Homemade camper roof rack / awning – critique my plan

Decided to finally mount a proper roll out awning on my home made camper.For various reasons, drilling a hole in the roof to fit an awning would be a PITA and I’m not keen to make any (more) holes in the roof if I can avoid it as access would be a nightmare in the event of a leak.

I think I’ve come up with a plan to fit an awning that should work better than my current somewhat crude method (tent material tarp with some beading sewn into it – works but ripped last year – combined with some awning rail I mounted to the roof rack points). Basically using alu extrusion to make a roof rack.

Hopefully the pictures at the bottom will explain, but I want to fit two pieces of alu t-track (30×30 alu extrusion) length ways and then use to cross braces of 30×60 (so there are two tracks for attaching things). As in the picture below:

I would join the cross braces to the long pieces using 8 of these little corner thingys:

http://www.aluminium-profile.co.uk/acatalog/30×60-Bracket-with-Fixings-KJN523541.html

Then use some of the t-track threaded studs to attach the awning mounting brackets (just an L shaped bit of alu with holes drilled appropriately – as far as I can tell the awning I was looking at has a t-track itself on the back of it).

To join the whole thing to the van I will use some more L shaped Alu profile and the existing roof rack mounting points. The whole thing is slightly complicated as I have an existing solar panel glued to the roof and a roof vent, so a commercial rack wouldn’t fit (and wouldn’t look as neat).

The awning I was thinking about is the bushranger 4×4 awning:

Awning | 2.5m x 2.5m

This has the advantage of seemingly supporting fairly steep angles from the mounting point to the floor – the van is a high roof Renault Trafic so the awning will be sloping down by about 10-15 degrees. The bushranger one seems to look like it’d be fairly happy with this as it’s got rubber joints – the other one I looked at the ARB awning (https://campervanculture.com/shop/arb-2500mm-x-2500mm-side-awning-with-cvc-t25t3-fitting-kit/) doesn’t look like it’d cope with it).

Any obvious gotchas would be most welcome before I try and build it!

Go for it. I think you are heading in the right direction. A mate of mine in GErmany has made some videos you might find helpful. Unfortunately in German but you should be able to follow the jist of them

Roof-rack build out of similar alu profile

His awning for reference…

Can you not modify an off the shelf roof bars / rails setup? Most allow the bars to be slid up/down anywhere along the rails. More cost but better look.

Sloping down awning is fine in itself but 2.1m front height is not much if you park across a slope. You can get higher ones.

Thanks Welshfarmer – will take a watch.

Llama – i’d not really considered a off the shelf one beyond a cursory look – they all looked like they’d shadow the solar. 2.1 should be fine – our tarp we’ve been using is less than this – we generally just sit under it with deck chairs to avoid sun / rain.

Just had a look at the existing roof racks available. I could fit rails but I don’t think they’d take the loading too well as the weight would be levering them off the roof. The position of my solar and air vent precludes the cross bar option I think.

For mine I mounted the solar on the bars instead of the roof like this:

But your panel is rather large!

We use one of these now (not cheap but good): https://www.kiravans.co.uk/kiravans-railsail

That rail sail is basically what i have now, just made out of a tarp by myself (and is a bit ripped). Could make a new one I suppose, but it’s a pain getting it out and putting it away, I was thinking if it is attached to the van it’d be easier / quicker / more likely to happen.

I mount a F35 with these sort of brackets

https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/ARB-Awning-Mounting-Bracket-With-Gusset-813402/1857474773?iid=272930928296&chn=ps

I just use thule t track bolts in ‘normal’ roof rails so your idea will be fine.

Cheers DB that looks good.

Seeing the mounting points on the van I think you might get away with just some thick alloy triangles. Bolt in 2 of the corners onto the roof rack mounting points with the triangle pointing across to the far side of the roof and then use brackets like the above bolted though the other point and through the straight edge between the two roof mounts.

Unlike a Thule F45 etc the awning you show has legs which you will always pitch out (the thule ones can be at an angle back brackets on the van so the loading on the mounting can be much higher). Well in my head someone who knows maths and loads will now prove me wrong.

I guess what I’m saying is do you need the bars going across the roof? Most thule brackets would just mount on one side so unless you want the bars for other reasons it might be worth not having them.

Why the need for crossmembers etc?
Looks like a standard Thule roll out awning would fit directly to van mounts ?

The cross members were to resist the twisting force – the awning weighs 10kg + wind loading. Plus there is a moderate chance i’d mount a black tube type shower unit (google road shower) on the other side – tho i could chuck that idea out the window if I can get away without building a roof rack full stop.

Db – not sure i understand what you mean with the triangles…

Shaundryden – which thule one did you mean – I did’t see any that would work.

DB – do you mean like this:

Could be on to something here…..

Here is a photo of the gutter at the end with a speed square acting as the bracket.

If I 3d printed a spacer I could probably make the load be spreadout a load more – three of these along the length of the awning would probably be fine. Something like this:

That would then spread the load a lot better and make me worry less about prising the roof mount points off (which seem to be glued on with automotive glue – i.e. very strong glue!)

That’d save me best part of 100 quid I reckon if that works…

Might be tricky getting to bolt heads to do them up, but probably doable – could always print some custom spanners or something.

That looks like it would work OK. I wouldn’t be too worried about mounting some extra brackets by drilling through the body lower down. This is how I did mine on the Land Rover. A bit agricultural I know but very strong. The bracket has a captive nut welded to it for bolting the awning down and is fixed through the roof with 2 stainless cap heads that thread into 2 captive nuts on a similar shaped bracket inside the roof. On both side the 2 curved plates are also affixed with Sikaflex so there is zero risk of any leaks. The other bracket is clamped to the rain gutter. The awning is quite heavy and has not moved despite some serious off road action.

Thanks Welshfarmer. Don’t suppose you know (or could measure?) how big that piece of t-track on the back of the awning is (as in how tall and distance between the tracks)?

Drilling holes in the roof is something of a last resort – the location of any holes would be hidden by my internal roof + upper cupboards and insulation meaning it’d be very hard to spot a leak. Plus I might hit some wires for the lights etc which would then be nearly impossible to fix.

Exactly that! I assumed the mount and roof were level but that was what I thinking (nice drawings)

db

So many things would have been easier if the roof was flat!

I will nip back down the shed and get the measurement for you now…….

Right. So the 2 tracks are 100 mm apart. Forgot to measure overall height but would take a punt at 180 mm

Nice one. Thanks! That’s about what I hoped it would be. Is that the ARB awning or another brand?

Been talking to my mate who has a machine shop. We’re probably going to weld a bracket up. Got to order the awning now.

It is a Oz Tent Foxwing 270 degree awning.

Cool thanks – just wondered if it was one like i was looking at (it’s not).

Hopefully can get this all sorted for the first trip of the year to france!