My Homemade Awning

[GroovyDad]

I could not bring myself to spend upwards of $700.00 for an awning, so I began experimenting with a few ideas. Here's what I came up with...


MY HOMEMADE AWNING

 

[Wandering Sagebrush]

Looks good to me! Neat!

 

[ski3pin]

Spending $700 on an awning would force us to use it all the time and we'd never leave the truck and camper. Clever design and affordable, good job!

 

[billharr]

Nice job. Like the compact size and compact cost.

 

[Tuff Guy 62]

Great job. I like it.

 

[norcalhawk]

x2 on the $700...

Your awning looks great and quick to set up. Nice work!

 

[ETAV8R]

Too cool. Well done.
How long is the tent pole?
How is the tent pole affixed to the tarp?

 

[GroovyDad]

Too cool. Well done.
How long is the tent pole?
How is the tent pole affixed to the tarp?

I'm not sure how long the tent pole is. I just pulled it out of my REI Hobitat 4 tent that I have in the garage.

I folded the edge of the tarp over and sewed it to create a sleeve into which I can slide the pole through.

The key is to use a light weight fabric. On my first attempt I used some heavy sun shade fabric and it was too heavy for the tent pole to support properly. A beefier pole would have worked but I didn't want to buy one when I already had the pole in my tent bag.

 

[jeromehdmc]

Awesome awning. I may be "borrowing" your idea. The Eagle came with an awning but this would be great for the times I take the Subie car camping. Thanks for sharing

 

[GroovyDad]

Awesome awning. I may be "borrowing" your idea. The Eagle came with an awning but this would be great for the times I take the Subie car camping. Thanks for sharing

Thanks jeromehdmc. If you can improve upon the design, please post it!

 

[Bill D]

It looks very good. Nice job GroovyDad.

I'd be interested to know how well it sheds the rain. Doesn't look like you have to deal with much rain though.

I went with a single adjustable pole in the centre of the tarp and then stake down the 2 corners (more of a rain shelter). Your design is much more open. I like it a lot. Sort of like a big dome tent.

How much fuss is it to feed the tarp into the track? Is it a 10 second easy one shot slide, or is more like a couple minutes of feeding it into the track inch by inch as it gets progressively more difficult to slide, due to friction.

Let us know how it turns out in use.

 

[ETAV8R]

I wanted to share my version here instead of starting a new thread. My cheap awning was fairly successful. It was pretty windy this past weekend on the White Mountains. Other than the telescoping poles all the parts can be found at most hardware stores. I want to get a second set of tarp poles in order to keep it horizontal instead of slanted down. Also want to find a 6x20 tarp to extend it further out for more shade. The reason I use a 6' wide tarp is because that is the width between my jack mounts. For wider/longer campers you can have a larger tarp. Really happy with this as of now. The true test will be in Death Valley where the "W" thing can be fierce.

This is the type of tent/tarp pole I used:
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00VTJKB1O/ref=crt_ewc_img_dp_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER
I'm thinking about getting a set of these since they are lighter and have less chance of corrosion.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Pair-Sunshade-Camping-Beach-Shelter-Tarp-Shelter-Pole-Adjustable-2M-6.6FT-to-2.5M-8.2FT/53728954

 

[ETAV8R]

Another tidbit of info for my awning/tarp project. I did some hunting and found the following poles. I was successful offering $50 for two sets on ebay with this seller. That is for four poles. They arrived yesterday and seem to be of good quality. If you are looking for tarp poles I'd say try these before any of the spendy REI types.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131868727226?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK:MEBIDX:IT

 

[Bosque Bill]

Inspired by this thread, I created my own homemade awning. I liked the tent pole concept, but I wanted the awning to shade the upper section of my pop-up, too. This would help the keep the inside of the camper a bit cooler besides providing shade outside.

I bought the Coleman 8 foot, telescoping, steel tent poles from Amazon at $14 each. I put a carabiner on the ends of two ropes which I attached to a cheap Harbor Freight tarp and threw the ropes over the camper top before I raised it and tied them off at the top hole of my corner jack brackets. Then I raised the roof and adjusted the ropes. I then placed one of my purchased tent poles with a guy line and raised it, added a second guy line to that pole. I then placed the second pole with guy lines.*

I had been afraid that the rope to the rear of the camper would slide off, so I placed a line between the ropes to help keep them parallel. It turns out that not only is this not an issue, but I had the opposite problem - the ropes wanted to move closer to each other, thus leaving a dip, or sag, in the middle of the tarp along the camper roof. I "solved" this by adding a small line to the forward carabiner and pulled that line taut over the front edge of the roof and tied it off on my Yakima fairing mount. An alternative would be to place a spreader on that edge of the tarp, but an extra line is easier to carry. Another alternative would be to add a rope to an eye in the tarp between the other two ropes and pull that taut.

Pictured (in my back yard) is this first attempt using a tarp of approximately 5' x 7' feet in size with the long side running front to rear. I have another tarp which is approximately 7' by 9'; I will likely use this larger tarp in the field. If this concept proves itself in the field, I will likely invest in a better quality tarp, though as cheap as these Harbor Freight tarps are (the small was free with purchase the larger was only about four bucks, as I recall) I may just buy more as these get sun weakened or blown out.



