I took my boys camping this past weekend and we found ourselves stuck inside the Superlite due to rain. As the three of us were laying there looking up at the ceiling it occurred to me there may be some room for improvement when it comes to ceiling storage/utility.
I didn’t want to screw through the fabric, or into the honeycomb structure, so I instead epoxied some wood strips, with flat stock steel routed into it, to the ceiling. Steel was from Home Depot. I got galvanized just in case any moisture gets in there.
This has the side benefit of curing the sagging ceiling fabric. When I would put something heavy (battery pack, phone, etc) in the built in pockets, the ceiling fabric would hang 5" or so from the shell. Now it’s held tight to the shell by the magnets.
I tried 40lb and 100lb magnets. The 100lb are more appropriate and are still small (1.125" dia.). Water bottles, iPads, etc, area all held securely. I’ve swapped out the carabiners for thinner titanium ones. The aluminum ones were bulky, and overkill for this purpose.
Lastly, and totally unrelated, I realized I could use a vacuum to inflate/deflate the GFC pad. When inflated, it’s way firmer than when it self inflates. And when deflated it’s very thin. This is particularly useful for me because my truck barely fits in my garage with the tent on. This will help provide a little breathing room.
This is fantastic! A fun winter project now added to the list. Just curious, whats the purpose of the wood board? Why not epoxy the steel straight to the roof?
Good question, and this explanation is just speculation. I did consider epoxying the steel to the shell, but…
I knew whatever magnets I’d be using would be pretty strong, and my concern was the repeated rubbing/moving/sticking/unsticking of the magnet against the edge of the steel. I believe this could cause a sharp ridge or pinch point which may cause undue wear on the fabric, against the edge of the steel.
To resolve this I rounded all the edges of the wood, and sanded them very smooth, so there are no sharp corners anywhere. With the steel sunken into the wood it creates a flat surface so the magnets can be moved around (within reason) without causing any pinching or binding or wear on the fabric.
I suppose you could glue the steel to the shell directly, and then glue thin wood (or plastic or whatever) strips on either side of the steel to get the same effect.
I dunno what the absolute best version of this is, this is really just a first interpretation of it. I’m sure it could be improved upon!
@Tighe One other easy adjustment is to put gorilla tape over the magnets. I have done this for several different projects and they don’t lose much holding strength but that tape is smooth and a lot softer so it won’t cut into the fabric or anything else.
Yep, makes sense. I did initially try this but I must’ve been generous with the tape because I found a significant reduction in the magnets’ holding capacity. I was using a pretty thick Gorilla tape though. I’m sure a balance could be found (as you’ve done!).
If I redid this I’d probably glue the galvanized directly to the shell, and then surround it with a felt tape whose thickness matches that of the galvanized. Live and learn!
