DIY/Custom camper awning V 2.0
We first built the original awning about three years ago. See the previous post for the details of that. Spoiler alert: its some wood and a table cloth zip tied to the roof. If you want a design you could easily create while on a trip with stuff you can buy from any hardware store then check that out. The new version keeps the great design elements but upgrades the perishable components in a more permanent and weatherproof package.
The original was a good concept, but it turns out a table cloth goes mouldy if you leave it on your roof for a few weeks. Which obviously wasn't ideal. The basic structure was two telescopic poles from a hardware store, designed to hold window cleaning tools. The're attached to the roofrack and extend out over the area by the tailgate. This supports the awning as in the pictures.
After a lot of deliberation, I decided to keep the design the same. I took the old mouldy table cloth to a (initially very confused and skeptical) local sailmaker. He created a copy of the original, but made of heavy duty plastic coated canvas. It's what boat covers are made of, he told me it could be left on the roof in the sun and it shouldn't start to fall apart for about seven years. This is a vast improvement from the old one, which was ruined after a summer on the roof. He kindly added a few new features, such as velcro ties to hold it to the poles and some tabs at the end to peg it/attach a ground pole if needed. At the time of writing, the new fabric has been on the roof for 12 months and is in excellent condition still. It has certainly lived up to the promise.
The awning has a glass fibre batten in each end. One end of the awning is screwed into the roof rack with some self tapping screws. I drilled some holes in the other one to fit the telescopic poles into. I'm using the same poles that have been on the roof for three years already. I think they're aluminum as they've held up really well, with no corrosion at all.
I took the opportunity to upgrade the way the poles are held to the step at the back of the roofrack. Instead of a big ziptie, they're now supported by a pipe clip made of A4 stainless steel. This is covered by a bit of old inner tube from my bike, to stop the pole from rattling. The choice of A4 stainless is because salt water drips out of the roofbox (which holds windsurf equipment) and the rear little roofrack is a total rust magnet as a result.
The front of the poles are jubilee clipped onto a small roof bar made out of a broken windsurf mast. Essentially this is a length of carbon fibre tubing that I've cut to size and attached to the roof rails with some U bolts. I am going to make a post about that in it's own right as it also holds our recovery tracks and is worth sharing.
When not in use the awning just rolls up and is secured with a strap to hold it tight. It's totally weatherproof so doesn't need a bag or anything.
The awning is extremely easy to deploy and put away, taking about twenty seconds for each. The poles now sit right under my rear roof step when they're not in use, whereas they used to protrude from it. The awning works really well. I'm very happy with it and I often put it out to get changed out of my wetsuit, wash up dirty dishes when it's raining or get some shade in the summer.
The only real downside is that it is pretty flimsy in a side wind. You can only really park head to wind if you want to use the awning. But that's not too much of a problem because I usually park head to wind in order to shelter the back of the car anyway.
Total cost for this is about £115. The custom fabric cost £85, and the poles and pipe clips made up the difference.