Hi everyone,
I found a brand new, still in the box superlite last month and just installed it on my Wrangler 392. I was careful to position the tent about 6-8 inches behind the windshield as to limit the amount of wind pushing up on the tent. However, after only about 1000mi of driving the tent is separating from the mounting rails that are bolted to the bottom of the tent itself and creating an obvious hazard. The tent is at risk of flying off the mounting rails leaving them still clamped to the rack. I’ve ratchet strapped it for now but want to fix this ASAP. For reference, top speed reached was about 80, but only reached this high for short periods with most travel done at 75.
I just grabbed some thread locker and plan to screw these back in, hoping it’s that easy. Is there any way to prevent this from happening again? I can’t find a single other person who’s ever had this issue. Pic added for reference.
I have not had this specific problem; however, I have replaced the tent fabric on my Superlite. The panels are just some type of honeycomb “plastic” panel. I am sure the screws have wallowed out the holes in those panels allowing the mounting rail to separate. Take a look. It is a bit of a pain. The repair I would suggest would be replace the washers with some large, fender washers or go get some aluminum plate to spread out the force on that honeycomb panel.
I am sure you have thought of this. From having my fabric off, I could see how this could happen. Thanks for letting know. Definitely something to keep an eye on.
Update:
Crawled up top and found every single driver side bolt loose, and one passenger side bolt loose. The tent would’ve absolutely flown off into traffic if I hadn’t put the ratchet strap on. Vinyl on the bottom of the tent was really misaligned so I had to finesse the loose bolts back in while trying not to get threadlocker anywhere it shouldn’t be. Everything is tight now, hopefully it stays…
Glad to hear it was an easy solution. I don’t remember how loose or tight the bolts hold the rails on were. Probably something good to check on a regular basis.
Glad to hear you found the problem. I was going to suggest contacting GFC support as they are pretty responsive.
The beauty of the Superlite is its simplicity. It wouldn’t take much work to add some additional screws into the rails. Maybe even going into a tapped block inside the rail for more support if needed.
