270 Awnings, which one?

[holdmybeer]

Yeah, ±8 kg if you're taking it on and off a lot becomes a big deal. I get it.

 

[Colorado]

I'm leaning toward the Alu-Cab Shadow 270 awning, partly because there are local dealers if support or parts are needed. I have a 3/4 Leitner platform rack and seeing Leitner with the Alu-Cab awning on their truck gives me extra confidence.

Question for anyone with a similar setup (i.e. 3/4 rack with a longer awning cantilevering nearly a metre forward of its front mount point) ... when driving, should I expect any unusual flex or oscillation or anything? The platform and awning shell are all pretty stout aluminum, so I reckon this must be fine, eh?

View attachment 7867223

ACS ROOF PLATFORM RACK - Awning Bracket

PART # 00-ABRA-1589 Backordered: Est. to Ship in 1 week Attach any awning directly to your ACS ROOF Platform Rack with this Awning Bracket. NOTE: This bracket is specifically designed to be used with the ACS ROOF Platform Rack and WILL NOT work with the ACS FORGED Truck Bed Rack System...

www.leitnerdesigns.com

I have this exact awning on my Grenadier and I absolutely love it.

 

[holdmybeer]

I have this exact awning on my Grenadier and I absolutely love it.

Good to hear! I saw a pic you shared of your rig with roof platform, awning, and a Leitner box. Any notable noise or weirdness at highway speed with that setup?

 

[Colorado]

Good to hear! I saw a pic you shared of your rig with roof platform, awning, and a Leitner box. Any notable noise or weirdness at highway speed with that setup?

No noticeable noise at all. I have been very impressed with all of the Leitner products. Great quality for sure.

 

[globalgregors]

Good to hear! I saw a pic you shared of your rig with roof platform, awning, and a Leitner box. Any notable noise or weirdness at highway speed with that setup?

Adding Wolfboxes and 2 jerry cans to our rack increased fuel consumption at highway speeds by about 10% but is not noticeable in terms of noise.

 

[CrazyOldMan]

Nice work on pushing this. i'm very interested to see how it turns out. I have the leitner 3/4 ACS rack, and am of same mind that i'd love to have an easy on / off 270 awning so I'm not looking like a fully equiped prep vehicle to and from work every day - i like to mount my stuff on fridays and dismount on sundays so its mostly a plain vehicle all week

Just a brief update. Clevershade thinks the Ultra-Lite will mount with the Leitner 3/4 rack. They think it’s not possible with the Leitner HD bars (sad face emoji), because the whole unit 1)pivots off the back corner, so that would be a LOT of load and torque on just one bar, and 2) the aft Leitner HD bar is over 10” from the rear, so that would require a LONG adapter bracket and even if one bar COULD handle the load, the adapter would fail. They (Clevershade) are recommending the Deluxe, since that has a traditional backer panel to bolt to the Leitner brackets. However, that defeats the entire concept of an easy on/off solution, since you would have to bolt/unbolt. Maybe with the RacksBrax side twist, it’s workable. Let’s see if Leitner agrees - but if you already have the Leitner ACS rack, I would say absolutely do the Clevershade Ultra-Lite.

 

[Migs]

Just a brief update. Clevershade thinks the Ultra-Lite will mount with the Leitner 3/4 rack. They think it’s not possible with the Leitner HD bars (sad face emoji), because the whole unit 1)pivots off the back corner, so that would be a LOT of load and torque on just one bar, and 2) the aft Leitner HD bar is over 10” from the rear, so that would require a LONG adapter bracket and even if one bar COULD handle the load, the adapter would fail. They (Clevershade) are recommending the Deluxe, since that has a traditional backer panel to bolt to the Leitner brackets. However, that defeats the entire concept of an easy on/off solution, since you would have to bolt/unbolt. Maybe with the RacksBrax side twist, it’s workable. Let’s see if Leitner agrees - but if you already have the Leitner ACS rack, I would say absolutely do the Clevershade Ultra-Lite.

