DIY Swing Awning
Posted: 31 Oct 2010 19:58
Hello All
I have just built myself a swing-out awning. Mine sits on the right hand side of the car, and swings around to cover the rear. It is completely contained in a metal box when packed up.
To deploy, I slide the box's cover forward and off, and then swing out the awning and hook it to the back of the roofrack. Folding up is the reverse, but takes a little longer as you have to fold the cloth into the box, but still takes less than three minutes.
The only swing awning I have actually seen is the one marketed by LA Sport, but this looks a bit flimsy. Mine is a lot stronger, because each of the five arms supporting it has it's own axis. Unfortunately I don't live in the Cape, so it is difficult to find some real wind to test it in, but by Highveld standards it was quite blustery today and the awning never even noticed. In fact I am almost convinced that I would be able to damage the roofrack with this awning.
The total cost has yet to be tallied, but was substantially less than half what the shops are charging for them, despite my predilection for doing things the lazy way and having many of the components professionally laser cut and bent.
My apologies for the quality of the pictures, I will take some decent ones sooner or later.
Regards
Peter
I have just built myself a swing-out awning. Mine sits on the right hand side of the car, and swings around to cover the rear. It is completely contained in a metal box when packed up.
To deploy, I slide the box's cover forward and off, and then swing out the awning and hook it to the back of the roofrack. Folding up is the reverse, but takes a little longer as you have to fold the cloth into the box, but still takes less than three minutes.
The only swing awning I have actually seen is the one marketed by LA Sport, but this looks a bit flimsy. Mine is a lot stronger, because each of the five arms supporting it has it's own axis. Unfortunately I don't live in the Cape, so it is difficult to find some real wind to test it in, but by Highveld standards it was quite blustery today and the awning never even noticed. In fact I am almost convinced that I would be able to damage the roofrack with this awning.
The total cost has yet to be tallied, but was substantially less than half what the shops are charging for them, despite my predilection for doing things the lazy way and having many of the components professionally laser cut and bent.
My apologies for the quality of the pictures, I will take some decent ones sooner or later.
Regards
Peter
Baie mooi!