Guana Equipment Morpho 270* Awning - the $350.00 dollar awning review

[emulous74]

Mine came in today, have a lot of pics and a lot of first impressions, keep in mind, I do own an Alu-Cab Shadow Awn which is five times the price of the Guana and I also own a Rhino Rack Batwing, that died in the heavy winds in Montana's Prairie. The Batwing costs twice as much. I also have a Tuff Stuff 4ft awning that was relatively cheap. I got this Guana 270 for $350.00 shipped, using the OP codes for free shipping, the price to ship would of been $60.00. Here is the discount code I used: CKKNIFEAWNING @ Guana Equipment

Arrived by UPS, interesting that I pay for My Choice tracking, but this never came up. I did get multiple emails with tracking numbers and expected arrivals and delivery from the selling company.


Box had a little rip, but nothing was damaged, the box was well taped and the awning was covered in plastic, which was open at one end.



Also in the box was a thin poly bag that had the following:



Decent what I believe is nylon guy wires with plastic stretchers (sorry don't know what they are really called):



Decent weight metal stakes, but here is where details matter, at least to me:



The stakes are flat at the bottom, this makes it really difficult to pound into the ground. Deal breaker...no, but how much more would it of cost to get stakes that have a point at the bottom?



They also included two decent weight/thickness L brackets, 4 8mm bolts, washers and nuts (the Tuff Stuff 4ft awning I have uses 6mm) and 4 8mm t-bolts and nuts, which I first thought were for the awning, but no, they are to make it easy to use on your cross bars. They also included a 15mm and 13mm wrench.



Standard Awning connection on the back, unlike the Batwing which uses a much larger size than standard and the Alu-Cab which is completely proprietary so they have to sell you many kits and you basically have to permanently mount it (mine is mounted to my Alu-Cab RTT) I would of loved to buy another Shadow Awn, but I would need one for my truck and one for my trailer and I don't want to spend $5000.00 on three awnings and connecting kits.



The bag itself is on-par with the Tuff Stuff bag, the Rhino's bag is thicker and has heavier duty zippers, but I don't feel the bag on the Guana is sub-standard, it's perfectly fine, if not nice for the price. What I haven't seen before on awning bags is 3 straps on the exterior. I worry this is something else to flap in the wind.



I didn't use the L brackets provided but instead used the Leitner Awning Brackets as they allow me to attach it to my bed rack instead on the load bars, so I can move the load bars while I have the awning on. These brackets also work on the 80/20 rack on my trailer, so it makes it easy to switch from my truck to my trailer. You'll notice that the 6mm holes were used before for the above mentioned Tuff Stuff 4ft awning.







Easy mount and the awning is relatively light, but definitely easy for one person to lift to mount. I'm only 140lbs.



See what I mean about those straps flapping in the wind:

 

[emulous74]

Unzipping and lifting the top of the bag was easy enough:



You can see that it has 3 internal Velcro straps as well:




And here is a close up of the bracket, relatively simple design and it looks like it will be easy to repair if necessary. Nice that the bracket is all metal.



Not as nice of a design as the Batwing, but that bracket is a combination of plastic and metal, the Alu-Cabs is in a league of it's own.

As soon as I un-Velcroed it, the foot poles fell out. The Rhino's has the foot poles attached to the bars. This isn't a great design, as the poles can hit your vehicle. I think I will wrap the poles together and put them in last, at least that way I can grab them when I open the bag.





I pulled on the first/last bar and brought it around to the back of my truck, no built in strap like the Rhino or the Alu-Cab to attach it, which means you have to let the opened awning hang off the bracket. I tried putting in the foot poles but they won't hold the awning on it's own, the Batwing is basically the same way, but Rhino had a built in strap to attach it to something. I ended up using a Nite Ize twist tie.








So here it is with no guy wires in 8 mph winds and 16 mph gusts:







The Batwing you were able to stake the poles, you can't with these poles, so you must use the guy wires provided with the stakes provided. I like being able to stake the poles themselves. The other big difference is these poles go through the top of the awning, this is going to let water in, so you are definitely going to have to guy wires the centers between the poles during rain. The Rhino's design has the poles outside the awning.



The only way to attach the guy wires to the poles is to the metal spike that goes through the awning, there is nothing but to tie a knot around the spike. Here's the Rhino for comparison.

 

[emulous74]

Here's the Guana from the top, The stitching looks good:





Here's looking up at the awning from underneath of it:








I had to guy wire the poles down, because one or two would fall out with a gust of wind.






Packing it for the first time, took some time, release all the poles, gather the poles, unhook from the back of the truck and swing around, all the poles are attached in one plane, trying to get the poles to lay in the folded up awning is a pain in the ass, they keep falling out, I finally just left them out until I had the thing velcroed in you also have to make sure the bars are pulled as far forward as possible, otherwise you can't close the bag. There is room in the bag for the guy wires and stakes. I'm sure I'll get the hang of it with more use.

The best thing about this over all my other awnings...I can get in my garage with it on.



Overall the quality is decent, the Rhino Rack Batwing is a better design but not much beefier or sturdier than this awning. For the price my first impressions is it is a great value and better quality than I anticipated for the price. Will it last you ten years? Sure if you take care of it and don't use it in high winds, but I learned first hand the same could be said of the Batwing. As a value purchase the Batwing does offer a better design (attached poles, magnetic catch for holding the poles to the bracket when closing, a better stake/guy wire set up, a nice material on the awning itself. But the Batwing is bigger to store, heavier and twice as much money. The Guana is better value than the Batwing, at this price (especially with free shipping) it's an unbelievable value, I think it would still be a value at $500.00

I'll be using it for real this weekend on my trailer and will let you know my thoughts of using it "in the field".

 

[inexplorata]

(Probably) stupid question: couldn't you drill a couple of offset holes near the bottom of the poles and stake them in that way?

 

[emulous74]

(Probably) stupid question: couldn't you drill a couple of offset holes near the bottom of the poles and stake them in that way?

While I'm sure it is physically possible, I'm worried since the poles are so light weight that it might impact them negatively. The Rhino Batwing poles have the stake holes in a sturdy plastic piece at the bottom of the poles, the Guana poles just have plastic caps.

 

[SnowZone77]

Thanks for the review! Looks very similar to my original Foxwing in terms of pole placement etc.

 

[w squared]

Excellent review - I am comparison shopping 270 degree awnings, and your comparison of the design points and relative quality is very helpful. I'll be putting the awning on a Ranger with an extended cab and a 6' box, so it's also helpful that your truck is almost the same configuration.