Fitted a Thule Hideaway awning

[Dave Hansford]

I fitted a Thule Hideaway awning (I'm pretty sure it's just an Omnistor by another name) to our Gen 3. The summers just get hotter here in the top of the South Island of New Zealand, and the shady spots get snapped up pretty fast. The car already had Thule wing bars, so it was an easy installation using the rack adaptor kit. Being Thule, the awning is hell expensive, but it's very well-designed and built, and works like it should, erecting and stowing in a minute or so each way. The arms provide all the tension you need, and a couple of pegs keep the thing from lifting off in New Zealand's infamous "sea breezes". The exception is the pain-in-the-donkey crank handle: it has a yoke on top which slots into the winding mechanism in the awning shell itself. Thule decided that once in there, it should lock in position — I guess to stop it popping out mid-wind. But to release the crank again, the handle must hang vertically, which is a physical impossibility in a rack mount configuration — the handle hits the side of the car before that can happen. So I popped a series of o-rings around the shaft of the yoke that stop it engaging with the lock. I still seem to end up bashing the paintwork with the damn crank, though. The trick is to watch the crank, not the awning, while winding. I have seen an ingenious alternative (leave it to the Australians to nut out the sensible solutions) where a guy removed the yoke from his crank handle and simply put it in a battery drill... genius.

 

[Kevin]

Nice! I like Thule products because, as you say, they are well made. Depending on application I have aero roof bars, square roof bars (short & long), rooftop box & ceiling hoist to store it; etc etc!

 

[ABFoz]

I also like their products. At the moment, it's only the GG9 which has the Thulé Aero Bars. Those look like they are designed to last.

Their awnings look like they are custom built. The fasteners are premium.