*Since I generally camp alone I had a concern that I would have problems raising the tent poles by myself with out them flopping around and collapsing the telescoping sections. To hold the pole up without it flopping side to side, I created a half "xmas tree stand" using a 1" galvanized pipe floor flange, screwed onto a scrap piece of 1x4 board, holding a 6" section of pipe. I can insert the bottom of the pole into the pipe to stabilize the pole while raising it and attaching the guy lines. I can then partially collapse the sections to kick the stand aside to use on the other pole, and re-raise the first pole. I used a single board rather than a full 'x' stand to make it easier to transport. Bill

 

[GroovyDad]

Nice job Bosque Bill. I thought about attaching my awning to the roof line as well, for the same reason you mentioned, but I found that the higher up I placed the awning, the less of a shade footprint I had below it. Since my awning is pretty small (just a military tarp), I get more shade the lower I attach it.

I even thought about attaching (with Velcro) a removable wall that I could slap on whatever side the sun was on, but that seemed to only complicate my whole system, so I just kept it simple. I think I can mange more shade by simply parking my truck parallel with the east/west track of the sun.

 

[Bosque Bill]

I even thought about attaching (with Velcro) a removable wall that I could slap on whatever side the sun was on, but that seemed to only complicate my whole system, so I just kept it simple. I think I can mange more shade by simply parking my truck parallel with the east/west track of the sun.

I'm thinking of getting a second tarp the same size as the one I will be using. Then, I can use one of the carabiners and the pin on top of the tent pole to hang it from one side or the other to form a "wall" (or use both poles to have the wall on the side away from the truck.) The pins on the tent poles are long enough to accommodate two eyelets, guy lines, etc. without problem.

 

[ntsqd]

This thread has me thinking to move our tarp awning to the side, maybe set up to be able to put it on either side. I had a telescoping spar across the rear of the roof, but it's weight was too much and I feared for the roof structure so I removed it. Our telescoping poles came from Cabela's. For the guy ropes I use something akin to 550 cord, big framing spikes for stakes, and some of these for tensioning: http://www.montanacanvas.com/products/rope-tension-adjusters I put the loop over the pin in the top of the poles and leave a bowline on the other end of the line to pound the stake thru.This usually leaves the tensioner at a level where your eye sees it, hopefully keeping you from tripping over the line. If you click on the link you'll notice that their price is per a dozen of these tensions. As the shipping was significantly more than the parts I ordered several dozen to make the shipping worth the trouble. Suffice to say that after giving away a bunch I still have some left to give away. PM for details if can use some.

 

[Bosque Bill]

This thread has me thinking to move our tarp awning to the side, maybe set up to be able to put it on either side.

For the guy ropes I use something akin to 550 cord, big framing spikes for stakes, and some of these for tensioning: http://www.montanacanvas.com/products/rope-tension-adjusters I put the loop over the pin in the top of the poles and leave a bowline on the other end of the line to pound the stake thru.

Whereas, now that I've figured out how to put a tarp awning on either side, I'd like to figure out how to use the smaller tarp as a rain porch across the back.

I went cheap on my guy lines. Got a package of four 13' lines with reflective thread and plastic tensioners on Amazon for $10. I assumed they were 1/4" or 3/16" line, but turned out were only 1/8". "They looked larger in the photo." Still, on reflection (no pun intended) I think they will be plenty strong. If the wind comes up while I'm gone, I suspect the stakes will pull out before the line breaks.

PS, there is an iOS app, Knots 3D, which is super cool. It shows all sorts of knots with animation for how to tie them. It explains which are used for what and advice for the best knots for an application. It was free when I got it and is available for Android, too. http://knots3d.com

 

[ETAV8R]

I did experiment with using eye bolts in the tracks on top. I secured them with small carabiners. When the wind came up the carabiners made noise. I know I can raise my poles high enough to be at roof level but as groovydad stated the shade size decreased. Plus I don't want to look out the windows and see the tarp...I want to see outdoors. I had to raise mine during the first test in order to give enough head clearance since I didn't have a second set of poles for the side away from the truck. I now have 3 sets of poles, 2 aluminum sets and the first steel set.

I've not tried my 6x20 tarp yet and am concerned it may be too big. It is huge! Narrow too so truck placement in relation to the arc of the sun is something to consider. I found a cool site which shows a lot of info about aspects of the suns travel during the day.

You can change your location as needed.
http://suncalc.net/#/36.8123,-117.7663,11/2016.09.07/09:44

 

[ntsqd]

Re: Knots; without a slide tensioner I'd use and have used a "trucker's hitch" to tension the guy lines. They take a little practice to get right, but once you get it down they are an extremely handy knot to know. There are two versions of the hitch, one will totally fall out of the line when slacked-off and this is the version worth knowing. The other version leaves a small loop knotted in the line and it can be troublesome to remove.