Rain is one of the more annoying parts of camping/road tripping. It can make it hard to cook, and otherwise life around the campsite just gets wet and miserable…especially if the rain lasts all day.
I know some people have a separate kitchen tent, or setup a tarp to shield from the rain, but since my journeys often involve moving from place to place, I never got into these things as they involved a lot of extra space/setup/teardown. Also, even something like tying a tarp to some trees requires nearby trees…which aren’t always available.
My old ground tent was actually a bit of an attempt to solve this problem. It had a large front vestibule, which could be configured to act as sort of a small awning. It worked for what it was, but it was quite cramped and if it was raining at all hard, I would get wet. I had intended to use it for cooking in the rain as well, but it was far too small for that, so I only tried it once. For what it was, it was reasonably helpful.
Last year, I got a popup camper installed on my Jeep, which has been a big improvement over a ground tent. Unlike my tent, the camper top has mesh windows so if I need to hang out inside at least there’s still a bit of a view. However, I still found it a bit too cramped for comfort if I had to spend long hours inside during the day.
When ordering my Ursa Minor camper top, I was already planning on getting an awning, and made sure it came with awning mounts. So I set out researching which awning to get. Right away I was interested in 270 degree awnings, which can cover both the side and rear of a vehicle. But there were some complications. Unlike most people, who would mount an awning to a very solid, metal rack…my camper top is made of plastic and the mounts are simply bolted into it. So there’s a weight limit that’s much lower than most 270 awnings. Then there’s the fact that almost all 270 awnings have a triangle shape covering the rear. Part of the plan was to build my kitchen setup at the rear of the Jeep, and a triangular covering would not have been ideal.
In the end, there was one awning on the market that ticked all the boxes. The Freespirit Recreation 270 Awning. It’s one of the lowest weight 270 awnings on the market, at only 37 lbs. It also has a squared off rear covering! The only downfall is that it was a little pricey and I had to get it shipped from the USA. There also weren’t a lot of detailed review videos or blogs, so I had to take a bit of a chance on it.
And I’m so glad I did. It has been amazing.
I had a bit of “fun” installing it. Despite having many pre-drilled holes, my awning mounts didn’t have any that were the right distance apart. So I had to drill 1 hole in each mount. It isn’t super easy to remove the mounts, so I drilled with them still on the Jeep…and they are decently thick stainless steel, which is tough to drill through. Several drill bits were harmed..
My first outing only proved that in some scenarios an awning isn’t helpful…which I already knew. Wind is an enemy of awnings structurally, but I learned that if it’s windy, the rain will just come in from an angle and I’ll be wet anyway.
This awning doesn’t come with legs, it’s freestanding…which is a bit of a concern in my case, as 270 awnings often have all the arms pivoting from the rear so a lot of stress is put on the rear mount, and with the plastic camper top, there is some movement when the awning is open. However, it does come with tie down ropes, and is designed extremely well for this, as the two main arms are opposite each other, so once they are tied down, they keep the whole thing rigid. And with it tied down, it can withstand some pretty strong winds.
On the next trip, I had 3 rainy evenings and the awning was amazing. It wasn’t windy, so it kept me dry from the rain/drizzle. In each case, I had also arrived at the campground in the rain, and everything is very quick and easy to setup, so there’s not much time spent getting wet. I was also able to cook and make coffee with my new kitchen setup at the rear.
At one point it was raining quite hard and I was still dry, while sitting outside! I find the rain soothing, and now to be able to properly enjoy it at the campsite is absolutely amazing!
This setup works especially well with the Ursa Minor camper top because I can get into the top from inside the Jeep. Most rooftop tents have an external ladder, which wouldn’t work as well with an awning like this. In this case, the driver’s side rear door is my entrance up to the top, so I can go from cooking to sitting to being upstairs…all without going out in the rain!
Presumably it could also be used for shade from the sun in hot deserts…but I haven’t had a chance to use it like that yet. It’s not a perfect solution for more stormy/windy weather, but it also has the option to add walls, which I might look into. It’s also seems like it’s made of high quality materials and will last for a long time.
The camper top revolutionized sleeping, camp setup time, and campsite choice. The awning is revolutionizing camping(and cooking!) in bad weather! More is coming on my kitchen/battery setup. Stay tuned!
The Narrow Twisty Road 