Riv I Am
Active Member
- First Name
- Kirk
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2023
- Threads
- 3
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- 40
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- 46
- Location
- Southern UT
- Vehicles
- Tesla Model 3, Awaiting R1T - GW/OC VIN 171xx
- Occupation
- Health care
- Thread starter
- #1
Successfully finished an in-garage Hoister system for my R1T’s Roof Top Tent. My RTT is the iKamper Mini 3.0. The Hoister System is a Harkin 7806 off Amazon for $225 (I believe it’s cheaper on the Harkin website but I was considering an alternate hoisting system at the time I bought so I wanted Amazon’s return policy just in case). The system I got is rated up to 200lbs and for 10 foot ceilings.
I am NOT handy by any means. My goal was to do this completely by myself. I watched as many videos and read as many reviews on this system as I could and the consensus was that it should take about 2-4 hours to set up. Lol, I easily quadrupled that estimate. And although I almost threw in the towel half-way through, the job is done and it works great.
If anyone else is considering this system, here are a few additional tips if you too are handy-man-impaired like me.
- hand ratchet the lag screws into the rafters. I initially tried a power drill, then an impact drill and it definitely tore up the pre-drilled holes and ruined the integrity of my initial lag screw set up
- use a laser leveler to create a straight line on the ceiling of where you plan on drilling the holes through the rafters. It was nearly impossible to get my measuring tape to stay straight when on a ladder and the $20 laser off Amazon made the second 2x6 beam much easier to line up and install than my first beam.
- they recommend 2x6 x 6 ft grade 2 pine board planks. In my area the only wood available in that size is white wood or elm. White wood is cheaper, lighter, and plenty strong enough for the job and I just looked through Home Depot and Lowe’s to find ones with the fewest knots. First time truck owner and it was my first time hauling things with the bed open, so got some good practice learning how to strap things in (see pic).
- as far as the 2x6 planks, I recommend getting them in 8 foot length because I needed closer to 7 feet long to comfortably span 4 rafters, plus when you cut off the ends, you will end up using a 7 inch slab of the 2x6 in a later step to mount the main pulley on the front board.
- there’s probably a better way to do this, but I had a huge roll of tracing paper lying around and after drilling the holes in the ceiling, I taped the tracing paper over the area then pressed on the holes with my finger to indent the paper, then placed the paper over the 2x6 beams on the floor and marked exactly where the holes lined up and that it made it much easier to drill the holes in the beams so they would line up almost perfectly with the ceiling holes.
- the main rope you pull to lift the load does not have to be perpendicular to the system. The instructions are clear about how to angle it. Doing so allowed me to get just the right length to allow me to lower the RTT all the way to the ground.
- I wanted to be able to leave the Rivian cross bars on the tent’s racks for easy drop-and-click attachment of the tent… but then realized that I’d rather not buy another set of crossbars at this time. So my solution was to align the Hoister straps just right (about 42 inches apart) so that when it’s suspended and the brackets holding the crossbars are loosened, the straps won’t pull the loosened brackets toward each other thereby making it impossible to reattach the crossbars at just the right locations when suspended. With the 42 inch gap between straps, it will not do this. As those with an iKamper installed already know, it is nearly impossible to adjust the brackets close to the cab once it is on the truck due to the design. So by marking on the RTT’s tracks exactly where the brackets need to be for the crossbars to line up with the truck’s brackets, I will be able to remove and correctly reattach the crossbars whenever I want without dropping about ~$500 for a separate set.
This took embarrassingly long to complete and I can almost guarantee that any of you could finish it in half the time it took me, but I’m happy I stuck it through. Here are some pics:
ps I placed the Hoister closer to the middle of the garage to at least give me the option of also placing the RTT on the roof.
I am NOT handy by any means. My goal was to do this completely by myself. I watched as many videos and read as many reviews on this system as I could and the consensus was that it should take about 2-4 hours to set up. Lol, I easily quadrupled that estimate. And although I almost threw in the towel half-way through, the job is done and it works great.
If anyone else is considering this system, here are a few additional tips if you too are handy-man-impaired like me.
- hand ratchet the lag screws into the rafters. I initially tried a power drill, then an impact drill and it definitely tore up the pre-drilled holes and ruined the integrity of my initial lag screw set up
- use a laser leveler to create a straight line on the ceiling of where you plan on drilling the holes through the rafters. It was nearly impossible to get my measuring tape to stay straight when on a ladder and the $20 laser off Amazon made the second 2x6 beam much easier to line up and install than my first beam.
- they recommend 2x6 x 6 ft grade 2 pine board planks. In my area the only wood available in that size is white wood or elm. White wood is cheaper, lighter, and plenty strong enough for the job and I just looked through Home Depot and Lowe’s to find ones with the fewest knots. First time truck owner and it was my first time hauling things with the bed open, so got some good practice learning how to strap things in (see pic).
- as far as the 2x6 planks, I recommend getting them in 8 foot length because I needed closer to 7 feet long to comfortably span 4 rafters, plus when you cut off the ends, you will end up using a 7 inch slab of the 2x6 in a later step to mount the main pulley on the front board.
- there’s probably a better way to do this, but I had a huge roll of tracing paper lying around and after drilling the holes in the ceiling, I taped the tracing paper over the area then pressed on the holes with my finger to indent the paper, then placed the paper over the 2x6 beams on the floor and marked exactly where the holes lined up and that it made it much easier to drill the holes in the beams so they would line up almost perfectly with the ceiling holes.
- the main rope you pull to lift the load does not have to be perpendicular to the system. The instructions are clear about how to angle it. Doing so allowed me to get just the right length to allow me to lower the RTT all the way to the ground.
- I wanted to be able to leave the Rivian cross bars on the tent’s racks for easy drop-and-click attachment of the tent… but then realized that I’d rather not buy another set of crossbars at this time. So my solution was to align the Hoister straps just right (about 42 inches apart) so that when it’s suspended and the brackets holding the crossbars are loosened, the straps won’t pull the loosened brackets toward each other thereby making it impossible to reattach the crossbars at just the right locations when suspended. With the 42 inch gap between straps, it will not do this. As those with an iKamper installed already know, it is nearly impossible to adjust the brackets close to the cab once it is on the truck due to the design. So by marking on the RTT’s tracks exactly where the brackets need to be for the crossbars to line up with the truck’s brackets, I will be able to remove and correctly reattach the crossbars whenever I want without dropping about ~$500 for a separate set.
This took embarrassingly long to complete and I can almost guarantee that any of you could finish it in half the time it took me, but I’m happy I stuck it through. Here are some pics:
ps I placed the Hoister closer to the middle of the garage to at least give me the option of also placing the RTT on the roof.
Sponsored
. I like that’s it’s all black and white, matches your truck well. I somehow didn’t see this one when I was looking up hoisting systems and probably would’ve chosen this. I too was looking for the older cheaper Racor system everywhere with no success.
