you to keep your feet clean when showering, but it has a drain tube to direct the water where you need to at camp. The shower also easily serves as a changing room for after hikes, rides, surfing, etc. So even on non-camping trips it can come in handy. I have a separate pop up tent for a bathroom to be a bit further away from the truck (sometimes during the hot summer those smells still escape the toilet and I don’t want them just under my bed). That being said, on rainy days this will likely be the bathroom, because my tent ladder will come off my bed right there. No rainy sprints to the bathroom.
- The Easeord shower works great. Have already tested it with it pressured to 75% of its max and was able to water a ton of stuff in my and my neighbors yard. With it on a high spray I got about 5-7min of continuous spray (say for cleaning 4-5 muddy Mtn bikes on the trail to get caked on mud off). This also let me spray about 35-40ft no issue). On shower / mist I was able to run it for about 20min continuously (enough for 2-3 people to take decent showers). It also self heats on the roof in the sun and has a mounted on thermometer(to be tested further).
I cannot wait to take this camping…but first I need to mount my bed rack and tent. Much like the OEM roof rack, I got a truck with the OEM tonneau pre-installed. That was $1000 I had planned on spending on a DiamondBack cover. So my options were sell it and probably loose a couple hundred bucks even though it was brand new, or find a set of bars that worked with it. Seeing as removing the DiamondBack for a lumber trip to Home Depot isn’t bad when planned, but doesn’t really stow in the bed easily when my wife finds something out that I need to haul home, I started searching for alternatives. Billie Bars makes easily removable cross bars that let you pop them off (a couple of bolts; easier with the quick thumb releases). Thus, regaining the ability to open the tonneau cover / use bed space. Seeing as I only need the bars for mounting my tent it would be nice to keep all the functionality except when my tent is in place. Well, one of the “fit checks” that failed me was BillieBars because they have always worked with the Toyota tonneau cover but on the 4G they switched the mounting of the tonneau and bed rail system. So, I got on the phone with them. Great guys and great customer service. They are about to release the new setup for the new 4G that will work with the stock tonneau (an I assume the BakFlip MX4 since they’re roughly the same). So I am gonna get to beta test and install the new setup. Just waiting on the parts to ship. That and my NaturNest Sirius 1 will be my next install. And then the real testing/camping begins!
[Above + Tent + Bars = $2750 all in for a solid car camping / basic overlanding rig]
Installed
1. All Top 4.6’ x 8.2” awning
2. All Top Shower / Bathroom
3. Easeord 8 gal pressurized water tank / shower
4. Square T-slot Bolts for Roof Rack Track
Process: Totally solo-able. I used my Little Giant ladder (though most A frame or painting step ladders would do). I did load the awnings and the shower tank onto the roof racks from the bed of the truck. This way from the ladder I could line up the hardware and mounts easily and install without issue or extra help (wife’s 4’11” and 103lbs; not useful for these things)
Cost: $152.99 (awning) + $179.99 (shower) + $272.89 (water tank) + $21.99 (bolts) + $53.85 (Add’l Hardware / Tools) = $659.72
[OEM Roof Rack came pre-installed from factory. Also, bought the items during Prime Spring Days; saved ~$100 on this setup]
Issues (learn from my mistakes)
- As with many things bought online, there are issues. The over quality of my new gear is great, but I did receive the large awning with some of the wrong hardware. So I had to pick up some replacements to make it fit (which was done and installed before the company responded; Amazon has made fixing issues really hard; had to go thru their actual website to even get a hold of them).
- Additional hardware issues: the Easeord shower had perfectly workable hardware. 2 issues for me - 1) I saw in a review video that the included mounting bolts were long. Installing bolts on a rooftop rack is hard enough under the cross bars. An extra 30 turns is needless for most rack (though these seem long enough to mount to a 3” round fence pole; overkill for my rack and almost all square racks/bars) 2) Because I have the Pro, I have the sunroof/moonroof. Great for cooling off and opening it made installing the front of the tank easier cause I sat in the seat and installed through the open roof. But, those 3” bolts meant that if I opened the moon roof with them installed I would have shattered the glass when it opened. Subbed out for 2” bolts which still fit great on my rack and I can open my moonroof safely. Both problems solved with slightly smaller bolts.
