The Bush Company 270 Max awning (1 Viewer)

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I posted this over on Expo portal but thought I would add it here as well.

After at least a year of trying to decide on replacing my trusty ARB 2500 awning (it just works really well, add the screen room and it's hard to beat) or trying something new. After my last camping trip where it rained the entire weekend and I was cooking off my tailgate exposed to the rain, I decided to try one of the wrap around awnings.

After a lot of reading and research I felt like the bush company 270 was the easiest to set up, easiest to take down, provides excellent cover and doesn't need legs. So with that decision made, one showed up at the house.

I'm running three rino rack HD load bars. This was fine for the ARB but the Bush Company awning places an amazing amount of stress on those bars. All the weight of the awning is pressing on the bars. So I had to fabricate some serious mounting brackets that could handle the stresses. I even added some boxed strength on the sides of the brackets and added one additional bolt further in. I think this will work as it's pretty stout but time will tell if I need another load bar or not. If you have a full rack then I think you will have no issues at all.

Here are a few pics of the awning installed and the mounting brackets.

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There were a few things that I think are important to note.

First off, this is not a bolt on application! I guess if you have one of their RTT then it might bolt up easier but everything else will require some thought and fab work. I had to source the bolts and all hardware. I had to figure out and make the brackets. With that said, they do make L brackets that I could have purchased but I wasn't sold on them and I was even told that if you bought them you would need to add some gussets to them to strengthen them. This is assuming they are available since it seems like now everything is on backorder.

Secondly, the bag is a little frustrating. The bag comes with no holes for the bolts. So I had to partially mount, take down and fab, re-mount, take down, repeat about 5 times to get everything to fit right, then remove it again so I could cut holes in the back of the bag for the bolts. I understand why they did it since there are so many different ways people will mount the awning..... but ARB had a much easier solution. So I hope the bush company is paying attention to that.

Last item, it's big!! Side by side, packed up, this thing is at least 3 times the size of my ARB 2500. It's at least 3 times as heavy too.
 
I almost wish I'd waited a few months and grabbed the Max vs XT.
I'm using their L brackets (4), and they're fine thus far.
Thanks for sharing.
 
How is the setup and pack up? I used my old IronMan awning (essentially same design as the ARB) a LOT because it was so easy and fast to deploy and pack up. It appears this self supported batwing design would be similar, tensioning the two straps vs staking two guy lines but want to hear your take having owned both.
 

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