[dewets]

After numerous thinking caps got worn out, the last one's plan got the nod from the wearer of said thinking cap.

I made a 270deg bat/ostrich wing awning for my Jimny. I looked at the designs on the Camping, Fridges and many questions asked threads, and scaled down the various versions to fit the Jimny.

The arms are 160cm in length, and the bracket supporting the lot is 100mm wide. I used 16mm tubing for the arms and my rusted welding skill got severely tested.... For the gutter I used a 100mm cable tray into which I fitted the bracket which holds the arms in place.

I used rip stop canvas, and did all the sewing myself on an old Empisal sewing machine that I bought on FB for R300 (AU$30)
When I bought the Jimny it came with Holdfast load bars, and I made some brackets to attach the awning to the load bars. The brackets were made from 4 4mm brackets that I got from a local hardware shop, and welded them together to form a stronger structure. The plan was to make the brackets so that they will slide into the top profile of the load bars, and I had the long sides of brackets milled to 3.9mm for that. I also made the brackets so that with the awning in place, they can double up to be able to attach straps, etc to them. I have a solar panel and some other goodies that rides on top when we go camping. I also attached tie down rings to each the arms to attach sandbags for stability in windy conditions.

Rome was not built in one day, and this awning was 3 weeks in the making, with total cost of about AU$200

I was also very much aware of the load limit on the Jimny's rooftop. The awning weighs in at 15.5Kg, so I'm well within my limits for the max rooftop load permissible. I did a test drive on highway speeds, and no extra wind noise was detected. I only install the load bars when we go camping, so the awning and load bars will be stored in my garage.

A picture paints a thousand words, so here are some:

[sideways]

Tidy work mate.

[vet 180]

Damn that looks awesome


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[barbender]

Fantastic job, very impressed. What weight was the ripstop canvas per Msq'd.