- Gen 4 issues: nothing is really compatible with the new Tacoma yet and searching for things in an online world is tough (more on that when I give impressions / what’s next). Even as simple as finding the right installation hardware to use the OEM roof rack slots. First set I ordered that was listed for the new 4G Tacoma fit the T slots for the bed accessory racks, but not the roof rack). Luckily I figured it out, but took time and a wrong order to get it together. Posted on here and sadly no responses. Called my dealership and no help. Finally found a random Reddit post that helped me find the right ones (here’s the URL so you don’t have to deal with it - https://a.co/d/aBK9QSQ)
- Quality isn’t always a win. The forged and powder coated mounting hardware for these awnings is solid. So much so, you can’t drill them with titanium drill bits. The reason I needed the extra tools and hardware that ran ~$50 was because I needed $40 worth of Stinger Mach-Blue high speed impact driver drill bits to enlarge the holes on the mounts to make them fit the above Square T-slot Bolts.
- Tip: 1) Put a towel down on the roof to safely set tools and hardware down and in case you drop anything. 2) Buy/Borrow ratchet wrenches to make installing under cross bars easier (socket wrenches don’t fit underneath). 3) Don’t just borrow the above tools. Have a full set of sockets, ratchets, and hex wrenches that fit all of your installed gear with some spare nuts and bolts should you need to fix/adjust/remove anything on the road or at camp. 4) Beware of stuff that says it fits the truck, even if you fill out the “my truck / my fit” questionnaires. I sadly had issues with this x2 where it wasn’t accurate and stuff didn’t fit. This is where dealing with US based companies with good customer service comes in key. That allowed both of my other issues to be easily fixed and one that worked even better to my benefit (see what’s next below…)
Overall Impressions: I’m really happy with the quality of the purchases.
- The awning is great. There are tons of companies that make these. Some cheap and some not. Some with great reviews and again some not. I went with one that was cheaper, yet has great reviews, but the biggest reason I chose All Top was I wanted a size that fit the roof rack without looking ridiculous. The top of the rack is right at 4’ long and the bottom because of the tapered front fairing is ~5ft. The 4.6ft awning fits and a looks good on a midsize truck IMO. But then to have the 8.2ft length and 7ft max height meant I could easily put a table and 3-4 chairs underneath giving my family a nice shaded and weather protected area to eat. And in bad weather a large enough space to cook while sheltered, too. This size also lets you put this thing up and down solo in about 2mins.
- The shower was more about matching the same as my awning. It was an added bonus’s that it also had a decent price to quality/review ratio. It also has a feature that many of the others I looked at lacked; a bottom basin. There’s a bottom basin that detaches and folds up (it’s actually on my tonneau cover in some of the photos in a khaki colored bag). It not only allows you to keep your feet clean when showering, but it has a drain tube to direct the water where you need to at camp. The shower also easily serves as a changing room for after hikes, rides, surfing, etc. So even on non-camping trips it can come in handy. I have a separate pop up tent for a bathroom to be a bit further away from the truck (sometimes during the hot summer those smells still escape the toilet and I don’t want them just under my bed). That being said, on rainy days this will likely be the bathroom, because my tent ladder will come off my bed right there. No rainy sprints to the bathroom.
- The Easeord shower works great. Have already tested it with it pressured to 75% of its max and was able to water a ton of stuff in my and my neighbors yard. With it on a high spray I got about 5-7min of continuous spray (say for cleaning 4-5 muddy Mtn bikes on the trail to get caked on mud off). This also let me spray about 35-40ft no issue). On shower / mist I was able to run it for about 20min continuously (enough for 2-3 people to take decent showers). It also self heats on the roof in the sun and has a mounted on thermometer(to be tested further).
I cannot wait to take this camping…but first I need to mount my bed rack and tent. Much like the OEM roof rack, I got a truck with the OEM tonneau pre-installed. That was $1000 I had planned on spending on a DiamondBack cover. So my options were sell it and probably loose a couple hundred bucks even though it was brand new, or find a set of bars that worked with it. Seeing as removing the DiamondBack for a lumber trip to Home Depot isn’t bad when planned, but doesn’t really stow in the bed easily when my wife finds something out that I need to haul home, I started searching for alternatives. Billie Bars makes easily removable cross bars that let you pop them off (a couple of bolts; easier with the quick thumb releases). Thus, regaining the ability to open the tonneau cover / use bed space. Seeing as I only need the bars for mounting my tent it would be nice to keep all the functionality except when my tent is in place. Well, one of the “fit checks” that failed me was BillieBars because they have always worked with the Toyota tonneau cover but on the 4G they switched the mounting of the tonneau and bed rail system. So, I got on the phone with them. Great guys and great customer service. They are about to release the new setup for the new 4G that will work with the stock tonneau (an I assume the BakFlip MX4 since they’re roughly the same). So I am gonna get to beta test and install the new setup. Just waiting on the parts to ship. That and my NaturNest Sirius 1 will be my next install. And then the real testing/camping begins!
[Above + Tent + Bars = $2750 all in for a solid car camping / basic overlanding rig]
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