2 story Flop Top Glamping

wanderer-rrorc

Explorer
After seeing an ARB awning with tent room I had to have one...and my wife needed to bribe me for yet another pet mini pig...


2500x2500 ARB with room


I got the awning installed last night (very straight forward since I got lucky and the local tractor supply had PERFECT brackets!!)

I couldn't install it on the flipping portion because it would be upside down one way and limit my useability...

The bed is 6.4 long and truck is around 6ft wide...2500 is about 8ft 3..this thing is HUGE!!! its PERFECT to put some bunk cots in for the 5 minions and 2 dogs and now 3 piggies (if they go camping..not sure on little ones yet..older one does NOT do car rides!!)

I got it mounted but got rained out before I could put the room on.

now we can do lower and upper bunks!!! Penthouse or Beachfront Cabanna!!

I snagged some pictures this weekend of my buddies setup that is 2500x2000 on his grand Cherokee..first time he camped in it...he's in LOVE...

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wanderer-rrorc

Explorer
Missed some
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rickc

Adventurer
wanderer-rroc: you should post some close-ups of your brackets for others to see; it's one of the most common issues when trying to fit awnings as all our roof rack/whatever systems are different. Looks like your method is robust; lots of small brackets vs a few big ones. My truck has a 74" bed and canopy so when my RTT is up we joke that it's a 2 up 2 down home away from home.

Have you had any rain yet? My ARB 2.5m awning height starts at around 6' 6" at the truck and I'm 6'1" so I can slope one outer corner down a little to try and stop rain from puddling; I have to note that I've not experienced rain yet but read about this issue a lot on forums.

I'm looking forward to seeing your piggie-camping pictures!
 

wanderer-rrorc

Explorer
Got the room on tonight..

Oh my GOD!! ITS HUGE!!! somehow I got sent the DELUXE AWNING ROOM!! the price wasn't any higher than the regular room ( Thomas CatzAuto killer deal!!)..with the fly propped out (gotta get 2 poles) its 13x8 worth of awning!! All the panels unzip so it turns into the screen room WITH a floor...even all the screens unzip..and the access panel,on the vehicle,side is 6ft wide!! It has hooks EVERYWHERE and an organizer bag that hangs..and 2 zippered access for power cords in the upper corners!!

Pretty sure all 5 kids can use cots without having to bunk them!!

With my blue awning and the flip top I now have 310 SQUARE FEET OF SHADE!!

IM BOUNCING OFF THE WALLS!!! THANK YOU BABY!!!!
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akpostal

Adventurer
Im probably the only one more excited about the indoor pigs then anyone else.

Do the pigs go camping with you?
 

wanderer-rrorc

Explorer
we are going to try and get the pigglets to go...the older one we have doesnt do car rides very well....


Camping pig...camping pig....doing whatever a camping pig does...
 

akpostal

Adventurer
Rather then me derailing this thread, could you start a house pig thread in Fire Side Chat?

I came across 2 or 3 in my last job and they are cool as heck. Ild like to see more of yours.
 

wanderer-rrorc

Explorer
my wife is the pig whisperer...I dont usually take as many pictures as she does..shes on 4 or 5 pig owner groups on facebook too..

they are fun...in a hoved t-rex petulant toddler kind of way!
 
Got the room on tonight..

Oh my GOD!! ITS HUGE!!! somehow I got sent the DELUXE AWNING ROOM!! the price wasn't any higher than the regular room ( Thomas CatzAuto killer deal!!).

The old style rooms have been discontinued, the deluxe is the only one produced now. I wanted the older style with the door and windows and had to do a little searching, but found a company that had one in stock. I guess I should open the box that arrived yesterday and make sure that I got the correct one.
 

eboersma96

Member
Hey guys one thing that I did to mount my ARB Awning turned out to be pretty awesome. With my dad being an old retired bicycle mechanic, he looked at my setup on my SoCal Teardrop and said hey let's do this.....He ran out in to his garage and came out with (2) Old Bicycle Handle Bar sets. Having no idea what he was thinking I just let him go to town.

Within about (5) minutes he had cut the stem off so just the adjustable fastener and bar were there. He then took the end cap off of my Yakima Bars I have mounted and it slid perfectly in to the bar. With a basic allen wrench, he tightened the bolt down and we could do pull ups on the old handle bar stems. We then took a 10 gauge 3" x 5" plate, drilled some holes, and then mounted it to the bars.

It's probably one of the most creative and simplistic solutions to mounting these awnings. I can't tell you how many hours I wasted talking with the engineering groups at ARB, Rhino, Yakima, etc. in terms of why they don't include mounting brackets. Every discussion literally started with the following....do you have a welder? Ridiculous. I'm going to try and get some pictures posted up shortly, but just got back from a 1000 mile excursion and they held up like rock stars.....didn't mean to hi-jack the thread, and this looks like the next thing I'm going to be adding to my teardrop.
 

rickc

Adventurer
eboersma96: exactly my point! way too many different trucks with different rack set-ups makes it too difficult for the awning and tent manufacturers to come up with a simple solution. It may be a good idea to start a new thread named 'mounting options for attaching an awning to a vehicle - must post pics!" or "gotta be a better way..." Another common response from the vendors is "just drill holes (in your brand new, super expensive roof rack system)".
 

wanderer-rrorc

Explorer
The old style rooms have been discontinued, the deluxe is the only one produced now. I wanted the older style with the door and windows and had to do a little searching, but found a company that had one in stock. I guess I should open the box that arrived yesterday and make sure that I got the correct one.

Good to KNOW!!
 

wanderer-rrorc

Explorer
Hey guys one thing that I did to mount my ARB Awning turned out to be pretty awesome. With my dad being an old retired bicycle mechanic, he looked at my setup on my SoCal Teardrop and said hey let's do this.....He ran out in to his garage and came out with (2) Old Bicycle Handle Bar sets. Having no idea what he was thinking I just let him go to town.

Within about (5) minutes he had cut the stem off so just the adjustable fastener and bar were there. He then took the end cap off of my Yakima Bars I have mounted and it slid perfectly in to the bar. With a basic allen wrench, he tightened the bolt down and we could do pull ups on the old handle bar stems. We then took a 10 gauge 3" x 5" plate, drilled some holes, and then mounted it to the bars.

It's probably one of the most creative and simplistic solutions to mounting these awnings. I can't tell you how many hours I wasted talking with the engineering groups at ARB, Rhino, Yakima, etc. in terms of why they don't include mounting brackets. Every discussion literally started with the following....do you have a welder? Ridiculous. I'm going to try and get some pictures posted up shortly, but just got back from a 1000 mile excursion and they held up like rock stars.....didn't mean to hi-jack the thread, and this looks like the next thing I'm going to be adding to my teardrop.

my buddy did EXACTLY the same thing!! I still think its SLICK!!!
 

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