The awning

Months and months ago we set our hearts on the idea of fitting an awning to the car – for relatively little weight we will always have near-instant access to our very own shelter from either the sun or rain.

After a bit research we also set our hearts on the 2m long ARB model – it looked good and every review was glowing. And that was were we hit the problem – we could not find anywhere to buy this thing locally! To cut a very long and arduous story short, we eventually imported our awning from America incurring a huge postage cost! Luckily it arrived safely in the last week. And today I had some time spare to have a go at attaching it to the car!

Once again my friend Ollie was able to help out – there’s no way I could’ve got this thing fitted on my own, both in the brawn and brain department – so a big thank you to him!

As usual we were stuck doing the job on the side of the street.

First task of the day was to drill the mounting holes in the roof rack – one of those measure twice, cut once affairs.

Six holes later plus a bit of huffing and puffing and we were done – looks bloody great!

And actually works!

As a special treat we also splashed out on the ARB ‘enclosed room’ – a cube of material that hangs underneath the awning. Our thinking being that when we’re stopped somewhere for a day or two, or if we get rained in somewhere, then the extra living space will make all the difference. Luckily buying the room turned out be a lot less fraught than buying the awning as we were able to pick one up on a recent trip to Australia – many, many thanks to Mr. Betts for taking us to the ARB shop in Maroochydore!

 

All-in-all, a very successful mission indeed. Except for the sunburn; remember kids – always slip, slap, slop!