So at some point, I get sold an idea that an awning would be a great addition to the truck. While I am not debating that, I am wondering how sane I was when I decided to act upon the process of adding an awning and its required equipment. Meh, enough whining, let's go already. (Not all of this is in chronological order)
I started by finding some brackets that look at home on the truck. Then I started a plan for a roof rack to support the awning:
After I got a general idea, I could purchase a pile of steel and start laying out locations of components on the rack. For the side rails that mount the rack to the aluminum brackets I welded sleeves through the rails to provide a stout, crush resistant mounting for the rack, and eventually awning, as well as prevent rust streaks from an unsealed hole:
Now I can lay out some crossmember locations:
I decided that it would be a good idea to add some sort of provisions to tie things down to this rack. What to use?? There are a bazillion and one different types of commercially available mounting strips and tabs and tie down mounting systems. I looked at several and while many had some great attributes, they all had something working against them. One thing I did not like is most all of them are proprietary. If you need more mounting tabs you have to buy them from that company via a distributor etc. This brings a possibility of a company going out of business and leaving no support for your track system. Cost is another downfall. None of the commercial systems are even remotely close to cheap. Maybe they are worth every penny, but adding all this together and the limited vendors/availability, I kept looking. One thing I have noticed over several decades is the majority of commercial van trucks, freight trailers and moving trucks use what is called E-Track. This stuff has been around for almost ever, is very durable, very strong, available almost everywhere and, with a little effort, can be found for very reasonable prices. That's a whole bunch of win right there. It does have some cons. It is typically not as light as some of those other systems and it is typically a bit bulkier than the fancier setups (it doesn't look as cool either...). Cheap, durable, strong and available. Kind of fits the image of this entire build. I'll take it. I found a seller on fleabay that sold a decent sized assortment of rings and ring straps for about fifty bucks. I made a jig for my plasma cutter and started making E-Track holes in my roof rack:
Then, after a bunch of research on weight per square foot, I added the expanded metal for "flooring"
So I can start working on the awning support at this point. Like tie downs, there are a bunch of awning styles out there. The most common, and easiest/cheapest is a style that has support rods at the outer end and has support ropes to ground stakes that hold everything tight. This setup is fine, but I remember my tent camping days trying to pound stakes into ground that is more rock than soil. No thanks. I finally settle on a design like a buddy of mine has, but is too small. I take some Ideas from his and design out everything he doesn't like and enlarge it to a more appropriate size.
Arms and end supports:
So at this point I pay a bunch of money for another crappy powder coat job (from a different place) and it comes back white, but with no surface prep done, so all of my notes written in Sharpie marker are still visible. Unfortunately, I installed this at night and didn't notice until the next day. They offered to redo it, but taking it back off and having someone transport it to and from the place and then reassemble the people to help reinstall it, I decided to just live with it. Those TV shows never show the stuff that goes on behind the scenes to get things right. Anyway, it is white now and the awning arms are black:
At this point it is ready for the canvas to be made and turn it into an awning. Unfortunately, this process was out of my control as it was being handled by a friend of a friend and scheduling work times was extremely challenging and much time elapsed without canvas on my awning (see recent post camping outside Bryce Canyon with a tarp on the arms). So, in the mean time, the truck still lives its normal life doing all of the "truck" things it always does. One night I woke up to the smell of hot electrical in my house. I determined it was my evaporative cooler and promptly shut it down. I was tempted to just junk the cooler and only use air conditioning instead, but I really like the evap cooling, so i decided to replace it. Enter new roof rack with tie down points:
So, after much time and gnashing of teeth, the canvas work was finally in progress. We had a bit of a time finding the specific canvas the guy required. He would not use any of the synthetic/semi-synthetic materials like Sunbrella etc. He did not like the way the holes poked by the needle of the sewing machine weather in those materials so we had to find specific weight canvas for it. It was a bit of a challenge and we didn't find the color I wanted (tan), but that ended up not being a big deal in the end. The workmanship on the canvas was phenomenal. This is not what the guy does for a living, nor does he do anything like this normally, but he had great ideas and methods for doing things all over the awning and removable walls. All of the edges and seams are true and square and finished. No making a hem and zigzag it. Everything has the end welting on it. all of the seams are reinforced as are the corners and any other stress points. I will admit I was getting very impatient, but when all was said and done, I was VERY pleased with the results. Now I don't have any pics of it set up in use as I used it for the first time the other night in the dark and rain, but I have some pics from when it was being crafted.
The awning has three walls that attach under the outer edge flap with big lunky brass zippers. The awning can be used without walls or with any, or all, of the walls attached.
Front shot:
One thing not pictured is a "consumable" travel bag that the awning fits into up on the roof rack and has another big lunky brass zipper on it. The green canvas of it has already faded to a tan-ish color and looks good. I spent a bunch of time researching waterproofing for the canvas which already has some water resistance properties by default and spent a bunch of time and money on this wonder liquid for the awning and transit bag. I can say it passed the test the other night by beading water off it like a freshly waxed paint job.
So all in all I am very pleased with the whole setup and so far haven't found anything I would have done differently.
It is easy to set up and take down (more challenging in the rain though).