An awning for our vehicles is a car accessory that helps shade the vehicle from the sun as well as protecting your car or truck from the elements. There are many different designs for vehicle awnings some are standalone designs this means that there are plastic or metal pillars that you can move from one direction to another and they tie up the pillars provide some covering. The material that make up the vehicle awning itself can range from metals, plastics or composite material.
Other vehicle awnings on the other hand are fixed, in other words, you would have to bolt them and disassemble them to move them from point A to point B. The big upside with this static vehicle awning products is that they tend to be sturdier because when you bolt something into a wall or you fasten a piece of metal to a wall to act as a mounting for your awning it is able to take a lot more weight.
How to Pick a Vehicle Awning
Also if you live in a windy part of the country, the materials as well as the construction of fixed vehicle awnings tend to absorb a lot more of what mother nature throws its way but simply it is able to take a lot more punishment and can endure for a longer period of time.
Portability
If portability is your #1 concern because you don’t have much space in your garage or you just want to store away the awning when you’re done with it on a weekly or even daily basis, your best bet now would be a portable awning. This is an awning that is made up of pillars that you can disassemble and quickly wheel away; in fact, a lot of these designs have a wheel or some sort of caster so you can quickly move them from location to location. If you want to store them you can easily fold them up, they can be disassembled
The great thing about portable vehicle awnings is that they enable you to protect your vehicle from the elements without cramping your style. If you want to show off your house or you’re holding a party at your residence people don’t have to see the awning. You can disassemble it and pack it in a fairly compact form and store it away, maybe you could store it in a shed in the back or where you can put it somewhere in your garage.
Another great thing about portable awnings is that they usually have a stretch or retractable awning covering. This is a big deal because if you opted for a fixed awning design it’s not going to be as flexible because you can just pull up or retract the covering. You’re going to have to take everything apart if you have a new purpose for the old location of the awning.
It can take quite a bit of elbow grease also once you start drilling holes on a post or on a wall somewhere, it can leave holes and to add insult to injury, if you plan of removing the location of the mounting brackets of the fixed awning it can make your wall look like it got hit by gunfire, it can look really bad, so if you are looking for maximum portability and flexibility it’s probably a good idea to just go with a fairly light construction vehicle awning.
It’s basically like a tent for your vehicle. It doesn’t really matter whether you have a subcompact or sedan, a pickup truck or even a full-sized SUV. There are all sorts of portable vehicle awnings that are scale-able enough to accommodate the size of your vehicle. What’s important is you pick the best vehicle awning based on the features that you are looking for.
As outlined above the most commonly preferred features are portability, lightweight and a fairly durable construction. Now, for a lot of consumers this seems like it’s too good to be true. It’s kind of like the old saying “You can pick something that is cheap, fast or good, but you can only pick two”.
Now, the good news is that there are lots of awning products and fabrics on the market with a fair range of strengths and weaknesses generally speaking, if you are looking for a durable, portable vehicle awning, you probably would have to pay a few extra dollars but the extra cash that you pay is more than worth it. If you’re looking for portable heat – consider a small portable space heater to go along with your vehicle. If you define piece of mind as having maximum flexibility as far as the structures on your premises a portable vehicle awning is the way to go.
On the other hand, if you are looking for a maximum security, durability and you are sure that you are going to keep an awning at a fixed place in your residence for a long, long time to come then you might want to consider a mounted vehicle awning. This can be at the side of your home, at the side of your trailer home or mounted on a wall. If you’re using a car awning, chances are you may be interested in the best truck bed tents as well!
Whatever the case may be, the typical mounted or fixed awning assembly usually has all the mounting brackets and screws as well as other fasteners that you need to install it, the only thing missing is really the time and the power to install the you need at the very least you should have access to some sort of a drill to take care of the holes that would hold the mounting for the brackets that would hold up your awning.
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Some Basic Tips
When installing a fixed vehicle awning you have to size up the area that you are going to put it in being as flexible as possible. Just because you have a subcompact today doesn’t necessarily mean that you may not own a large SUV a few years from now so keep that in mind, install the awning in such a way that it can accommodate all your vehicles regardless of their size and dimensions.
Don’t just look at what you own today, look a few years down the road. You’d be surprised as to how much protection a well-installed vehicle awning can provide. The problem is, you are going to have to position it properly so you can make full use of it.