We use a RTT on our 560, but it is a Tepui, not one of these that you’re considering.
The question that stands out to me with this Ikamper is whether or not the ladder bears weight, or if the entire weight of the RTT is carried by the roof rack. Most hard shell RTT solutions don’t use a ladder or use a non-weight bearing ladder, which means the tent plus sleepers all produce a weight burden exclusively on the roof and structure of the vehicle.
For a pickup truck bed, this works. Cary was careful to advise us when we bought our 560 that the roof should bear no more than 250lbs (when static-not when driving-that weight is lower) based on the structure of the camper and variables like the tongue jack.
Our 3 kids weigh a total of almost 350 pounds plus the tent itself weighs another 50-ish (been awhile since I added it up). Of course, that adds up to more than 250 pounds, you might be saying. But! - since our tent has a weight bearing ladder, the ladder takes half the weight burden, which means we have about 200 pounds on the roof structure and 200 on the ladder.
So the big questions you might want to explore:
* How does this Ikamper distribute the weight burden of the tent plus occupants?
* If all the weight is on the roof structure of the vehicle, how much weight does that add up to for your family?
* And if your family is currently under that weight limit, at what point will your rapidly growing children accumulate so much mass that they will overload your roof top tent solution? In two years or twelve years?
I can’t speak to the batwing, though there is a poster on this forum who has one installed on his CI. I will say this: we had considered getting a more standard ARB awning for “my side of the bed.” The Tepui RTT already creates an effective awning on my wife’s “side of the bed.” I figured a second awning would be useful. However, over time we have learned that the RTT awning already makes the camper so wide that many camp spaces, particularly at RV parks, can be challenging to squeeze into. Adding another x feet of width to the footprint with an ARB awning would be nice, but it would also not be practical in many of the campsites we have stayed at. As it is, I often have to squeeze out of my door because the non-tent side of the trailer is tucked up really close to its boundary in order to make way for the tent to hang off the opposite side of the trailer. I can’t imagine how much footprint we would need to deploy our RTT and a batwing.
Also, dang, that thing is expensive. We got a Tepui that came WITH a zip-on annex enclosure from REI for an eyelash more than 1500 bucks.
Also also, i have no clue about bike hauling.
