What awning brackets do I have?

[geoffff]

I took a closer look at my awning brackets today, and they look like this -- which isn't what my old awning brackets looked like. These bolts are above the little lip in the body, where my old awning bracket bolts were below that lip.

Does anyone else have these same awning mounts? How have they held up over time? Any body cracks around your brackets?

 

[geoffff]

This is what my old Sportsmobile's awning brackets looked like, with the bolts lower down. This is what I see in most photos here of other people's vans.

 

[SilverSmurf]

I have your old version. Mine is a 2007 and the body is cracked. I took them off and now have a "magentic" Moon awning. Love it as we can use it on the other vehicles as well.

 

[dbhost]

Those look like the Wasatch Overland Ultra 4 brackets like what I put on mine last fall...

Ultra 4 Awning Brackets | Wasatch Overland

Mount your awning securely to your van with our proprietary powder coated awning brackets.Stainless steel hardware included. Ours are different to others on the market, as they do not have any welded parts, and they do not clamp to the rain gutter, rather they sit in the rain gutter and clamp to...

www.wasatchoverlandshop.com

All Top awning + Wasatch Overland brackets Ford E Series.

First and foremost, my apologies to @1der as his clamp on brackets I believe would be preferrable simply due to not having to poke holes in my van, but here is my experience with the Wasatch Overland Ultra 4 brackets and the All-Top Overland Gear 8'2" x 10' bag type awning. Not his is not a...

www.sportsmobileforum.com

 

[1der]

The gutter solution is all we have for mounting an awning on a Pop Top rig. Wasatch and Sportsmobile are all there is today.

I have only two sets of Z brackets and two awnings left. I am pretty sure I personally am not doing anymore runs of the Z Brackets. If anyone is interested in these last two sets or taking over production, please let me know.

My personal feeling is it does not matter how well the edges are deburred (better deburred than ragged), the 1/16th inch thick sheet metal is going to cut into the rubber well nut at some point and the sheet metal is going to fatigued since all the horizontal and upward loads are focused on the holes for the well nuts. It will take some years to wear and if properly monitored the downsides can be identified before failure.

I have not had my hands on a set of Wasatch brackets nor have they been out long enough to know the longer term impact on the sheet metal. They look well made but I still question the well nut mounting method. The Plus Nut method might be better. The higher up mounting point for the Wasatch brackets is better than the original SMB bracket mounting point.

 

[dbhost]

The idea behind the well nut is that it seals where a plus nut does not. So far no leaks. Plus Nut with some kind of sealant would probably accomplish the same thing.

With the All Top / ARB style awning I don't think weight is going to be an issue.

When I installed using the Well Nuts option, I did so with the well nuts were a replaceable wear component.

Deburring is vital to the install of any through penetration installation...

Any of these are going to come with compromises. The question is which compromise are you comfortable with?