I just started looking into rooftop tents and thought something didn't seem right with the annex. Thanks for clearing that up! Everyone needs to see this.
Glad this helped! I think if it were REALLY windy, mounting the poles vertically and staking them down might still be best. But for rain or general setup this is so much better!
Thank you so much for these tips. We love our Alpha tent for beach camping, but haven't gotten around to using the annex yet. Will definitely give it a go. Thanks. 🙂
I had to come back to this video because I have owned the annex for 2 years and finally installed it today. I understand when you stated that we cant fully run the annex through the c-channel as we should. But this is an issue that I'm shocked that tuffstuff did not pay attention to in quality control. I would rather not have that gap and be closed all the way. I will have to call them tomorrow to see what if at all they have done about this. They should not sell these tents knowing these problems exist.
I'm with you, would be great to see an update or fix available. The only other thing I have thought of is to trim the support poles an inch or two to fit. I have not tried this though so I can't verify that it works. Would love to get feedback if you tried it and have good results.
Whooo..I'm the first Comment.....great video Josh .....always look forward to your videos , would like to do a meet and greet trail run/camp when the weather cools down some.
This video is 2 years old and Tuff stuff still haven’t fixed this problem! I just bought the Alpha ll with the annex and the poles are too long to setup like it should, why not just to send a short poles? I don’t like the idea of not running the annex on the back channel, there’s a lot of mosquitoes on my area and that’s a pain in the 🍑 to have mosquitoes on your sleeping area.
Awesome video! So my annex came with 2 sets of poles. 1 long pair and 1 short pair. Do you know what the short ones are for since the long ones are to jet out from the base of the tent forward?
Does anybody know if this annex will work with the roofnest condor which is pretty much the same design as the Alpha. Unfortunately the roofnest annex does not have a floor which is important to me
I have the same tent and annex. I saw your video and went along with the set up you did. I was able to get one pole in but couldn’t get the second one in. Any tricks or tips on getting the second one in. The first one had a lot of tension. I end up doing the poles vertically for the time being. I still had the sag. Thanks
A few others have mentioned similar to your situation. The poles were very tight on mine, but not so tight that I was going to tear the tent material or anything. Another commenter suggested cutting the poles down an inch or two as needed. Then use the adjustable end to add the right amount of tension. I have not personally tried that though
Great video and thanks for the tips! Just ordered ours and am looking forward to using it. Just curious, any updates or anything come up in since the video that you think is good to know? Thanks again for the tips/tricks.
If you put the cord in the tent lock it holds up better. We are going to modify ours and grind off the extra channel in both corners to see if that helps with the being able to put the poles in
I just sent an email to Tuff Stuff. Our orange tension rods do NOT fit into the slots you showed. The holes are too small, or the metal tips that go into the holes are too big.
The annex come with one pair of poles to support the annex. We had to get a second set to do the awning with the door. I have them linked in the video description 👍
Good question. It’s all held up by tension. It’s basically becoming an extension of the rainfly. The poles are very very tight but it is surprisingly stable when set up.
We have tried this both ways(running it thru the C channel and not) and we still don't have enough room to put the support bars up like your showing. Any other suggestions?
I've heard a few other people mention the same issue. The only other thought I'd have would be to trim the support poles an inch or two, whatever is needed for them to fit. If you do this I'd love to hear back on how it works for you
ok for the life of me I could not get the poles horizontal. At least not both, it was like I didnt have enough slack in the material. I didnt have the annex in the rear channel just on the sides. I get that its a tight fit but I was off by like 8" maybe? I figure I had it shifted one way or the other, any ideas or advice there?
@OverlandAZ tent is new, got it last year. The annex I actually bought from a prominent figure in the community but they didn't include the poles which I bought from tuff stuff. It was like both poles were each too long. It was weird.
Heard that the mount height of your RTT matters also. Just to get more info from you, what does the bottom of your Alpha measure at,(on level ground is ok)?
The height of the tent really only affects how the bottom of the annex lays when set up like in the video. If your tent is below the ideal height, you’ll have excess material on the ground. If it’s too tall, the floor may not reach the ground. I’m not sure off hand the height of mine but I can find out.
Question for you on general where-to-go. When I was a kid my family spent a fair amount of time in the White Mountains but we tended to stay at improved places, venturing out into the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest for day-trips four wheeling, often in the vicnity of Greens Peak. It's been around 25 years since I've been into the area. I'm looking for good information on the region and where I can go with a high-clearance 3500# travel trailer pulled behind a lifted mid-sized pickup truck. Any suggestions on finding good information for that area? I can probably get back in pretty far with the rig given the ground clearance, but it's been so long that I don't remember the area well enough to have a specific destination in mind.
The best thing you can do is get a MVUM (motor vehicle use map) for the area from the Forest service. That will show you open roads as well as condition of the roads. If you subscribe to the GAIA GPS app, you can download the MVUM maps and road maps for offline use and tracking as well. Unfortunately Apache-Sitgreaves does not offer a free digita download on their site. Here is the link to the forest service where you can order maps as well: www.fs.usda.gov/main/r3/maps-pubs
Second time I have watched this video. I just noticed that you have the tent set up so it opens on the driver's side! Was that an option when you bought yours or did you just mount it to face the opposite side? If you did turn it around (high side to the front), do you find any issues by doing so? I want my tent to open on driver's side but all I can find are designed for passenger.
I had to special order mine this way from Tuff Stuff, I originally did this when they were updating the tent so it was sort of a sample tent rather than production. But I love having it open driver side!
Tried to set our annex up last night and it was a struggle. I still wasn’t able to get enough slack to position the poles even with not running it through the back channel as you suggested. Do you have any other tips to get those poles positioned?
Sorry for my delayed response - another option could be to trim the support poles an inch or two as needed to fit. Would love to get feedback back from you if you do this as I have not tried it. Might be able to trim enough to get the back C-channel installed.
@Overland_AZ I could not get the tent poles to mount within the stealth tent brackets for the Annex to work. I had to trim roughly 2" off those poles to get everything to work properly. My advice to Tuff Stuff was produce Annex poles for the Stealth RTT rather than universal.
@@johna1191 good to know. I did also provide feedback after filming this that shorter poles would allow the rear annex channel to be installed on the alpha, versus leaving it unattached as I have here.
