u/dranzango

EDIT FOR CLARITY: The broken bolts are on the crossmember CORNER BRACKET, not the crossmember itself. The transmission mounts are untouched and the crossmember is still secured laterally. Only the corner bracket on the passenger side is free.

Original post:
I broke both bolts on passenger transmission support brackets while trying to install new skid plates. I cant get this up onto a hoist to drill out for a week or so. Would this be okay to drive on for light duty grocery getting for the time being? Cross member is still fully intact.

Just wheeled in from a 10 day road trip from the prairies to the west coast and back. The runner was sturdy and comfortable. 100,000 km on the ticker and no signs of stopping. I met lots of other cool Toyota people along the way. If any of you are in this sub, rock on and keep your rubber side down!

I have been pouring over the old webaroo and this community for a good solution to picking my RTT off of the roof of my 4runner. My wife and I didn’t love the old 2 person awkward juggle to get it up there and I also had some upcoming maintenance on the vehicle to do. I am in the unfortunate half of posters here whose garage door is too low to provide enough clearance to park the vehicle inside while the tent is mounted. It was time to get creative.

I bought a cool little hitch mounted hydraulic hoist and mounted it to my truck while it was up on some rhino ramps. IKamper’s manual says “hell no” to choking with a sling around the hardshell, so I built a medieval looking spreader bar to give a 4 point basket lift. We have affectionately named it “GROND”.

With GROND flying high, I was able to pick the tent and place it pretty much anywhere with relative ease. Because of the extra lift from the rhino ramps, no modifications were required and I still have a healthy amount of buffer in my hoisting capacity.

Anyways, this was way safer for us and my back doesn’t hurt. It takes a bit of time to setup, but otherwise it did the trick nicely. When not in use, the crane packs up neatly in my garage.

I haven’t seen anyone post with this kind of setup, so here’s my contribution to this fine community. Happy backs and even happier camping!