Rightline GearTruck Bed Tent

This is from Alabama, where we tend to have more ice issues than snow. We may make the milk industry a ton of money every time snow is mentioned, but the ice is the problem. I was caught out in the past, unable to get home for days and with the same threat looming recently (today), I decided to prepare as best I could on a small budget.This tent fit the needs I had. If I had gear in my truck bed, I didn't want to unload everything first. I just wanted to set up the tent and be covered. That was the main focus. Digging through Amazon, this was one of the few options available. Reviews were solid and, in hindsight, generally accurate.My first experience with the tent is under the conditions I bought it for. I set this up, first time, in the wind and rain and sleet. Lessons learned, but actually really easy to accomplish. I probably looked like an idiot in my driveway, but best kind of practice is real world so I did it. Thankfully, this was not me being stuck away from home though.Set up was rather easy. Do the tailgate. Snug up the front. Come back and do the interior straps (important!). Then snug up the other straps. Run the poles. Done.The straps make setting up in the wind easy, just use the wind to your advantage. This first run took probably 15 minutes. Aside from hooking this to your truck, it's just like any other dome tent you are likely familiar with already.I'm sitting in it now, the wind is whipping up to some decent gusts pretty frequently. It's raining still, just as hard as it was during set up.No water coming through, no real breeze makes it in to the tent aside from through the bed rail where my truck has holes behind the stake pockets. Big gusts will let some wind in from there but it's really nothing. Probably a good thing since I am also running a buddy heater in here, give some ventilation.The frame holds up to the wind very well, but the fabric is a bit loose so it whips around a good bit, mostly in the tailgate area. I figure it's a one size fits most issue and I will look to see how I can fix that going forward. I did set it up under crappy conditions so I may have missed something.Headroom is great. At the peak, there is more than any topper will give you, except maybe a highboy. Makes for a comfortable sitting position, even almost to the sides of the bed.The tailgate being down gives you that much more room in this thing. Excellent design.I'm happy with the purchase. It is evident that this not a wholly Chinese endeavor. The instructions are clear and well written. The quality is really top notch. Fitment is good. Price was right and worth spending a few extra dollars.For my 2015 Silverado 1500, the 6.5 version is a great fit. If you are on the fence, rest assured this is a great option.

Setup:Mostly painless, took about 25 minutes detailed reading instructions and about 15-20 a few weeks later with much less reading.Some awkwardness of the fit but getting everything into place isn't too bad.Things definitely stretched out after I put the poles up the first time which helped.Good instructions sewn right into the bag, very helpful!Function:No floor was a must for me, it fits over my DIY platform perfectly.Spacious even with said platform.Plenty of vents; on a hot day (I tried it at 98 degrees) I would absolutely want a fan or similar stillRetains the tailgate space quite well, the third pole holds the door up out of the way.Water proofing:Excellent. I blasted it from several angles with a hose the first time and got it up ahead of a pretty nice thunderstorm the second time and didn't see anything get wet.My only minor complaints:I really thought I was gonna break a pole or tear a seam the first time I put it up. Once it stretched out second time was fine; be cautious! I heard many creaks and had very minor splintering on one end of a pole sectionThe rain fly is very difficult for one person to put on. I don't blame them and it's the nature of such a tall tent but I was wishing I was 9' tall trying to wrangle it over the peak.Haven't beat it up yet so I can't comment on material quality as a whole.

I got this figuring off the ground is awesome to replace the ground tent. Once you put it up a couple of times and realize the orange straps simply pull things tight horizontally and they need to go between the tailgate and bed (just pinched in there) and over the outside walls of the bed....it works great.We used this with a tarp down on the bed then two large, wide air mattresses for camping. Then, simply two king sheets sewed at the foot. Perfect and comfy.The two pouches inside were handy. The tent fit the bed but I had to create two extensions for the front of the bed because the included stretchy straps were not long enough ... slightly. I just bent metal and tied it to a loop of 1/4" diamond braid ... this gave it more room so we didn't have to pull so tightly. I think this is just my bed being larger than the spec the tent was created. Other than that, it fit fine.The rainfly was easy to put up and kept the rain out. We didn't have wind issues so I cannot say whether higher wind would create any issues but it felt sturdy enough.We used a cooler as a step into the truck bed because the wide door, while ample at the back, was higher than easily accessed from the ground. The cooler step was a perfect to step into the tent easily. Shoes stayed outside but there was plenty of room inside at the door.The one issue that we didn't think about was taking it down and driving away for the day then coming back and putting it back up. This was tedious and required storing the bedding, etc. inside another person's ground tent OR packing it all up and dumping it into the back seat. A pain.The idea? If it rained during the day the bedding, etc. would get wet! All bad. So, a ground tent as storage is a good idea...or a 10x10 popup thing. This way you drop the tent, grab stuff inside and toss it into the ground tent for the day (keeps bugs, thieves, rain at bay).My advice is to use this when you are stationary for a few days. Use a ground tent when using the vehicle often - it's no big deal to take both, IMO and have a choice. I will use this for a weekend campsite while fishing, or hiking an area that doesn't require driving.I rated the easy to assemble as 3 because of the adaptation I had to make ... and because the instructions really don't explain the two orange straps....and, these straps move around when you are tightening everything else...or can move....and this throws off the whole gig til you fix them again. Sounds like a big deal but it's not - practice made this almost a non-issue.Finally - CLEAN YOUR BED! get the grease off the gate pins! You will get greasy if you don't. Consider wearing disposable gloves around the underside of the truck bode, too....when clamping things on you can get dirty - again, not a big issue but it's NOT DIRT but truck goober.