Eclipse 180 Versatile Awning

› - About Awnings › DIY Awnings - Make Your Own 4x4 Awning DIY Awnings - Make Your Own 4x4 Awning

There’s no shortage of awnings on the market if you’re looking for one. They’re available in a wide range of sizes and quite a few styles, so for most of us there’s a model that fits just what we’re looking for. Is buying one the only option though? Is it possible to make one yourself? Yes it is, and it’s not even all that difficult.

DIY Awning - Diy 4wd Awning

So why would you want to make your own awning? The first reason is price. With a bit of ingenuity you can make a pretty decent awning for under $60, which is a big saving on any commercial ones. You also have a lot more flexibility when you make it yourself. You can decide exactly what size you want, which can be useful.

Big Country 4×4 Awnings

How To Build A Diy Awning

If you want to make your own awning there are three things you need to produce. There’s the awning itself, the support frame and something to store it in. Starting with the awning, you need a tough waterproof sheet. A tarp is always a good choice. These are available in lots of sizes and weights. Choose a size that suits you and make sure it’s a good fabric weight, about 300 grams per square metre. Look for one with eyelets down the edges. You’ll be needing those, and while you can add them yourself it saves a lot of work if they’re already there. Don’t go crazy on the size. It’s tempting to make the biggest awning you can, but if you try to go more than about 3 metres out from your vehicle it will get hard to keep things stable.

Next you need a frame. The first thing you’re looking for is a pair of telescopic aluminium tent poles. Look for ones that open out to about 2 metres and have spikes on top – that will make it much easier to secure the awning to them. Those are your upright poles. Now head along to the garden centre and find some fibreglass stakes. These need to be the length of your tarp along the sides that attach to the vehicle and the poles. You could also use more aluminium poles here. Use the eyelets to tie these to the edges of your tarp. If you’re going for aluminium you can flatten the ends in a vice then drill holes to take the spikes on the uprights.

Your awning is basically complete – you can now use bungee cords to fasten one end to your roof rack, support the other on the poles then use a pair of guy lines to hold it all up. You still don’t have anywhere to store it though. Of course you could just throw it in the back or lash it down to the roof rack, but that’s not idea. A better idea is to get a length of 100mm PVC pipe the length of your longest poles, and two screw-on end caps. Fit the end caps and securely fix the pipe to the side of your roof rack with straps. Heavy duty luggage straps with ratchet buckles are ideal; you can crank them down nice and tight. Now just roll up your awning round its poles, slide it into the pipe and screw the cap back on. Bingo – you have a hard case awning set. The PVC pipe is completely waterproof and will protect your awning from low branches much better than the normal storage bag will. To speed up making camp you can tie toggles and bungee loops to one end of the awning, so all you have to do is unroll it, pass the loops round the pipe and hook them over the toggles, then pull out the other end and one at a time set up the poles and guy lines.

Tjm Awning 1400 X 2000mm

Making your own awning is pretty simple, and as well as being cheap it’s satisfying. You’ll have saved yourself at least $100, which you can spend on other stuff to make your camp more comfortable – maybe an LED lighting set which you can stick to the storage pipe. If you’re feeling handy give it a go.For a new take on a tried and tested design, the new Supa-Peg 180 Degree Wing Awning ticks a lot of boxes the others miss. We look at their latest offering in this edition of DIY Driveway!

The 180-degree awning is really nothing new. For the past few years, they’ve been the go-to for a lot of people, with a simple roll-out design. The vast majority on the market just simply unroll, with legs that slide down and horizontal stabilisers that hold the awning in place; but they’re only ever as big as their length. A whopping big bit of square canvas (or cheap and nasty PVC in some cases) and that’s that.

DIY Driveway: Supa Peg 180 Degree Wing Awning - Diy 4wd Awning

Then came the 270-degree jobbies. They offered a lot more shade and wrapped around the back of your four-wheel drive to cover the side and rear of your rig. But they aren’t perfect, especially for those of us with utes. See, the cab and the tray (or tub) in a ute will move and flex independently of each other so, if you happen to bolt said awning to your roof and your tray/tub, that’s the only piece holding each together – suffice to say the awning won’t last long. With that in mind, those of us with utes were stuck with a bit of square canvas offering minimal shade… until now.

L China Suppliers Diy 4x4 Awnings 4wd Off Road Car Side Awning On Sale

X4 Awning Review 4wd Awnings Instant Awning Sun Shade Side Awning Car

Enter the brand new Supa-Peg 180 Degree Wing Awning that really takes things to the next level, and offers close enough to double the shade of traditional 180-degree awnings. This is achieved by having both front and rear swing-out arms that allow the awning to cover the standard squared design, with additional angled pieces running off to the front and rear. For example, your standard 2×2-metre awning will give you 4m

Of shade; add the front and rear arms with canvas at nearly the same two-metre length and all of a sudden you’re up to almost 8m

Diy Awning - Diy 4wd Awning

In the box with the Supa-Peg 180 Degree Wing Awning comes the awning itself, a bunch of ground pegs to tie the awning down, a pair of tie-off straps for the front to the bullbar and rear to the tray (with quick-release buckles), there are a bunch of guy-ropes to attach the awning to the pegs. I also got a set of stainless-steel mounting brackets and associated mounting hardware, which allowed me to bolt it straight to the Rola Titan rack I’ve got on top of the HiLux. I also opted for the curved roof rafter pole for the central area to stop the rain from pooling, which is an optional extra you can get for it.

Wd Suv And Small Or Hybrid Van Awnings

The new awning also features quality Aussie made 275gsm waterproof, UV-treated Coolabag poly-cotton Dyna canvas, which means it’s proper waterproof, provides 100 per cent shade, and is both rot and mildew proof. The poles that come with the awning are a quality anodised aluminium with tough Nylon fittings and knuckles that still have a bit of give, so won’t crack the first time they flex.

Something that dawned on me while packing the awning up after showing you folks how to set it up is that the bag it comes in has an extra bit of room so you’re not spending 30 minutes trying to jam it all back in there. That’s a huge plus in my book, simply as there are many alternatives that are more trouble getting it back in the bag then setting up!

- Diy 4wd Awning

Worth noting here as well is that you can get awning walls too. This’ll allow you to turn the whole thing into a tent off the side of your four-wheel drive, whether that be for a bit of privacy, safety from the creepy crawlies in the Aussie bush, or if you just happen to be in Queensland where it’s beautiful one moment and hailing the next!

Kamp Rite Suv Sport Multi Use Outdoor Shade Tent Camping Awning, Green Kampawn319

In a word, amazing. Even for a pretty simple bloke like me, fitting couldn’t have been easier. It was just a matter of mounting the brackets to the rear mounting extrusion on the awning, lining it up ‘thereabouts’ on where you want to put it on your roof rack, and then bolting it down. The entire thing weighs about 14kg, I’d wager, but was a piece of cake for a small giant like me. If you’re not overly tall, you may need a bit of a hand getting it up into position, but once it’s there, it’s easy enough to move into position as you mount it to the roof. The beautiful part about the mounting brackets is that you can have them sitting up or down, depending on how high you want it off your roof rack; I had them sitting up as my rack is pretty low profile, whereas you’ll see Deano mounted the 270-degree Supa-Peg awning the other way, as there’s enough

Eclipse 180 Versatile Awning

Of shade; add the front and rear arms with canvas at nearly the same two-metre length and all of a sudden you’re up to almost 8m

Diy Awning - Diy 4wd Awning