New Autohome Rooftent - rack suggestions?

Hey! I’m a newish 4Runner owner (since October 2019). I still need to figure out tires and lifting buuuut I went ahead and bought a rooftent. Autohome Maggiolina Grand Tour 360° medium. While I wait for it to come in, I need to buy a rack for it. Does anyone have any experience with these and know what’s required? The sales guy mentioned a platform rack, but all the Autohome videos show a standard rack.

Anyone else have cool roofrack setup suggestions?

thanks!

 

I'm kind of at a loss why people buy high end racks to mount a RTT to. You can use regular ol' Yakima / Thule / insert brand here crossbars on the factory rails. It's the cheapest option and honestly the easiest. I personally use Inno crossbars.

 

So glad this topic has come up! We're researching to get set up for a roof top tent as well. The weight rating for the factory rails is only 134 lbs. or so, therefore I think the point of upgrading racks is to support the weight of the tent and a few people. Can anyone confirm?

MW

 

Regardless of the rails/ rack used, it's the roof that supports the weight. You can buy a rack rated at a million pounds but you're still bolting it onto the roof in the same places as the OEM rails.

I never have heard, even anecdotally, of a rack failure on the OEM rails. They can easily support the weight of a tent and occupants.

I have, however, personally seen people struggle with mounting a tent onto a expensive Gobi rack due to height and clearance issues. In fairness, I've never seen or heard of a failure with a high end rack, either.

My shitty 50" Inno cross rails and towers on factory rails - I didn't like the RTT, felt like an answer to a question no one asked, so it's been sold - but this was on a 1000 mile trip with no issues back when I had it --->

 

Here’s an idea, use extruded aluminum crossbars for your existing side rails. LFD has a product, but check out this solution, start reading at post #10.
https://www.4runners.com/threads/roof-racks.14240/#post-166578

 

That looks sweet! Thanks for the helpful info and pics. I won't be sharing this w/ my wife, though, since I do want a fancy rack