Alu-Cab Has Landed In The USA!
- Thread starter rino
- Start date
harbinger808
Adventurer
So this is what we came up with to brace the rear of the ShadowAwing to my roof rack... we aren't engineers or fabricators. My brother in law does weld as he is an artist so we just bought some 1" steel tube a 6x6" steel plate and made this up. It holds the weight and seems strong enough. Had in open in some 15-20mph gust of wind and didnt fall off 
Anyone with fab or engineering know how, please chime in and tell us what we could do differently.
Anyone with fab or engineering know how, please chime in and tell us what we could do differently.Diesel Junkie
Observer
So this is what we came up with to brace the rear of the ShadowAwing to my roof rack... we aren't engineers or fabricators. My brother in law does weld as he is an artist so we just bought some 1" steel tube a 6x6" steel plate and made this up. It holds the weight and seems strong enough. Had in open in some 15-20mph gust of wind and didnt fall off
Your design looks pretty good to me. well done in my opinion. Tubes are at least .120" wall?
How strong is the rack you attached it to? And/or the roof of the truck that is under that rack?
harbinger808
Adventurer
Aloha Diesel Junkie,
Thanks and your opinion is appreciated! Yes, we used .120" walls. I'm assuming that the rack to roof is solid since Prospeed offers alot of attachments to their rack and it can hold about 550lb of weight. Their is some flex when I stand on the rack even before we started mounting all this gear. Time will tell I suppose. I'm going to leave the awning open again tonite and see how things are tomorrow morning.
Thanks and your opinion is appreciated! Yes, we used .120" walls. I'm assuming that the rack to roof is solid since Prospeed offers alot of attachments to their rack and it can hold about 550lb of weight. Their is some flex when I stand on the rack even before we started mounting all this gear. Time will tell I suppose. I'm going to leave the awning open again tonite and see how things are tomorrow morning.
Diesel Junkie
Observer
A static load sitting overnight will likely never be your problem. If it sags in that condition, you have a serious issue. I highly doubt that will happen.
It will either happen when bouncing down the road and hitting a big bump,(Unlikely if the tent is folded up).
Most likely it will fail when the awning is deployed, and either a big gust of wind picks up, or someone trips and falls, and yanks on the awning.
A really good test for the stiffness of any structure is to check the natural frequency.
Basically the tip of the awning should be springy. Go ahead and give it a little yank and let go. It should spring back and oscillate. (you can also continue to tug on it at the natural frequency to keep it going).
have someone count the number of cycles in a given time period.(like 5 seconds)
If it is less than about 1-2 cycles per second(1-2 Hz) I would be worried. >5 Hz and you are golden. (just my estimate, and some of this will be the awning bar itself).
Another good test is to hit your bracket with a hammer, (without the awning on it) and listen to the tone. Higher pitch means the whole system is stiffer. Compare that tone to something you know is stiff, and something known flimsy.
Your bracket design is totally fine though... I just dont know about the rack or how its attached to the roof of your truck. Most OE rack mounts are designed to be more for appearance, than to actually hold anything.
Diesel Junkie
Observer
I got the awning on last night.
Being on a truck bed is a little less common than an SUV...
Because I have fold down tables on each side of the bed(and my kitchen is on the driver side), I wanted it to primarily cover the side of the bed, rather than the doors on the cab.
So, I mounted the front of the awning to the back corner of the tent, and then mounted the back of the awning(the pivot corner) to a post mounted to the bed. (2.5" x 2.5" .120"wall). (Weird, I know..)
I am loving where It covers and provides shade. Cant wait to get out there and really test it. Also like that I can see right through to the passenger side of the bed, but this is going to compromise the amount of shade when the sun is getting to lower angles.
Thinking of one of 2 things for the next step.
1. get a small square awning piece to cover just the bed itself. That will prevent light from coming in at an angle in a lot of places.
2. Get a second Shadown awning, a right handed one but mount this one to the tent in a conventional way. Setup like that, the part swinging out to the rear will cover the bed getting good shade there.
Thoughts?
Being on a truck bed is a little less common than an SUV...
Because I have fold down tables on each side of the bed(and my kitchen is on the driver side), I wanted it to primarily cover the side of the bed, rather than the doors on the cab.
So, I mounted the front of the awning to the back corner of the tent, and then mounted the back of the awning(the pivot corner) to a post mounted to the bed. (2.5" x 2.5" .120"wall). (Weird, I know..)
I am loving where It covers and provides shade. Cant wait to get out there and really test it. Also like that I can see right through to the passenger side of the bed, but this is going to compromise the amount of shade when the sun is getting to lower angles.
Thinking of one of 2 things for the next step.
1. get a small square awning piece to cover just the bed itself. That will prevent light from coming in at an angle in a lot of places.
2. Get a second Shadown awning, a right handed one but mount this one to the tent in a conventional way. Setup like that, the part swinging out to the rear will cover the bed getting good shade there.
Thoughts?
harbinger808
Adventurer
Thanks again for the advice.. I'll do those tonite and let you know!
Diesel Junkie
Observer
Got a bunch of pics tonight.
Sorry the lighting was a little low.
Tried to get pics of packed and unpacked.
Please ignore the plywood tailgate skin. My aluminum diamond plate had not arrived when I needed something.
This truck might be a bit bigger than your stereotypical "overland rig".
I used it for towing rock crawlers. Moto and MTB rec and racing, and pitting offroad racers. I almost never camp without at least a few toys.
One of my main goals was to keep all the basic stuff you always need out of the bed, and keep it configurable for whatever the weekend may need.
Last edited:
yonah
Calling-in from west of the Rockies
trabs00
Lifetime Social Distancer
Pretty excited to have my black Alu-Cab tent installed today! Thanks to Rin at OK4WD for getting this ordered and then much thanks to Tom at Adventure Ready in Seattle for receiving it and help with the install. First class customer service from both since back in May when I first became aware of Alu-Cab becoming available in the U.S.
Then tent was pretty straightforward to install but thankful to have Tom who had done a few already (mounting hardware is a bit unintuitive). I am really impressed at the build quality and how streamlined it is, love the look on my 2012 Tundra Crew Max and can't wait for a few accessories.
Super psyched as this is my first RTT, can't wait to get it out for a trip and get some shots of it on location.
Then tent was pretty straightforward to install but thankful to have Tom who had done a few already (mounting hardware is a bit unintuitive). I am really impressed at the build quality and how streamlined it is, love the look on my 2012 Tundra Crew Max and can't wait for a few accessories.
Super psyched as this is my first RTT, can't wait to get it out for a trip and get some shots of it on location.
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rino
Approved Vendor - OK4WD
They will be back in stock in November and $8,995 is the landed cost.
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