Hey, Skoolie Scouts!
Today is definitely going to be a change of pace because we don't have any
mystery to solve, we're actually not even doing any driving. Today,
I'm going to make an awning for the bus.
This is part of a design that's expandable and customizable. But in this video,
we're just going to focus on the basic version.
And I'm going to take you along step by step in a future video.
I am going to show you a version that you can customize the heck out of .
(BEEP)Wait, why did you beat me? I said, heck, customize the heck out of it. ,
Why make an awning? There are a lot of awnings that you can just buy, right?
Cost is one reason.
You can make this awning for anywhere from 30 bucks to a couple hundred bucks,
depending on how you execute it, what materials you use.
But there are other reasons besides price.
I wanted something compact that could be stored easily and was super easy to set
up. I'll start. I want to something cute. Then I found this channel,
Sheezelectric. Her name is Shera.
I'm going to link her channel in the description because she's got some great
stuff on there.
And one of the things she has is this great awning that she made for a little
vintage trailer. She restored, and she made it out of PVC,
a tablecloth and two flag pole holders. And it's really cute.
It wasn't exactly right for me, because for one thing,
her trailer already had a railing on it that for this to attach to,
and there was already parts of an old awning that she was able to use.
I don't have that. So I stole a few things, sorry,
Shera - and adapted those into my design.
And then I tried to make one and I shot some video,
but you never saw it because it failed miserably. So if you're watching this,
that means this version worked. I think it's a pretty good design.
On this table, I've got the things you're going to need to make this awning.
And first you need an awning, an awning top.
I got this fabric, but you can use anything.
You can use an old tarp that you got at Harbor freight 10 years ago,
whatever you want, you know, and you can,
if you have an old EZ-Up that broke or something,
and you just want to use the top from that, you can. And here are the poles.
I'm using these fancy expandable poles.
You could totally do this with PVC or conduit,
but just remember that some PVC is really expensive.
So if you're doing it to save money, make sure you really are.
And also just make sure that whatever you're getting is heavy enough,
sturdy enough to support whatever the awning top you're using is. In fact,
that's exactly what I did to screw it up in version 1.0,
you know the one that didn't work,
I made my awning really heavy and the combination of super light poles and a
super heavy awning. It's not a good combination. With PVC,
you're not going to have the same flexibility that you would have with some kind
of a telescoping pole.
But if you work out what angle you want to use and you get a piece that's the
right length, you're going to be fine.
You're going to need to have these adjustable flagpole holders.
You want them to be adjustable so you can play with different angles.
These holders can only handle a one inch pole.
So f you're using poles as fat as the ones I'm using,
you're going to have to modify them.
And that's where this piece of PVC will come in.
This is called Keder rope. I used to say Kee-der,
but I think they say Keh-der. So kedder rope,
and it comes from the sailboat world.
It's basically rope that has a solid hard core and
comes down to a flap. Okay?
And this slides into a track and provides a really watertight seal.
They use it on boats where you might use a zipper.
It's easier for a zipper to either rust or let moisture in.
It only has one failure point as opposed to a zipper.
Every single tooth is basically a failure point.
This basically attaches to your awning fabric and then it slides into a track.
In my case,
the track is already on the bus because I put it there when I made my last
attempt, there are several different kinds of keder rail.
This one is PVC,
and it's called a flanged PVC keder rail because it has that flange above
it, which is what I've used to screw it into the bus.
And I know some people don't like to put screws in their vehicles.
You could probably put this up with construction cement.
I would feel a little shaky about that, but I think it can be done.
A keder system is a really great economical option,
but you have to make sure that you buy it from a sail making place like Sailrite
or Clear Marine Vinyl, you know, someplace - a Marine store.
I'll put links in the description to both of those.
You definitely do not want, okay, come here. Listen to me,
take me seriously. Do not try to buy this from an RV store.
You're going to get ripped off. Okay. RV dealers,
you can go on - I just saw an Amazon, an RV accessory place was like, you know,
feeding Amazon, like everything does.
And they have this stuff and they're calling it awning rail. Okay.
But it's the same exact thing. Awning, rail key to real doesn't matter.
It's the same thing. They had 12 feet priced at
$118. Okay. I have 12 feet on that bus.
I paid $23.99.
It's just more evidence of how the RV dealer's just sitting there waiting for
you to come in so they can rob you.
