Bought a Darche awning a couple of weeks ago on their fathers day sale. Looked at quite a lot of suppliers and ended up going for the Darche. It's a nice and solid 270 degree awning that folds into a nice compact size. And at 26kg it is quite light for the size it covers.
Bought some brackets from Kaon as most brackets that come with awnings only fit on flat roof racks, but since the Front Runner has the edge around these wouldn't have worked.
The instructions from Darche is quite clear that installing it is a 2 man job. I had a look at it and decided "f*** it, I can do this by myself" I'm happy to report back that this is indeed a 2 man job.
Mounted the one part of the bracket on the roof rack and the other on the awning. Then power lifted the awning onto the roof rack. I recon my lifting attempt would have secured me a place on the Para-Olympic team. From there added some bungee cords and a strap at the back to keep it in place as I roll it down. Initially only had straps but there isn't enough give in them to be able to remove it. Some swearing later and I had it installed. Ended up putting it on the highest setting in order to tie the bottom bolts.
Will add some pictures of it in action later when we've had some time to test it out. But so far very happy with this addition.
Kaon universal awning brackets
- Kaon awning brackets
The main reason standard brackets don't work is due to this channel around the Front Runner racks
- Front Runner sides
Kaon solution bolts onto the cross bar and onto the side rail
- Kaon bracket 1
- Kaon bracket 2
Onto the roof before getting sliding it into the brackets on the side.
- On the roof
The end result
- Open
- Closed
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