"Phoenix" 5'x11' Build

[cjlangellier]

Next up for our trailer is some type of roof rack and an awning. My wife really wants an ARB style awning on our camper. We've been using an Easy-up 10x10 tent with a screen room. This has been a great solution but doesn't offer any rain protection when entering or exiting the camper. My biggest dilemma with a roof rack was that I never intended to install one in the first place. I'm not too keen on drilling new holes in the side of the trailer or into the roof structure. Additionally, I'm not crazy about taking away from the profile of the camper. However, I think I mentioned that my wife wants an ARB style awning....so a roof rack and awning it is

I've been researching all kinds of racks, mounting systems, and cross bars. After stumbling across a few posts in the Facebook DIY teardrop group, I have settled on attempting to use the slotted trim on our trailer to mount a rack. This solves the issue of additional holes in the roof or walls. Once that decision was made I had to settle on a rack system. I considered fabricating my own rack until I stumbled on Sherpa Equipment. They sell individual rack components including adjustable feet for a reasonable price. I ordered all my components and I'm hoping they arrive before the Camp-Inn Camp-Outt. I'll post up pictures as I make progress mounting up the rack.

[Capebuild]

Cody, I saw your recent post regarding the side awning/side tent. We also had investigated a similar setup (and also didn't like the thought of drilling holes in the trailer. We thought about the side tent that CampInn had developed but, for a couple of reasons, abandoned that idea. In discussions with Cary from CampInn about the set up he suggested this......"That would be a roof rack mounted ARB awning with the optional annex room. This would involve mounting a roof rack to your camper but if you did this is an awesome setup. The awning comes out 6.5' from the camper and you can either use a 6.5' long or a 8' long awning. Probably a 6.5' long would fit best. The annex room attaches easily to the awing and gives you a great full floor privacy room that opens up into a screen room if you want."

In the end I thought I'd see what others were using at the CampOut. We also recently purchased a Eureka 10x10 tent which we like. It has 2 doors so we had thought about a set up where it butts into the trailer door and the other side of the tent is an exit. But we may just use it as a separate "room". We also liked it having roll up sides.

[cjlangellier]

Cody, I saw your recent post regarding the side awning/side tent. We also had investigated a similar setup (and also didn't like the thought of drilling holes in the trailer. We thought about the side tent that CampInn had developed but, for a couple of reasons, abandoned that idea. In discussions with Cary from CampInn about the set up he suggested this......"That would be a roof rack mounted ARB awning with the optional annex room. This would involve mounting a roof rack to your camper but if you did this is an awesome setup. The awning comes out 6.5' from the camper and you can either use a 6.5' long or a 8' long awning. Probably a 6.5' long would fit best. The annex room attaches easily to the awing and gives you a great full floor privacy room that opens up into a screen room if you want."

In the end I thought I'd see what others were using at the CampOut. We also recently purchased a Eureka 10x10 tent which we like. It has 2 doors so we had thought about a set up where it butts into the trailer door and the other side of the tent is an exit. But we may just use it as a separate "room". We also liked it having roll up sides.

It looks like the roof rack parts I ordered will be here this week. If everything works out the way I have it planned in my head, I should have the rack installed before the the Camp Out. I'm super hopeful this will allow me to install the rack without drilling additional holes. I'll be happy to show it off if it's a success.

I like the looks of that tent. I bet you could figure out how to attach that awning on the tent to the roof line of your camper to create a "breezeway" from one of your camper doors to the tent. That could be helpful on those rainy days.

[cjlangellier]

I finally got the roof rack hardware figured out for my camper. After doing lots of research in search of a system that would not require me to drill additional holes in the roof or walls for a roof rack, I stumbled on a post by Ryu Fukami in the DIY Teardrop Trailer page on Facebook. He developed a system using the trim track of the roofline moulding to mount hardware for solar panels and his awning. In the comments of that post Tony posted a link to a Camp Inn video in which they mount a Yakima tower to the same trim. This got my wheels turning so I sought out a cheap low profile roof rack system. I ordered adjustable feet and crossbars from Sherpa Equipment and started developing the hardware required to mount this rack up to my roof. It ended up being very easy and required very little work once I worked out a few kinks. I used T-nuts from McMaster-Carr in the trim track.



