Thought I'd share a quick little project that we whipped up over the weekend. Since buying the Pathfinder, I've been increasingly jealous of these lucky folk with vehicle-mounted roll-out awnings. I'm far too skint to pony up the $500 for a pre-built unit. Courtesy of this thread ( http://www.4wdmonthly.com.au/forum/f39/awnings-43572/ - specifically post #17 by hookedon4wding), I came across these guys : http://www.infrontcampinggear.com.au/category2_1.htm and started to put a plan into action. I traded emails with Klaus, the owner of the business, who seems a really helpful character - they can pretty much customise the product as much as you want to get the result you're after. Their customer service was spot on, emails were returned very promptly, and nothing seems too much trouble for Klaus at all.
Unfortunately, that was still a bit too rich for my back pocket at this stage. I'm sure if you were going to use it every weekend it would be wonderful, but we don't get out that often. As it happens though, we were at a local camping store on the weekend for a completely unrelated venture, and they had a great special going on some super-heavy-duty silver tarps. So, armed with my trusty credit card, and following a stop off to everyone's favourite Bunnings, we came away with the following swag:
1 x awesome tarp - something like 2.5m x 4.2m, I think - $22
1 x 25mm x 25mm square section aluminium tube - 3m length - $26
4 x adjustable tent poles - $9ea
1 x adjustable spreader bar - $13
1 x roll of 1" wide velcro strap - $25
6 x pegs, 6 x rope adjusters, peg bag, yellow nylon rope - $cheap
assorted s/s bolts, U-bolts, washers, etc. - $expensive
I already had the:
1 x dog - low intelligence, but lovable - $expensive
Using my extensive workshop / fabrication facility / BBQ food prep area (complete with high-tech tools like the $3 hacksaw), I set to work. First job, cut the Al square-section to length:
Once the aluminium was cut down, we aligned the tarp, and drilled the mounting holes to attach the d-rings to the al. All bolts and fittings are (as mentioned) stainless steel, so rust shouldn't be a problem. I've since reversed the orientation of the bolts that secure the tarp, such that the nut is on the bottom of the aluminium tube. This has allowed me to use spring-washers on all of them, hopefully securing them against coming loose by the vibrations of the car. I hope.
Once the tarp was attached to the al, it was mocked up on the car, and the location of the roof-rack cross-rails was marked. The U-bolt mounting holes were marked out and drilled, and after a bit of fiddling about due to the lack of correctly-sized drill bits, the U-bolts were fitted up nicely.
The awning was then trial-fitted to the car, attached securely to the roofracks, and we set it up to see how it went. Using the nylon rope and the rope adjusters, we made our own guy ropes to suit the height that we wanted to use the awning at. It's super-high in the photos, due to the driveway sloping away from the yard. I'm reasonably tall, so we wanted a nice tall centre peak, but it's a bit ridiculous in the pics!
One problem that I'm still thinking about is how to get a good knot using the nylon rope. As anyone who's ever used the stuff can tell you, it's too slippery against itself, and tends to undo itself if not kept under tension (like, say, when it's all coiled up in the peg bag). I've toyed with the idea of melting it onto itself, but I've had very bad results with that in the past - it's weakened the rope and it's just snapped. The only other idea I've got is using some sort of crimping figure-8 - something that I can feed the rope through one hole, then back through the other, and crimp it down to hold it. But I've no idea if such a thing even exists, much less whether it would actually work.
If attempting something like this, here's a vital measurement to keep in mind right from the start:
Don't ask me how I know! Luckily by the time I'd started drilling, I'd worked it out. It gets the seal of approval from both the foremen on the job.
With everything pulled down, the tarp rolls up nicely to snug up against the aluminium. Strips of velcro were cut to length, and secure it nicely against the car:
The tarp itself seems to sag a bit at the front, but the aluminium is still nice and straight and solid, so I don't envisage it being a huge problem:
Close up of the awning mounted to the cross-rails via the U-bolts. I may look at getting some rubber to go between the u-bolts and the roof rack, just to isolate the vibrations and to prevent damage to the cross-rails. My current plan is to use it and keep an eye on it, and see if it's needed or not.
Following the trial fit, the only thing left to do was to somehow secure the velcro straps to the awning, so that we didn't lose them when we set up camp. This was simply a matter of drilling holes on the inside of the aluminium tube, and then using little al pop rivets behind large washers to hold the strips on. The velcro itself seems very strong - hard to cut, hard to poke a hole through - I think this should last a while. Worst case, it's easy to drill out the rivets and try something else.
The only thing left to do is to organise a cheap pole bag to hold all the poles and pegs and ropes, and it will be just like a pro one. I'm thinking of splurging for a canvas bag from the InFront Camping mob, so I can get it made the exact right length to suit the oversized spreader bar. I toyed with rolling the poles up inside the tarp, but they've all got big wingnut adjusters on the side of them, and the extra weight and bulk would make rolling the tarp up reasonably difficult. Once we get a basket to go on the roof racks, they can live in there. In the meantime, they can go in the back with everything else.
So all in all, a successful job on a good budget. I've no doubt that a canvas awning would last longer if you were using it every weekend. Also, the rope-less quick setup of something like a commercial OpenSky awning would be very advantageous for quick stops or day trips. However, for the money we have saved, I'll take the 10 mins to set it up each time. It's not for everyone, but for our purposes it will be spot on. We're planning on testing it out over the Anzac day long weekend - we're thinking of taking an extra day off each side and making a 5 day trip out of it. At this stage we'll either be heading west to Undara and the lava tubes, or north to the Lions Den, via the Bloomfield track.
Thanks for looking! If anyone's got any suggestions, please feel free to chime in! (And don't worry about the state of the car - washing it is number 1 on my list of jobs to do this afternoon! Although it's nice to be able to show people that it does, occasionally, get used offroad! Not much beats a bit of mud in the poseur stakes!)
14 years ago
