Awning made of square tubing

[garbemi]

i found a bus on here that had an awning that was made of square tubing by welding hinges to triangle trelices that came out over the passanger side of the bus, however I cannot find it to save my life. Could someone let me know if you have a link to it? thanks

[TygerCub]

It's one of the tailgating busses, isn't it? I know which one you mean, but can't find it either...

[scott_farmer]

I thought I remembered it being linked off of the Millicent conversion discussion, but a quick scan through there and I couldn't come up with the link. I've seen it in the last month or so.

[TheRainbowBoxer]

Might have been "Der Bus"... That one had a pretty impressive awning.

[bapos]

If you guys run in to which one it is post a link. I think with a lot of the photo galley being hosed up some of that stuff may be hard to find.

I am interested in building one if someone has some good plans. Ive looked on Youtube and some on the net but didnt see anything worth investing it. Lots of crap for pop ups but wont work in a school bus application

[bansil]

Thereare some folks on expeditionportal.com that have done some on their rigs,they mountedthem to the roof racks.
Might be able search them,there was also a slick blazer on k5.com that did it

[somewhereinusa]

I've been thinking along those lines and have a couple of doablle plans (I think), but as of right now it's all in my head.
I'm thinking along the lines of something that is fairly easy to set up and will withstand more than just a slight breeze.
Something that I can put up when I get somewhere and not have to worry about until I leave.
A friend has a tarp made of some really nice material (not really canvas, and not that cheap plastic crap) that has stood up for
a couple of years now and still looks great. It was made by a friend of hers.
I'll try to get something down on paper.

[bapos]

Somewhere....

Lay down your thoughts. Im interested. I have my own set in my head maybe we can make it a group effort and make something worthy for all to use. I hate cheap crap. I have always over built verses under built. Not to worried about cost or weight but I would also like something that can deal with more than a stiff breeze. Mild tornado will work since I live at the opening door of tornado alley.

Just a few thoughts..... square tubing legs that telescope like a regualr awning. I think my biggest challenge is some way to keep it wound up in a tube of some sort and retract out of it when pulled?

Lets keep plugging away. It will happen.

[GreyEagle]

The square tubing will provide better strength over any round tubing/piping.....

[somewhereinusa]

OK, here's some sketches I made. I think that one important thing for lasting in high wind is that the canopy NOT be fastened solidly to the bus. The wind must be able to escape. I recently bought an umbrella that is supposed to withstand 60 mph wind, it has vents in the top to let the wind out.
Here's the framework as it will look on the bus.

This shows it without the bus for clarity.

The green part is hinged to be lowered down along the side while traveling. Note that there is a green bar between the trusses, it will be welded in with diagonals for strength. The blue extensions will either slide clear inside or be inserted into the end . The extensions could be eliminated if you have a dog nose or mount the canopy in back of the front wheels on a flat nose. I wanted the canopy right behind the door. It could even be made to cover the door in desired, but there are mirrors in the way on mine. The yellow bar just slides over the end of the blue extensions. The red struts can be sliders that can be adjustable for length and also detach from the side and be used as poles straight down. The removable braces and struts can be carried on brackets mounted on the side or stored in a compartment if available.

This is some detail fo the bracket and top of the trusses. I think for most strength the red bracket should mount on a rib, by removing the rivets and then re riveting. I didn't show the bar across here. There are a couple of scenarios here. One would be to have the tarp attached to the bar and with a simple crank just roll the tarp up and leave it there. I think what I'll do and much simpler is have that bar permanent, with angle braces and have some movable hooks, use the grommets in the tarp. At the outer end I think the tarp would wrap around and under the yellow bar, using either tarp straps or ratchet straps to make things nice and tight. Ball bungees may or may not be needed at the sides. I really don't see it to much of a problem to simply take the tarp off and fold it up for transport.
I'm not an engineer, and have no idea about loads and stresses. I have in mind using 1 inch square tubing for everything but the blue extensions which are 3/4 inch.
Hope this gives some ideas.

Dick

[dirtygoat]

Not exactly what you guys are wanting, but I have an idea using parts from a Costco carport that the canvas got destroyed...

I already have a 21' RV awning on the passenger side and have one waiting to be installed on the driver side...

My bus will be used a lot for taking our 4x4 out and I want somewhere to work on stuff when we are out... I have most of the tube pieces from the Costco carport my neighbor gave me... I'm thinking about mounting 3 of the feet to the back of the bus and when we get to camp pulling everything our and putting it up... Basically one of the open ends wouldn't have the "t" pieces, the 3 roof poles would slide into the feet that are mounted to the bus and the carport would extend off the back...

[lornaschinske]

Originally Posted by somewhereinusa

... I recently bought an umbrella that is supposed to withstand 60 mph wind, it has vents in the top to let the wind out...

We had an umbrella like that that we used on the food cart when we first started selling hot dogs & sausages. It held up to some pretty good breezes. Then we moved out to NM. David almost lost it when the wind picked up really fast one afternoon. He was hanging onto the umbrella... couldn't let it go and couldn't close it. We started planning for a solid roof when he got home that day.

We have given up on awnings out here. We keep looking at all the damaged awnings in the campgrounds we've been in. We have decided that we don't need an attached awning. What we want is a semi stand alone awning that we can set up where we want to set it up. Most likely it will be two small awnings that we can either tie together to make a bigger awning (or enclose one as an "airlock" and have another as the "porch"). Or just set up one small one. I want a DIY one so we can just replace the awning material. Maybe similar to this one.



or one based on this mock up (just to show the fittings used) I think the "X" pattern would help hold a tarp up with less sag.

[dirtygoat]

That is made out of plastic, but you could use chain link fence hardware and top rail to build the same thing...

[bapos]

sure wish this thread would blow up again

[thommassey]

Originally Posted by bapos

sure wish this thread would blow up again

No kiddin'... I was getting allot of info here

[Ryan Grimm]

FASTENAL has both aluminum and steel square tubing.
http://www.fastenal.com/web/search/prod ... ubing%22|~

80/20 has tubing in wide variety, makes up excellent frames of all sorts, boxes, computer panels, I even used some to make precision fences for my table saw and bandsaw. The fittings they sell allow easy fabrication of most ANYTHING. Kinda pricey, in some respects...
http://8020.net/

WW Grainger carries steel, aluminum and stainless steel materials
http://www.grainger.com/Grainger/raw-ma ... alog/N-bis

And you might find a used awning at car wrecking yards, I've seen them quite frequently at the larger wrecking yards.
Contact insurance adjusters in your area, they might know of an RV that got totaled, parts might be available.
Likewise body repair and towing places.

[bapos]

Ive been looking all over the net to put something together and can not find diddly squat on the subject.... so kind of adding to this to give it a bump to hopefully spur this some more.

[inkblots84]

Not about tubing, but found a good place for material for awnings - http://www.greenhousemegastore.com/category/shade-cloth. You can get large pieces of cloth for what seems like a pretty decent price, plus they're specifically meant for outdoor use and customizable.