HUGE Awnings

There's just no way you could have a 20x30 traditional awining. It's just too much surface area. An awning that large would have to sit nearly flat, if it did rain, you'd have serious drainage problems. Wind would be a bigger issue. When it's raining, it's often windy. Even my small and wing needs to come in when there's mild wind, an awning that size would need to come in with even an decent breeze.

A tent next to the rig would be much easier.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B009XB15BA?pc_redir=1403803809&robot_redir=1

Something like that would be a much easier option, and probably less expensive in the end. You could but that tent right against the rig and would work just fine. Yes you might get some water run off, but you'd still have weather protection.

Hi,

I guess the problem with using 6 each 10X10 easy up tents is that there will be water pouring into the center of the area when it might rain. In good weather, it will work out well.

Most awnings are not more than about 25' long. I have a 15' long awning, and would much rather have a pair of 15' awnings than a single 30' long one. Mainly it is because the center of the tube is not supported, and can bend with age, especially while driving down the road. Flex while driving is much more forceful than while camped.

I was recently looking at a Heartland Cougar toyhauler RV. It has a pair of awnings on each side of the RV, so that each is about 12- 18 feet long. There will be a small gap between the awnings, where rain can land, but not really enough of a problem to soak someone wanting to eat breakfast under the awning.

The problem is that a 8' wide awning that is 15' long is 120 square feet of sail area. That can be enough to tip over a RV if it is light, with a 20 MPH wind. The larger Cougar toyhauler comes with a 15,675 empty weight, adding 75 gallons of water will raise that weight by another 750 pounds or so.

The problem with building a awning more than 10' wide (measured from the RV sidewall out to thin air) is that the RV wall needs to support all that weight 10 feet away from the RV. Much like taking a 10' long pipe wrench and attaching that to the side of the RV, put 200 pounds on the other end of that wrench, and you are likely to break something - as you also tend to twist the RV over in that direction. 200 pounds of weight 10' from the sidewall is 2,000 foot pounds of torque. Increase that to 30' and you get much more weight just to hold up the awning, and then you have that 100 pounds that is 30' from the mounting point, and 200 pounds that is 20' from the mounts, 350 pounds that is 10' out. All this can add up to well over 1,050 foot pounds of torque on the structure that it is mounted to.

How about installing a pair of 15' long awnings. Then put up 3 each 10X 10 or 12X12 quick up awnings that can be bungy cord attached to the RV awning, as well as supporting their own weight onto the ground with tent poles, and attached to prevent wind lift with tent stakes. So the RV awning will assist in stabilizing the portable awnings, and keep them from blowing in the wind!

Yes you will have problems with rainwater getting between the gaps, but overall it will be fairly dry, at least compared to the pits where everyone is walking in the rain and normally mud or wet gravel.

Have fun camping and Racing!

Fred.

Why connect the tent to the RV at all? Just put them close together. Done.

Tents this large are usually kept in place by balance tension on multiple tiedowns on all four sides. Stresses on a tent this large are quite different than on a RV awning. I think you will likely have a few more tent manufacturers telling you they don't make a tent to fasten along one edge to a RV.

For this kind of space we used military surplus tents, usually a couple hours to put up or take down with a crew of 6-10 men. Those were heavy and meant for long-term use, but they were cheap as surplus in the 1950s. Tent rental companies have lighter "easy up" tents for short term use, but they are still tied to the ground all around when they are that large and intended to house masses of people.

I would mess with a sail, I mean awning that big.....Go with a separate tent

Be advised that while a pulldown awning can in theory be as long as the rig itself, in most cases extended-out dimension is limited by vehicle HEIGHT. The way the arms work limits that to around eight feet.

I think that even the new no-arm scissor types are similarly limited- they just can't be designed to hold the weight of much beyond that dimension.

lawnspecialties wrote:

-- snip -- At first I was going to attach a pole tent to the side of the Work & Play but the first tent company I called highly advised against it.

They didn't want to accept the liability if the wind got under the tent and caused the trailer to tip over.

I would just set up the tent next to the trailer.