The DIY Travel Trailer Project FINALLY gets an Awning - Part 23

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guys today I'm revisiting the longest

running project on this channel which is

the DIY travel trailer project I think

this is four or five years in the making

so far and in this video I'm going to go

over the last major build that I'm doing

on this you can see it hanging off the

side it is a fold out awning so I'm

going to show you actually how I made

the Little Pony awning that goes over

the door and kind of mates up to the

larger awning and then after I show you

that I will fold out the large awning

give you a little walk around tour talk

about uh some of my thoughts on it uh

why it didn't quite come out the way I

was hoping but it will still be usable

nonetheless and uh at the end I will

give you more specifics on things that I

may not have covered uh during the first

portion

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thank you

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so you just saw a little recap of how I

fabricated that little mini awning that

goes over the door and the big thing to

note on that is that the construction I

used in that is exactly the same as I

used to make the larger fold out awning

with the exception uh that that larger

awning kind of folds in on itself but

you'll see that during the tour and then

the other uh note that I wanted to make

is you saw that I had kind of made that

Little Pony Awning or the the door

awning be able to fold back up onto the

roof but I am not having that store up

there because I was just a little unsure

of how my locking mechanism would Mount

and I've decided to just use the little

hitch pins to put it up there manually

just takes a couple of minutes and I

don't want to run the risk of highway

speed winds kind of getting under that

and potentially flipping it up and maybe

tearing it off so that's why that is one

thing just to remember so now I am going

to unfold this kind of set it up and

give you a little tour and then I will

let you guys go

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thank you

well you just saw me set it up using the

One Man solo method and you may be

wondering how long that takes on average

well I've set it up easily over 10 times

now using that ladder method and it

takes about four to five minutes but if

I get my wife to help me it takes

anywhere from two to three minutes so

it's not that long of a process so now

I'm going to give you a little tour and

talk about some of the details on the

construction of the larger awning but I

want to answer a question that some of

you have probably been thinking about

the whole video so far is why the awning

does not extend on this side of the door

like you see a lot of RV awnings do well

that is just my lack of foresight in the

design process that was all in my head

during this build I didn't add enough

structure on this side of the door to a

fix one of those roll out awnings that

you commonly see on RVs and when I did

think about it I just figured I would

come up with some other solution like

this so anyway that's why it is it's

definitely not perfect but anyway I'll

show you the larger awning and uh

I don't know some of the details about

that now

so with both awnings set up you can get

a better look at the underside structure

the total size of the larger awning when

it's extended like this is eight foot

wide by eight foot extended from the

trailer and the smaller awning is three

foot wide by two foot extended from the

trailer and it has about a three and a

quarter inch overlap to help keep the

rain out on the upper side if you

remember from some of my older videos

the trim on the top of the trailer

creates a little bit of a lip so

anything that goes on the other side of

the awning will run off the front versus

come off the side

and then the structure of the larger

awning was the exact same welded

aluminum that I did on the smaller

awning with the exception that this

tubing is a little bit thicker it's inch

by inch and a half by eight inch thick

just because this is a larger structure

and just like the smaller one I sheeted

it in the painted 040 aluminum with VHB

tape and then one thing that I did

differently on this

is on these little intermediate sections

I used 16 gauge aluminum angle to help

save on weight and I just made some

little brackets and riveted them versus

welding

and the hinge points are comprised of

two galvanized hinges that I got from

Home Depot there and there and a quarter

inch heavier Duty hinge that I got from

Industrial Metal Supply on the middle

and those all support a total of about

67 pounds which is what I figured this

large awning to be as I mentioned

earlier

the aluminum shelf down here serves two

purposes one is to be simply a shelf to

put condiments or drinks or whatever

else as we are cooking

on the little slide out kitchen but it

also serves to Bear some of the weight

of this 67 pound awning as it is stored

against the side and I have some clips

I'll show you how those little Cotter

pens or the hitch pins go through the

bottom and then secure themselves into

this

as for the hinges on this they are just

standard Home Depot uh like gate

hardware hinges

um and they are definitely not the most

heavy duty I just have them riveted in

place but not to worry because when this

folds up

these little brackets that I made out of

inch and a quarter uh Channel

it folds up on itself and that bracket

lines up with that hole right there so

in addition to the hinges these lower

sections are also held in place by way

of those brackets with the little hitch

pins

and I think oh No actually that's not it

the last thing I wanted to address is on

the upper side of this awning there is a

garage door rubber flap like a garage

door seal that folds over the top of

this to seal out the rain

on this larger awning and I'll show you

some clips of that now look at the top

side of the awning with that little

Rubber seal that's just a garage door

threshold seal and this is attached to a

piece of one inch by three inch aluminum

angle that is attached to the top of the

awning by way of rivets and VHB tape and

when this door folds up this seal just

kind of rests on the top edge of this

aluminum trim on the top of the roof and

that already has about a quarter inch

lip so any rain that comes here runs off

and will run off past those solar panels

off of the front of the trailer

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so I think that's just about going to

conclude this latest addition to the DIY

travel trailer project but not to worry

if you have liked this project over the

years even though this is the last kind

of big build on it I still have plenty

of things bouncing around in my head

that I want to do to it I'm planning on

reworking the water system that I

originally installed with a foot pump

and a few other little things so there

will definitely be more content for this

in the future but this is just the last

kind of major thing however there were a

couple of things I wanted to cover that

I mentioned at the beginning because I I

kind of alluded to the fact that this

didn't quite come out how I had

originally hoped and that mainly is

because of two things the one I covered

during the little tour portion about not

having enough structure on the front

side of this door to have an awning a

single awning that would kind of cover

everything and then the other is uh this

wasn't quite as slick and as uh kind of

like transformer-ish that I was hoping

for in that I originally had planned to

be able to pull this out and those arms

that I have now just kept as uh single

straight pieces of aluminum I had played

around with some scrap pieces of

aluminum to see if I could have them

where they Bend in half and then when I

pulled it out they would kind of lock

straight and I tried a couple variations

and it just didn't seem like it was

going to be something that was Secure in

case we had some breezes come by so

that's why I kind of opted for the keep

it simple stupid method just to have it

take a couple more minutes to set up but

have something that would be a lot more

secure and uh

uh oh uh if I didn't mention it in the

uh

a little uh walk around tour the total

weight of that not including the hinges

that are mounted to the trailer is

approximately 67 pounds and uh it's all

aluminum so that does sound a little bit

like a decent amount of weight but as

you could see when I closed it up and

showed you the Locking mechanisms it

does stay on this pretty securely I

drove it up and down the road and

watched it my rearview mirrors going

over some potholes and it doesn't budge

at all so I find it to be pretty safe

and my other concern was the little mini

awning if I was storing it on the top

but I kind of already addressed the

reason why I am not having it store on

the top so as always I appreciate you

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