Another of my winter projects is to refurbish my awning system. More pics and maybe a detailed drawing to come...Im looking at designing a gusetted "gutter" system to run down the middle, allowing for water drainage/collection.

For this, I am going to purchase some silicone coated nylon; is there any interest in splitting the cost of a BOLT of this fabric @ (64"x 30'). This would give you a 15' awning (or whatever). SIL-Nyl repels/sheds H2O while being some of the lightest fabric ive worked with. Repairs, grommetting and installing velcro panels are very straightforward.  Im still compiling a list of possible suppliers, but here seems to be one of the best:

http://www.ahh.biz/products/Silk-iene%20Silicone%20Coated%20Nylon%20Ripstop.htm

I think I might be up for that. I assume that it can be sewed with a normal sewing machine so one question is what type/weight thread should be used with this?

Back in my sailing day, I sewed some awnings from Sunbrella material. Very functional and fun to do.

Let me what color you're considering.

Sunbrella is much heavier than what you're proposing to use but it can be sewn on a home machine (wth the right needle and a special thread) I've never considered it 100% waterproof however. Sailors use it for boom and sail covers, awnings, dodgers, etc. It comes in a variety of basic colors. I think it was originally designed for awnings for homes.

I'm attracted to the lighter stuff that you're talking about because it sounds like it's completely waterproof. My thought is to make an extra "throw over" rain fly for my roof top tent. It has, of course, it's own rain fly and is designed to be waterproof, but I want overkill, having spent a few nights in a drippy tent.

My thought is to make an "overfly"...essentially just another rainfly over the top of the existing one that would only extend down slightly over the windows so that breathability would not be the issue. The tent would continue to have airflow as it normally would.

I've often found myself rigging up an extra tarp over a ground mounted tent just to make sure we stay dry.

As far as waterproof goes, any PU-coated nylon will do, and you can likely save some $$$ over the Sil-Nyl fabric.  $8 a yard is pretty steep for a woven synthetic, even with a coating.  You can likely find ripstop PU-coated nylon for $4-5.00 a yard retail.

Remember that any seam will not be waterproof, the stitching ends that.  You will need to seam tape. 

Here's PU coated Ripstop on eBay

I had a sunbrella cover made for the bed of my Unimog by a man that made covers for boats. He did a fantastic job and it got lots of kudos for a non-origional top for a military vehicle. Sunbrella is not completely waterproof in a heavy rain...it was a surprise to me. It was fairly good in the desert as he made it so the sides rolled up for ventilation.

Check out http://stores.ebay.com/The-Fabric-Collection for a great selection of various fabrics. You may be able to get a great deal through the members on this site but this ebay site is good for research.

Morris

Decided to spend part of the upcoming spring break to build a new awning system for my discovery based on the Hannibal design. I'm going for the Hannibal because it's easily deployable which means I'll use it. It opens quickly and sets up fast with no poles to trip over. I'm going for a large side awning with removable side panels.

You can see a rear design here:    http://www.oregonmediaservices.com/awing.htm

The big challenge is to figure out how to mount it to a NW parts rack when it's designed for a more linear Hannibal rack. I think I've got an idea about how to pull it off which leaves me with one large question:

What material to use?

I like the idea of the heavier canvas type fabric that Hannibal uses, but I'm unsure of it's waterproof abilities. I have used Sunbrella in the past and it has good weight but is not waterproof as Morris pointed out. I've found some 1.9 ounce PU coated ripstop nylon that looks good, but it also looks very, very light. Maybe that's the way I'll have to go. I've gone into the fabric stores, but so far have not found anybody with a firm opinion on what will work.

Anybody have a thought on what material to use?

Yep, I'm beginning to think that some sort of coated polyester ripstop will do the trick. Now I need to research what weights are available and can be sewn on a home machine.

Progress. Went to the Mill Ends store and bought 8 yards x 60" wide, 10 oz coated ripstop material. Brought it home and water tested it and then ran various stitches through it. Looks like it's going to be ok to work with. I'm using a UV protected nylon thread and it can be difficult to work with sometimes.

The next step is to adapt Hannibal's design and figure out what materials to use. I'm guessing that those swing out arms would be expensive to have a fabricator build, so I need to design something similiar but  using more common materials that I can work with. Their awning is designed to bolt up to a Hannibal rack which has verical supports to work with, whereas my NW Parts roof rack has tubular steel set at about a 30 degree angle. A bit complicated., but I think I've figured out a way to do it. Mine's going to be a side awning measuring about 7' x 7' or so.

You can see the Hannibal design here: www.oregonmediaservices.com/awing.htm

My process will be to build the hardware, mount it on the rack and then drape the material over it and pin it to size before cutting. I'll try and get some pictures posted as I move along.

All opinions gratefully accepted.

Edit:  This post sounds like I'm being a big downer.  I don't mean to be.  If you have a plan and can pull this off it will save you a lot of money.  I'm just discouraged because the project kinda fell apart for me.

I tried doing that. I spent hours, and I do mean hours, roaming hardware stores, surfing the internet, etc looking for a way to create the swing out design. At one point I was using fishing rod holders designed to clamp to 1" boat railings, a pair of tent poles, and some extra cable to offer support. It didn't work so well.

My next effort was the tarp just rolled up and permanately attached to the roofrack with the tent poles going from the ground up to the grommets. The tent poles were staked out to support the weight. That didn't work so well either.

At that point I switched from heavy waxed canvas like Hannibal uses and went to a lightweight nylon tarp (possibly similar to what you are using). That worked better, but overall it stunk compared to the Hannibal design.

At this point I realized that I'd spent close to $350 on tarps, miscellaneous hardware, poles, rope, stakes, etc and that it still didn't work very well. I saw Todd's Kelty shelter for just over $100 and realized it was time to punt.

My next awning will be purchased either from Todd at racktents (they have a new model coming out) or one of the other rollup versions.

Craig

This was my 2nd try on a good day.  It kinda went downhill from here though.  The canvas stretched depending on moisture content, and became increasingly difficult to both setup and keep taught.  If you figure out how to do the swingout arms you will be golden.