Well I managed to pick up this 9ft x 7ft "Carefree of Colorado" awning for the whopping price of $0.00. It used to reside on my Van which I sold to a friend. He hasn't used it in 4 years so he gave it back to me.

It took a bit of fab work to make some mounts for the African Outback loadbars so that I could mount them on the Can-Back soft top. Then had to track down some special extruded aluminum channel to mount the awning itself.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out though. Making it myself, I was able to keep it super low profile. I have less than $200 in the roof rack and the awning and it's bigger than anything offered by Camping labs or ARB etc.

It is completely interchangeable between this rig and my Land Cruiser as well. It also still fits in the garage. I'm looking forward to spending a few evenings under this thing.

Just gotta wait for my Bajarack to get delivered now.

 

That is outstanding!!! I love to see folks come up with new ways of making camping more comfortable.

When can you make one for my 4runner that will mount to my Wilderness Rack?

 

Thanks.

In your case you'd probably be better off just getting one from camping labs etc. Since you already have a roof rack it would be pretty easy to just bolt it on and they are pretty reasonably priced.

In my case i had some requirements that just weren't going to be met with an "off the shelf" setup.

Sure is going to make those rainy weekends more bearable.

 

looks great , What model is that ?

 

Looks great.
It looks to be about the same size at my Campinglabs large one though, or is it wider?
Mine is 79" wide.

 

112 inches wide Corey. Picture is deceiving. Gotta remember my pickup (incl. bumpers) is almost 17ft long. The awning covers a little over 63 sq ft.

Sorry I'm not sure which model it is. Nothing on it to indicate either.

 

Yeah, that is the problem when viewing pics, very deceiving.
You will like it, mine has come in very handy on trips.
I have been thinking of getting the smallest one too for the rear of the rack to extend backwards.

 

Yes I'm looking forward to using this on my truck. I'm plenty familiar with the benefits of having it as I used it on my van for 4 years including a 9 month road trip across N. America and a 2 month stay on the coast of Baja.

I especially like having it in the Pacific North west. The worst thing about camping here I find is not having a place to retreat to when it starts to shower. I'm Ok with it when I'm hiking but when car camping I don't see the point of not being comfortable. Within reason anyway.

Now I just have to get Slee to return my phone calls so i can get another load bar and mount a RTT. Although I'm undecided on the RTT still. Lotta weight to add up high and this thing has been on it's side once already. Not anxious to repeat that episode.

 

After looking at this and doing some looking online I think I can make a DIY awning. I already have the rack and from the couple of sites I've looked at it seems pretty straight forward. Of course it won't look as good as yours but I can make a dry spot next to the rig.

Again I have to say that looks great, well done and thanks for the inspiration!


edit: I still can't figure out how Corey fits all that in his rig. That man must be a packing guru.

 

A really easy way to do it is just mount a channel across the roof rack with hooks spaced even with the grommets on a tarp. Then just buy two adjustable tarp poles and some guy lines and you're done.

Hook the tarp to the channel. Insert poles in the opposite corners and guy it out. It set up almost as well as one of these awnings. It's just takes a little bit longer and you have to store the tarp and poles in th etruck somewhere. Good Luck.

 

Awning looks good on the Can back...
a rear awning would be a good idea Corey since you keep your fridge and what not back there...
a place to stay relatively dry when it gets wet is big help when camping
keeps up morale and can be a great way for us single guys to meet women...
heh heh heh..

 

That really is awesome! Man i love home fabrication. Makes me wanna weld something together!

 

I did something similar to this but no channel , just screwed some stainless u shaped brackets to my rack and I attach a tarp to them , then poles and rope to anchor it .

This works fine until i can get me a free awning or close to free .

here you can see the tarp rolled up .

Not nearly as nice but hey it works..

 

Nice and clean. I like that and it looks like something that will fall into my area of mechanical ability.

 

I gotta get me one of them 1gen runners...