How Many Awning Mounting Brackets?

[brentbba]

Ok, I traded a raffle win for another's raffle win - both of us being very pleased with the trade and I ended up with a brand new in wrapping CVT 79" awning that I'll be mounting to an INTI rack. It looks like the 5" BajaRack awning mounts will work perfectly on my INTI as the spread of the rack rails is exactly what the Baja racks are and the same 1" diameter on the tubing.

Now for the 'stupid' question. With the awning that long am I better off with 3 mounts or will 2 be sufficient to hold the awning sturdy? I tend to over build and am leaning toward 3 at this point, but looking for experienced input.

Thanks!

 

[acg]

I suggest 3 brackets. I have a 2-meter OzTrail awning. It is probably similar to the CVT awning. My RTT sits up pretty high n my Discovery. They are some occasion when I have to get an emergency grip on the awning house when I am working on packing or unpacking the RTT. 3 brackets means that if one breaks, you still have two awnings holding up the awning. A good safety especially if you are overlanding and out in the remote.

 

[brentbba]

Conclusion I came to having found an installation manual online for an ARB 2500 at 98". ARB said two (obviously) but recommended three so that's what I've ordered is the three pack.

 

[TheFutur]

I have two supporting my ARB 2500 awning but they are both custom welded steel mounts that slide into the inside diameter of my trailers rack tubing, so they are very strong and over built.

Id suggest 3 for traditional "L" shape brackets. Better safe than sorry!

 

[brentbba]

See first pic in this thread for what I've ordered. Not an "L" type, but going with three for strength regardless.

http://www.expeditionportal.com/forum/threads/149462-BajaRack-Still-in-Business-in-the-US

 

[TheFutur]

Those look pretty tough, much better than L brackets! Especially if rough terrain is in your vehicles future! 3 will definitely keep your mind at ease

 

[brentbba]

Those look pretty tough, much better than L brackets! Especially if rough terrain is in your vehicles future! 3 will definitely keep your mind at ease

Now here's hoping they fit on my INTI rack! Measurement and info from BajaRack seems to indicate they will.

Landcruiser has seen it's share of rough washboard roads in 21 years.

 

[brentbba]

Quick shipping from Baja Racks and mounts are very beefy. For anyone with an INTI rack thinking about putting an awning on, these 5" brackets fit perfectly.

 

[kklasman]

A related question here regards the spacing of the brackets. The cross bars on my teardrop trailer are only 32 inches apart, and I could probably extend that to 35 inches easily. Since it's a true teardrop there's no real room for a 3rd crossbar.

I'll round that to 36 inches for easy math. Mounting an 8 foot awning centered on the two brackets leaves about 30 inches on each end unsupported. I've seen one posting that says maybe 27.5 inches is the max recommended by ARB, but I cannot find an ARB 2500 manual online. Does anyone have one?

I'm thinking of clamping maybe 6 feet of steel super strut perpendicular to my crossbars so I have room for 3 brackets clamped to the super strut instead of the crossbars. That seems like it would provide more support for the awning itself, but I'd still only be limited to 2 clamps attaching the whole assembly to the roof rack.

Is this an improvement or simply moving the potential point of failure around?

 

[XJOverlander]

I have two on the mini vans 8' awning. On the jeep i have 4 since it sees the most abuse, but its only 6.5'. On the trailer i have two originally with a 6.5' then switched to a 8' and it really bounces around offroad but i dont think it will fail and hasnt yet.

If you do a fox wing style i say 3 minimum.

 

[Wallygator]

Has anyone actually broke an awning mount or know of one breaking? Can not find any record of these mounts breaking if properly anchored to a quality rack.

 

[Kevin108]

4 years on my 8x6 awning with only two mounts. No issues.