JB Awning
I also recently picked up a 2.5-meter James Baroud awning and a pair of Front Runner load bars and 40mm mounting brackets, but I only took a few photos and none of them show how it mounts up. I will be swapping out my old Yakima tracks for a pair of much beefier Front Runner tracks soon, and I will do a better job of taking photos then. When I bought the JB awning, I also ordered their fancy $100 mounting brackets thinking I would need them, but I ended up returning them because the factory brackets worked much better for my rig.
The fancy brackets:
The factory brackets (there are actually 3, which will be great for when I add a 3rd load bar to my rack system):
In the garage (sorry, not much detail here)
Here it is pitched on my rig:
The factory guy lines are generic white cordage, and the tensioners are plastic. I ordered some 3mm Glowire and some aluminum Bar Tensioners from Lawson Equipment. Lawson is a small mom & pop outfit that makes really high quality cordage. The Glowire has reflective strands in it so people (hopefully) won't trip over the awning guy lines at night. The bright orange color helps during the day too.
I almost bought a Rhino Rack awning, but decided on the JB for a couple reasons. JB has cleverly attached the cover to the awning fabric/frame so that it wraps tightly around the rolled up awning and has a solid velcro closure all along the bottom edge. It also uses 3 velcro straps for extra security. To me this means no flapping cover at highway speeds. I'm sure there are sturdier (and heavier...) awnings out there, but so far this one seems like it will meet my needs and keep the canopy-mounted weight down. The real selling point for me, however, was the optional wall kit to create a nice room. The walls are made of the same thick, waterproof, aluminized fabric and has the same kind of screened zip-open windows as the RTT, which I am already super impressed with. Having spent a lot of time in backpacking tents and experiencing a few zipper failures, I think the curved shape of the window openings will make for easy opening/closing and less stress on the material and zippers themselves. I think it looks pretty cool too. If I could wish for one improvement, it would be for the awning to somehow attach to the top shell of the RTT, so that the ladder and tent entrance could be sheltered. I've seen pictures of a similar Autohome vestibule, but I suppose a guy can't have everything...
This pic is from the internet, but I promise to post a few of my own once I get it all together:
It will be great for a little wind shelter, for showers, and for one of these to keep my wife and daughter happy: :sombrero:
BTW, speaking of showers, I've always been a fan of the good old-fashioned SunShower, but I stumbled across another neat shower device the other day from one of my favorite backpacking stores and thought I'd share:
http://www.dutchwaregear.com/simple-shower-bottle.html