Thule Overcast Awning - Roof Rack Mount - 6' 6" Long x 6' 6" Wide

Video Transcript for Thule Overcast Roof Rack Awning Review - 2017 Toyota RAV4

Hey everyone. It's Evangeline here at etrailer, and today we'll be taking a look here at our Thule tepui awning, which is six and a half by six and a half feet long here on our 2017 Toyota RAV4. If you're looking for an awning that's going to work well with the crossbars on your RAV4. Not necessarily something that will work with your Thule tepui tent, since that doesn't fit on this vehicle, but you want some extra shade. This may be a good option for you. So this is a square awning.

It's six and a half by six and a half wide and long. So you can see how far this comes out with our vehicle right over here. It's on the smaller size when it comes to awnings, but it does kind of make up for it, with how portable it is. So it's been a really windy day today, and I am impressed by how well this has held up. We've got our lines onto the side, holding it down with tent stakes and we also have stabilizing poles on the inside.

So with how you can adjust those poles as well as how you can tie it down, I do like how it sits here outside. So this has four aluminum height adjustable poles. So I do like how lightweight they are. You want to make sure that this awning is as light as you can get it, because it is going to sit on your crossbars or on your tepui tent. But even though it is lightweight, it is sturdy and holds up pretty well.

So up here, you can see how our awning is made of a haze gray material. While this is primarily used for shade, because you want that protection from the sun and the UV rays. This will hold up to the elements as well. So if you do have a little bit of rain, you don't have to worry about it. I do like how it feels.