These T-nuts slide right into the track and accept 5/16” bolts. The outside diameter of the threaded shaft is just greater than 3/8”. The Sherpa feet are drilled for 5/16” bolts so I used a 25/64” drill bit to drill the bolt holes out. This allowed the T-nuts to slide into the mounting feet. The barrel of the nuts stood about 1/16” proud of the feet so I used a 3/8” flat washer and 5/16” lock washer to keep from having to trim the barrel of the nuts down. The next issue to resolve was how to keep the T-nuts from along in the track when tightening the mounts down. I cut a 1/8” thick 1/2” wide piece of aluminum bar stock to fit exactly between the nuts to retain them in place in the track.




Once I had these details figured out I mocked up the system with a spare piece of trim and mounted it to the rafter of my garage. I used the same trim screws as my camper to mount the trim to keep a realistic simulation. I used a block of wood with and eye bolt to hang weight off the hardware. I ended up hanging about 240lbs off the hardware. While the hardware never failed there was a good amount of deformation in both the tracks and t-nuts.





I thought this was pretty impressive given the trim track and T-nuts are only 1/16” thick. Given the canopy I’m looking at is 35lbs, this seemed like more than adequate working range for this system. I moved forward with mounting the rack up to the roof. I removed the vinyl trim insert and installed the mounting hardware.





I’m super happy with how it turned out. Total cost for the rack and all hardware was just a hair north of $300. Next up is the new awning!

[featherliteCT1]

Nicely done!

[Onajourney]

This is an ingenious simple design! I am floored that the track held 240 lbs. I would keep in eye on it after you mount the awning and start banging down the road.

[cjlangellier]

This is an ingenious simple design! I am floored that the track held 240 lbs. I would keep in eye on it after you mount the awning and start banging down the road.

Thanks! I can't take credit for the idea, like I said in my original post Ryu over at the DIY page on Facebook was the originator. He let me know he's been using his for awhile and he hasn't had any issues with his system. I have back to back camping trips the next two weekends. I plan to keep a very close eye on the rack to make sure everything is staying were it should. I'll report back if there are any failures.

[twisted lines]

Thanks for sharing!
Still clean and sharp

[cjlangellier]

Thanks for sharing!
Still clean and sharp

Thank you!

I just picked up a Napa Maxi Trac awning at lunch. It was $109 with tax. I don't have it mounted up yet, but I threw it up on the trailer to get a feel for how it would look. If it works out well over the next two weekends, I'll probably pick up a second one for the other side of the trailer.

[cjlangellier]

Got the awning mounted up this evening. It’s actually an impressive piece for the price. It’s easier to setup than I anticipated. Looking forward to some real world experience in a couple days.

[Onajourney]

[quote="cjlangellier"]Got the awning mounted up this evening. It’s actually an impressive piece for the price. It’s easier to setup than I anticipated. Looking forward to some real world experience in a couple days.

I too have a Maxi Trac awning to put up and have been contemplating how to mount it. Does your method seem sturdy enough? Looks great!

[cjlangellier]

I too have a Maxi Trac awning to put up and have been contemplating how to mount it. Does your method seem sturdy enough? Looks great!

I just used the brackets that come with the awning to mount it down to my cross bars. It seems plenty sturdy. I'll try to snap a picture of the mounting hardware at lunch.

[Capebuild]

Looks pretty impressive. Look forward to seeing it

[cjlangellier]

I too have a Maxi Trac awning to put up and have been contemplating how to mount it. Does your method seem sturdy enough? Looks great!

I just used the brackets that come with the awning to mount it down to my cross bars. It seems plenty sturdy. I'll try to snap a picture of the mounting hardware at lunch.

The awning only comes with 8 stainless 5/16" bolts. Four short bolts slide into the aluminum extrusion, two per bracket. The other four were meant to be used to attach the bracket to the trailer. They are super long and wouldn't have worked for my application. I used four 1/4"-20 half inch long bolts in each bracket with nuts that were supplied with my track system.

[Onajourney]

I been thinking about this cool mount. I have to ask if you used larger and longer screws to mount the trim track down? It won't last with the typical 3/4" #6 screws.