Hey guys, after months of shopping and almost going with a 4 runner and then a Land Cruiser I finally found my Discovery II. Couldn't be happier with my purchase and I wanted to go ahead and share some ideas and a little progress I've made on my first project. I'm attempting to make a retractable awning to go with my eventual homemade rooftop tent. Parts have costed $60, a tenth of the retail price for the awning I'm recreating . Here's my progress




Current progress(4/12/2015):

Here we are enjoying a afternoon roadside picnic under the awning, it can be set up by one person in about 3minutes, working on simplifying the process but works great for now



Step 1: cutting the conduit and a 2x4 down to 7 feet to match the length of my Safety Devices roof rack, then flattening and drilling pivot points in each new support rod










Step 2:
Attached the 2 L brackets together and onto the 2x4 and lined up 1/4 x 5.5 in Bolt




supports attached folded


attached on ground



Step 3: Bought Cheapo depo tarp to cut and use till I can perfect measurements. Also, after minimal research I would highly recommend the use of double sided carpet tape to double up the cut edges on poly tarps








Step 4: attatched 2x4 to rack with basic pipe clamps



Step 5: encountered first issues when mounted to truck, weak axis let all the supports sag to the ground and even with the donation of some actual tent poles, it takes three people to hold each pole in place wile setting up. The other 5 pieces of conduit ended up not being used for support poles, so we've already saved $10 up to this point.



Today's trip to home depot had me purchasing tarp clamps, mainly because they were easier than a gromet kit but actually worked pretty well


Friday I used the left over carpet tape and tarp to make sleeves for each of the support poles, this helped keep the awning tensioned as well as hold it onto the frame in windy conditions.

 

Sorry pics were not showing before, looks great so far

 

$18 10ft 1/2inch steel conduit x 10
$15 16x10 poly Tarp
$3 4inch L bracket x 2
$2 1" Pipe Clamps
$10 15ftx3in dbl side Carpet tape x 2
$? Screws and other stuff laying around the garage

 

 

Cool! Good luck with the build!
I lucked out and grabbed a Camping Labs awning and mosquito netting for $50 from the guy I bought my roof rack from.

 

what a deal! That already looks much more legitimate than what i'm creating, working on getting some pictures into the thread now

 

Great idea.

 

I like the idea. Would love to see another material but still job well done

 

I agree with ranu, great idea, needs a good all weather canvas. Also maybe have a local upholster shop or boat canvas maker make a bag with zippers for the board. Thats so every thing can zip up and look custom. Great job