You're going to need grommets unless you're using a tarp that has grommets
already built into it or something like that. This is tarp tape. Okay.
I call it tarp tape, It says awning repair tape on the package.
And I had to buy it cause I was in a hurry.
But it's another one of those RV rip offs.
Not everybody's going to need the tarp tape.
The tarp tape is an option for people who are like,
full-timing and don't have access to a sewing machine.
It's a way for you to put it together without having to sew,
and I would do just about anything to avoid sewing myself.
But you do once you get somewhere where you can stitch it,
you do want to stitch it. Cause it's definitely going to be stronger that way,
but you can put it together and it can work with the,
with the carpet that brings us to the 2.0 version of this project.
Cause I had another failure.
I had a version that I made entirely with sharp tape. Cause like I said,
I do anything to get out of sewing.
And the problem is that I put the tape over the rope -
And that rope is designed to slide really easily. It'll work fine,
as long as you don't put the tape on the rounded rope part,
just use it to attach the fabric, the tarp or whatever.
I bought three yards of fabric. The fabric is $9 a yard.
So that's what $27 and three yards is nine feet.
So I've got a nine foot long awning. It's 54 inches wide.
So a lot of people, a lot of people are going to want a wider awning than that,
but this is good for me because I just want something that's gonna put a little
bit of shade on the side of the bus that I can sit under and that will keep the
sun off the windows. But again,
it's going to be expandable when you see the whole system. So right now,
I'm going to go borrow my sister's sewing machine,
which is the scariest part for me because yeah, I don't sew.
The last thing I sewed was an apron in seventh grade homeroom class.
I don't have a sewing machine. I don't really touch sewing machines.
So this is going to be interesting. I'll spare you the sewing adventure.
But the bottom line is I did it. I sewed it. Look at that.
I didn't say I sewed it well, I just said I sewed it. Yeah, it looks crappy,
but Hey, it's nine feet long and I sewed it.
I think this project proves that I'm like a warts-and-all person.
You know, some YouTubers are gonna show you the sanitized version of their life.
Well, there's no sanitizing this.
The sides I haven't done anything with.
I'm going to put trim on both the sides and the front
eventually. So I'm not going to worry too much about the sides.
The front I had to do because this webbing is meant to act...
There's a little bit of a pocket in there.
It's meant to act as a pocket for a pole to go across the front.
I may have made that hole too small for the pocket we'll find out.
And then of course at the top that Ketter rope is sewn right to the fabric.
I used fusing tape,
which is a heat activated hemming tape basically.
So I hemmed the fabric and then used the same fusible
tape to attach it to the keder rope.
And then I stitched on top of that and here it is,
it slid in there pretty easily and all the way across.
And now it's hanging on the bus.
I've got one of my holders down here on this side of the door and now we have to
install the other holder over here so that I can put the awning up.
And the way this is set up,
I can lift it up over the door to open the door and secure it.
So I can use this with the door shut or the door open, which was my goal.
You probably noticed that this got a little bigger.
I cut PVC into a 12 inch piece and it fits very tightening over.
I just tried to put the pole in and it turns out my webbing pocket is yeah,
it's too small. So I'm going to have to figure something else out. Well,
I think this pole is just going to turn out to be too bendy.
No matter how I configure it, it just seems to bow in the middle.
So I'm just going to have to come up with a different plan.
It took a trip to the Mecca of all projects to sort this out.
And I ended up with two pieces of three quarter inch conduit and a coupler.
I was hoping not to go with conduit.
Mainly because I was imagining carrying around nine foot long piece of it.
But with the two shorter pieces and the coupler, it's pretty doable.
It shows fit fine in the hole.
The conduit is held on with Velcro straps through grommets right now.
And you can see there's still a little bit of bowing,
but once I make a new pocket to run it through that, it's going to be gone.
Of course, that requires to some sewing. And I just can't handle that right now.
Here's a list of my expenses for the project.
I'm on the higher end of what this could cost.
I'm going to put in the description of breakdown of the lowest cost estimate I
can come up with.
I'm really excited about the modular expandable awning system that I'm working
on that rifts off of the one we just made,
but there's some bugs I have to work out.
So I'm not really sure when the video is going to post.
So the best way to find out about it is make sure you're subscribed and that you
hit the bell and then you'll be notified.
When it posts. Then you'll be able to click here and see the video.
I can't wait to show it to you.