2026 Honda Passport TrailSport Yearlong Update: We Gave It an Overlanding Makeover
We decked out our Passport with a new rack and rooftop tent.
It’s quite possible the first thought that entered my mind upon learning I would spend a year behind the wheel of our long-term 2026 Honda Passport TrailSport Elite was, “I need to borrow another rooftop tent.”
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I became so attached to the iKamper Skycamp DLX during my trip to Alaska that I felt a genuine loss as the fine folks at iKamper’s Seattle showroom forklifted it off the top of our 2025 Toyota Land Cruiser.
The Passport TrailSport’s off-road-ready personality offered me a perfect opportunity to once again enjoy that sweet rooftop tent life.
In the year since my adventure, iKamper had released a fourth-generation Skycamp, this time in a tweener size called the Trio. While I enjoyed the cavernous size of the Skycamp DLX mounted on our Toyota Land Cruiser, the slightly more compact Trio seemed like a better option for our slightly more compact Honda Passport.
With the tent in the mail, it was time to figure out mounting options. Our 2026 Passport TrailSport Elite features roof rails from the factory, but we had chosen not to get the optional crossbars or roof platform. Honda’s crossbars have a dynamic weight rating of 165 pounds. The Skycamp 4.0 Trio tips the scales at 146 pounds with the optional Comfort LT air mattress. That would have given us just a 19-pound buffer— a tad too close for comfort.
Enter into the discussion JSport USA. With a close working relationship with Honda and HRC (Honda’s racing division), JSport is a one-stop shop for Passport, Ridgeline, Pilot, and CR-V off-road performance parts. Do you want to add heavy-duty skidplates, wheels, or plug-and-play auxiliary lighting? Maybe you just saw that Honda decided to lift the 2027 Passport TrailSport, and you don’t want to be left behind on the trail. JSport has what you need.
Included in its offerings is the heavy-duty Plateau Roof Rack, with a dynamic weight capacity of 625 pounds and a static rating of 1,200 pounds. Not only would the Plateau roof rack provide a secure place for the rooftop tent to sit, but it would also add a little burly off-road styling to our Passport.
Having installed the Prinsu roof rack on our 2025 Land Cruiser myself, I opted to have JSport install it at its headquarters east of Los Angeles. Sure, I could do it, but they have all the tools and do it all the time. JSport also had a forklift and offered to help install the rooftop tent as an added bonus.
Installation of the Plateau roof rack was a fairly straightforward affair. Included in the box are all of the brackets, trim, and hardware needed, and it’s just a matter of assembling the connecting pieces.
The sleek, powder-coated design hugs the roofline of the Passport and features a windscreen that fits tightly against the roof just above the windshield. The windscreen piece keeps the airflow directed away from the crossbars and makes it quieter at highway speeds.
With the roof rack installed, I drove into the mountains to take a few photos before we mounted the tent. The new roof rack adds a layer of overland badassness to the Passport's already rugged styling.
Now back in the shop with the iKamper tent hovering inches over the rack supported by the tines of the forklift, there was a problem.
The mounting brackets included with the Skycamp 4.0 that clamp onto the roof rack's crossbars were unfortunately just too tall, which meant if we lowered the tent onto the rack, the brackets would be resting on the roof itself and not the crossbars.
Luckily, with the addition of heavy-duty 7/8” rubber spacers, the tent was able to be set atop the rack and clamped securely into place.
With our Passport TrailSport now properly set up for an adventure, I wish I could tell you that I was going to strike out once again for the far north. Unfortunately, my adventures might have to stick closer to home for now, but that is a story for our next update.
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Like many of my coworkers, my love for cars was cemented at a young age, thanks in part to Hot Wheels, car magazines, and every car poster I could afford when the book fair set up shop in my elementary school library. While most kids went straight for Where’s Waldo? and Goosebumps, I was torn between the poster of the Lamborghini Countach and the ’32 Ford hot rod with airbrushed flames on the cowling. In high school, I worked at Bergstrom's Antique Autos, a historic garage in Port Townsend, Washington. Surrounded by nearly a century of automotive history, I immersed myself in cleaning, sorting, and selling car parts and memorabilia. I also spent countless hours flipping through vintage car magazines and can comfortably say that I've looked through every Motor Trend, Car & Driver, Hot Rod, and Sports Car Graphic up until the early 1980s. Around the same time, I picked up photography—naturally, with cars as my main subject. Despite my high school photography teacher's advice to branch out, I stuck to my passion and attended every car show I could find. This led me to the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara, California, where I earned a bachelor’s degree with a focus on automotive photography. I began my career at Motor Trend as a photography intern. After freelancing for a few years, I joined the Motor Trend team full-time in late 2010. My passion for cars and photography continues to fuel my work, and I hope it shines through in every shot.
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