- Thread starter
- #81
I finally got around to finishing the mounting points for my Ironman 4x4 shade canopy.
I'm not the kind of guy who needs to drive around town looking like I'm ready for the zombie apocalypse to start any minute, with all sorts of shit strapped to my truck, so there was no way I'm leaving the shade canopy on my truck full-time.
So I bought a pair of these quick-release mounting brackets:
Awning Quick Release Mounting Brackets
They advertise them as mounting the male hook piece on your rack and the female piece on the back of the shade canopy but I didn't want those dorky hooks living full time on my rack. The hooks would also stick up a few inches over the top of my rack which wouldn't let me get in my own garage not to mention parking garages around town. So I simply reversed the male & female parts and mounted the hooks on the canopy and the female part on the side of my roof rack.
The two pieces of the brackets are secured with some large swivel hitch pin clips that go through pre-drilled holes in the male & female parts that line up when mounted, but the Iron-man supplied clips touched the white paint on the truck when inserted so I bought some stainless steel straight-pins and separate cotter pins. The rack is very secure and it doesn't rattle. Surprisingly, I couldn't hear any wind noise even on the highway. I'll have to get some pictures of the shade canopy opened up (or "deployed" as the zombie apocalypse overlanders like to say) on my next camping trip. It's still too damn hot here to open it up just for a picture.
Another problem was where to store this long shade canopy when it's not on the truck? I'd typically just lean it up in a corner of my garage but all the corners are already taken up with useless shit. While looking at it on the truck I thought what would be the easiest way to get it on & off and store it and I realized that the perfect solution was to hang it on the ceiling. So a few big hooks went in and now it's easy to just lower it onto the truck and then lift it back up onto the hooks and the canopy is out of everyone's way. Luckily it clears the garage by about a quarter inch. The zippers actually brush the garage door when it's opening and closing.
I'm not the kind of guy who needs to drive around town looking like I'm ready for the zombie apocalypse to start any minute, with all sorts of shit strapped to my truck, so there was no way I'm leaving the shade canopy on my truck full-time.
So I bought a pair of these quick-release mounting brackets:
Awning Quick Release Mounting Brackets
They advertise them as mounting the male hook piece on your rack and the female piece on the back of the shade canopy but I didn't want those dorky hooks living full time on my rack. The hooks would also stick up a few inches over the top of my rack which wouldn't let me get in my own garage not to mention parking garages around town. So I simply reversed the male & female parts and mounted the hooks on the canopy and the female part on the side of my roof rack.
The two pieces of the brackets are secured with some large swivel hitch pin clips that go through pre-drilled holes in the male & female parts that line up when mounted, but the Iron-man supplied clips touched the white paint on the truck when inserted so I bought some stainless steel straight-pins and separate cotter pins. The rack is very secure and it doesn't rattle. Surprisingly, I couldn't hear any wind noise even on the highway. I'll have to get some pictures of the shade canopy opened up (or "deployed" as the zombie apocalypse overlanders like to say) on my next camping trip. It's still too damn hot here to open it up just for a picture.
Another problem was where to store this long shade canopy when it's not on the truck? I'd typically just lean it up in a corner of my garage but all the corners are already taken up with useless shit. While looking at it on the truck I thought what would be the easiest way to get it on & off and store it and I realized that the perfect solution was to hang it on the ceiling. So a few big hooks went in and now it's easy to just lower it onto the truck and then lift it back up onto the hooks and the canopy is out of everyone's way. Luckily it clears the garage by about a quarter inch. The zippers actually brush the garage door when it's opening and closing.
