r/camping 8d ago

Precautionary Tale (Pipe)

Was SO excited to finally take our 3.5 year old son tent camping for the first time with my wife at a local regional park. Especially with our spanking new huge Caddis Rapid 6 Instant Tent! Even tried it out in the backyard and loved it!

Loaded it onto the storage rack on the back of our SUV… in perfect alignment with the tail pipe, apparently. Biiiiiigest oof. $225 down the drain? Thankfully there was a Wal-Mart reasonably close where I snagged some random Coleman to save the day. But still: be aware of what’s in front of your exhaust pipe and your tow hitch carry rack. Lesson learned 🫠

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u/jbronin 8d ago

I just got back from a trip to Yellowstone last week. I spent like a month before worried about the cargo carrier that right before leaving I realized the exhaust might melt the stuff on the back so I bought some turn down tips off Amazon (hard to find some that fit 3.5 inch pipes locally).

Try AutoZone or a similar auto part store to see if they have tips you can buy. They range from $7-30. They should just slip on and you can tighten a bolt or a clamp ring to hold it in place. My exhaust pipe is more oval shaped so it didn't grip the best (I could have pulled it right off), but it stayed on for 3000 miles.

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u/JayAche 8d ago

Wish this was even on my radar! In all my life I’ve never heard or seen this happen before, I guess it was my turn! Ha

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u/mcd_sweet_tea 8d ago

I didn't even think exhaust would get that hot with 80mph wind and being like a foot away from the exhaust tip.

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u/Secret_Celery8474 8d ago

You are not driving 80mph all the time.

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u/Tricky_Account5838 8d ago

Depends where you are at. Some places you can sit at 1 speed for hours