This feels like a really strong material, not just like your tarp, but rather you can see there is some reinforcement as well. It is double hemmed so I'm not worried about it fraying, and you can see how even our seams are covered with material, just to keep that water out. Now, this comes with your arms just to hold them in place when they are inside your awning. But I do recommend wrapping these rubber blockers into the seam between one pole and the other. I've noticed that this really helps hold them in place and keeps out your other elements from getting into those grooves. With a coverage of 42 and a quarter square feet you can see how we can fit a couple of chairs as well as some coolers underneath. If you have a large crowd, maybe not the best fit for you, but for a nice small intimate gathering here at the campsite, this is perfect. With how breezy it is right now, I'm not too worried about getting bitten by mosquitoes, but once that wind dies down, I'll throw up my mosquito net that attaches to this awning. You can check that out here at etrailer. Now one thing I personally recommend adding onto this is more tent stakes. So we have them here at etrailer, different shapes, different sizes because after a while, these can get bent up depending on how you have them hammered down. So you might want to pick up extras. If you're wondering about how much space this takes up on your crossbars, and if you have space for your other accessories, like we have our kayak over here from the end of the bracket to right where the end of that track is on the inside. It's six inches. So that does not include the fact that we have it inside the overhang. They'll take up less space if you have it on the overhang. But that's a good measurement just to help you figure out if it's the right fit for you. When it comes to portability, you can see how it is currently rolled up into our 39 ounce PVC travel cover. So this is mounted to our crossbars. If you have it on a tent, it's mounted there, you can leave it there because of this cover. It's going to hold up to the elements and stay nice and dry for when you want to take it out. So this fits on different crossbars, even if you don't have Thule bars, that's okay. So what we have here are Yakima core bars and they do not have T-tracks. So notice how we just have it clamped around. You get two clamps. So one, two, and tighten it down with those bolts. We also have rhino rack bars. So notice how our key track bolts go right through them. The same for our Yakima HD bars. Okay. So we're going to start with the install. What I do is I first have it upside down. So the zipper is closed around our awning, and then we have our track system right underneath. So we're going to set up that track system on the awning. So you're going to get these shorter bolts and just fit them through the track. So there's going to be eight bolts. So four on each side, just slide all eight through, and then we're going to put up our brackets. So you want to line this up over your awning, right where that rectangular cut out is. That should be on top of your track. The one with the bolts that should be on the outside, right where that zipper is. So it's not going to be this way because then it'll mount onto the crossbar differently, but will be right over here. And just line that up with your bolts and fit that through. So then to secure that bracket, you have a flat washer. So just pop that onto those bolts and a nut. So then make sure that all of these are mounted. You can just have them loosely mounted for now. So this comes with its own wrench or tool to tighten down those nuts. But I recommend doing what I do, which is I use a socket with a 10 millimeter socket for my wrench, and that's just going to make it easier and faster to do. Now this next step will depend on what kind of crossbars you have. If you have square bars, you will not be using the T-track hardware. But if you have wing bars, kind of like what I have here or other arrow bars that have a T-tracked panel, then this is what you're going to do. So you're first going to take off the end cap or move it to this side and then just feed these through that channel. So two on each crossbar. Now this ideally would work if you have a good amount of overhang on past your towers, just because of how this sits on your bars. But also if you don't have much overhang, but your car doesn't sit out as much, it should be fine. So what we're going to do is we're going to bring this over to the end of the crossbar, as much as we can get it, not where it sits too far off, where our awning still stays on the crossbar in support, but is also accessible. The next step is a two person job, so make sure you have your friend helping you out on the other end. We have Jonathan right over here and I have this lined up to match the crossbar spread of our crossbars. So we're just going to bring this up and over and onto the bolts on our crossbars. Once you have them centered over the bolts on your crossbars, you can have your friend hold it down in the middle, just to stabilize it as you use a flat washer and then a nut to secure those bolts. Once you have the bolts on your brackets, which are over or in your crossbars, tightened down, you can then tighten down the bolts that are on your awning. So just double check that all six, if you're using a crossbar with a T-track system or all eight bolts, if you're using like a square bar or another style of a crossbar without a T-track system, just make sure all of them are tightened down. And once you've confirmed that you can then move on to the next step. After tightening down those bolts, you'll want to make sure that they're secured and that no one else can loosen them. So you have this lock core right here. So just fit that into this cover and then fit that cover over that bracket and then into that hole. And then you're going to secure it with the included key. And now that we have our awning fully mounted to our crossbars, what we're going to do now is that we're going to unzip it. So you see how we have our zippers underneath. So just get both of them, one on each side, and once that's fully loose, we're going to then take this off of our awning. Now unbuckle those straps. Now, before we continue, let's take this outside so that we can see how the awning looks with it fully opened up. So with your awning unzipped and unbuckled, you can then unroll it. Now, since it is kind of a windy day, I have my friend here Zach, who's just going to help me out so it doesn't blow away as we get it set up. So first you're going to want to bring these arms out to the side. Then you're going to get this hook and loop patch and just bring that around the arm, and then tighten it down. Then keep unrolling it onto those arms and whenever you find a hook and loop patch, make sure it's secured. Now, once you have this fully extended out, you're going to secure it into the hole inside the awning. Now you're going to extend the legs and just bring them down to however tall or however high your vehicle is and how high you want your awning to be. So right over here looks good. Just make sure to give it a little bit of a tilt so that when you do have some rain, it tilts downwards. Once you have your poles adjusted to the height you want them to be just rotate them in order to lock them down. Now, it's very important just to make sure that your supporting arms are extended as far out as you can get them just so that you can make sure everything is nice and taut right over here, and that you don't have any excess awning just spilling over. To secure your awning you also have these tie downs, which are going to be at the end of the awning. So you're going to get this rope, which is included with this kit, feed it through, and then we're going to put it through a tent stake. Now, if you go camping, you usually have something to drive down your tent stakes with. I don't have a mallet on me right now, but I do have this hammer. So we're just going to get that into the ground. Now, get your rope and then just put that into your tent stake and tighten it up and then make sure everything is secured. You may need to hammer down your steak a little bit more or tighten stronger knots, but this is going to be how you secure your awning. Once you've checked that everything is secured, everything's tightened down. You're now ready to set up your camp site. And that's it for the install. So my final thoughts about the Thule tepui awning with our RAV4 is I do like how it fits. The RAV4 isn't too tall, isn't too short so it works well with this style of an awning, especially since it is on the smaller side, the width still works well. So whether you have your wing bars, whether you have your aero crossbars on your RAV4 or even if you have factory crossbars, you can still see how the brackets fit around that. Creating a nice awning for your vehicle. And that was a look here at our Thule tepui awning, which is six and a half feet by six and a half feet here on our 2017 Toyota RAV4..