understood. appreciate you including the ask on the 3/4 rack - sorry to hear it won't work with the HD bars you have

 

[CrazyOldMan]

understood. appreciate you including the ask on the 3/4 rack - sorry to hear it won't work with the HD bars you have

All good - I love the Leitner HD bars and glad I installed them. Excited to get the Sidekick panel when it’s back in stock. The point of the Ultra-Lite is that 1)it’s easy to handle and 2)it’s easy to mount and take off - meaning you can just pop it on and go. I can get the same effect with the RacksBrax attachments (@grnamin turned me on to them). That’s like a 30 second mount. Sure, the whole thing will be somewhat heavier (8-9 kg), but since I wouldn’t have to bolt on the awning, that seems like a small price to pay. I’ll see what Leitner says - but that’s probably where I’m going

Here’s the install video Clevershade sent - should work similarly for the ACS rack

View: https://youtu.be/11IjIUFNpLw?si=Q9jukD9_z4vXBwCK

 

[CrazyOldMan]

understood. appreciate you including the ask on the 3/4 rack - sorry to hear it won't work with the HD bars you have

@Migs - please verify with Clevershade before you order - their US distributor is Basil’s Garage, by San Diego. Neither Clevershade nor Leitner have worked with one another’s products, so I don’t want to mislead you about the ACS rack compatibility. Clevershade THINKS it will work.

 

[globalgregors]

Just a brief update. Clevershade thinks the Ultra-Lite will mount with the Leitner 3/4 rack. They think it’s not possible with the Leitner HD bars (sad face emoji), because the whole unit 1)pivots off the back corner, so that would be a LOT of load and torque on just one bar, and 2) the aft Leitner HD bar is over 10” from the rear, so that would require a LONG adapter bracket and even if one bar COULD handle the load, the adapter would fail. They (Clevershade) are recommending the Deluxe, since that has a traditional backer panel to bolt to the Leitner brackets. However, that defeats the entire concept of an easy on/off solution, since you would have to bolt/unbolt. Maybe with the RacksBrax side twist, it’s workable. Let’s see if Leitner agrees - but if you already have the Leitner ACS rack, I would say absolutely do the Clevershade Ultra-Lite.

Leitner 3/4 + Ultra-Lite pictured below. Only issue(?) with removing the awning would be the remaining front bracket.

You will see that the two Clevershade mounting components want to be located at approximately the recommended roof bar locations (as per the fitting instructions of the accessory roof bars that is).

So when fitting to roof bars your bars will similarly need to match with the distance you see here between the rear pivot and front bracket.

Whereas with a more conventional awning design the roof bars could be wherever you desire as the awning is pivoting off a backing plate attached with brackets.

 

[CrazyOldMan]

Leitner 3/4 + Ultra-Lite pictured below. Only issue(?) with removing the awning would be the remaining front bracket.

You will see that the two Clevershade mounting components want to be located at approximately the recommended roof bar locations (as per the fitting instructions of the accessory roof bars that is).

So when fitting to roof bars your bars will similarly need to match with the distance you see here between the rear pivot and front bracket.

Whereas with a more conventional awning design the roof bars could be wherever you desire as the awning is pivoting off a backing plate attached with brackets.

View attachment 7867453

OK @Migs - there you go - it works! But you can see from the picture @globalgregors posted, the pivot point is all the way in back of the ACS rack, at the back of the roofline. The load is also distributed across multiple connection points on the rack. Clevershade’s issue with the load bars is 1)too much load at a single point, and 2)the Leitner HD bar’s position, which is basically up by 2nd bar from the top of this picture (the first interior bar from the back of the rack). So I have no choice but to go with an awning that has a backer plate. I’ll get my easy on/off solution with RacksBrax and it will just be a bit heavier - not a huge deal.

 

[Migs]

Appreciate it!