New Awning/Hi Lift Mount

[titanpat57]

Hi all,

The purpose of this bracket was to carry the awning and Hi Lift together, but not always the same time. I may only use the HL a few times a year, and since this a DD, I need to keep it practical. I'm not sure if I'll keep the awning up all the time, but it doesn't really impact anything, so it's fine where it is I guess.



Of course...you can always buy a bracket, but why do that when you make make itself for twice as much and take three times the time to build it?

I started with a pc. of 3.5" x 5" x .250 steel. I cut it on an angle, welded it together, welded on 1" shaft collars with wrench flats. As usual my welds sucked, but grinding improves daily...

I cut a pc. of 1/2" SS threaded rod, welded a nut to it, and welded that to the top of the bracket.

Here's the McMasterr Carr link http://www.mcmaster.com/#shaft-clamps/=n9jw1x




I didn't want to have a long pc. of threaded rod sticking up, so I welded up a threaded coupler with a stud, and then a 4 winded knob to tighten down the HiLift. It worked great, and tightened down nicely





Everything fit good...gave her a bestor-testor...and it was awning time



Awning was a piece of cake. When I test fit the brackets, I used a straight edge to lay out the holes, because the Gobi has a slight arc to accommodate the roof
line





and hell..if we have an awning, we probably should have a light under it to party, no? .....why HELL YEA!!




thanks for looking...again, I already know the welds suck...

 

[Raddic]

Nice job. Great looking rig too.

 

[JCruse]

Nice mounting brackets. Unfortunately not all of us can easily buy mounts. I have a Diamondrax rack made of 3/4' square tubing oriented in a point up diamond shape and I've found NO mounts to fit it for either a high-lift or an awning. Unfortunately I have no welding skills and very little fab experience so I'm SOL. Unless Diamondrax gets off their arse and makes some.

I really like the rack though so it's a shame. It's their low profile 2" model so existing two bar clamp mounts made for 4" racks are too far apart. I think I can fab up an awning mount eventually, but the high lift may be out of my league. Any ideas are welcome.










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[cruiserpilot]

"Of course...you can always buy a bracket, but why do that when you make make itself for twice as much and take three times the time to build it?"

I like the way you think!! Well done, I'll save and copy

 

[titanpat57]

Nice job. Great looking rig too.

THANKS..

Nice mounting brackets. Unfortunately not all of us can easily buy mounts. I have a Diamondrax rack made of 3/4' square tubing oriented in a point up diamond shape and I've found NO mounts to fit it for either a high-lift or an awning. Unfortunately I have no welding skills and very little fab experience so I'm SOL. Unless Diamondrax gets off their arse and makes some.

I really like the rack though so it's a shame. It's their low profile 2" model so existing two bar clamp mounts made for 4" racks are too far apart. I think I can fab up an awning mount eventually, but the high lift may be out of my league. Any ideas are welcome.










.

if you get me some pictures and measurements, maybe I can help design something

"Of course...you can always buy a bracket, but why do that when you make make itself for twice as much and take three times the time to build it?"

I like the way you think!! Well done, I'll save and copy

great minds think alike.....lol

 

[JCruse]

THANKS..



if you get me some pictures and measurements, maybe I can help design something



great minds think alike.....lol

Hey thanks man! I'll take some pics as soon as I can. I guess I'll need close ups of where the rack mounts to the Diamondrax gutter clamp brackets. The cross bars are part of the rack itself. The tubing is 3/4" and oriented in a edge up manner, like a diamond shape.







This is not the rack but these are the mounts and crossbars:

Better pic:

There are two bolts attaching the rack bars to each bracket and I figured that a flat bar could come out from in between each with some mounting apparatus on it as one way of doing it.

The rack is only 36" long so at this point I'm just looking to mount an awning, perhaps with a third set of clamps, brackets and crossbar further forward.











This is the actual rack, taken from their website:


Except my mounts attach to the crossbars, these are further apart. (Where the upright boxes are between the upper and lower bars)