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Awnings

The info I've heard is that the fox wing has been discontinued. The fox wing was a collaboration between Oztent and Rhino Rack, these two companies have now decided to make their own awnings.

Oztent will be bringing out a redesigned fox wing, possibly without support poles, and hopefully a less fragile hinge.

Rhino Rack are going to be bringing out a new awing called the Bat wing, which rumor has it, may also be self supporting.

I haven't heard any release dates for the new awnings but hopefully they will be on the market this year.

As has been said there is the Ostrich wing, which is made by African Outback. This is a self supporting awing with aluminum arms that have tie down rings at the end of the arms for when it gets windy. I have seen this awning in the flesh in Germany and SA, it looks well built and robust. It is designed to be fitted to the African Outback roof rack and as such, it has a support arm that goes from the top of the hinge down to the rear of the rack to triangulate the hinge mounting point. This bolts directly to the African Outback rack as it has lots of channels to take mounting fixings, if you were to mount it to a different rack some drilling / modding may be required to provide the strong mounting at that point.

As John said weight may be an issue, and was also a concern of mine, but a quick bit of research says that the Fox wing is 21kg and the Ostrich wing is 23kg. I did see the Ostrich wing deployed, packed away and set up on a windy day with out guy ropes and it gets the thumbs up for me. So far the only reason I haven't bought one is that I'd like to see what Oztent and Rhino Rack come up with, and the price, well its a SA product so it costs a lot by the time it reaches our shores.

The Ostrich wing is available now, and the only supplier I've found in the UK is TBR.

Cheers.
 
I couldn't see the ostrich on TBR but according to http://uk.oztent.com/products/viewProdu ... ductid=172 the Fox Wing is 15kg and that seems about right, it's more clumsy than heavy when you're manhandling it. Another 8kg wouldn't be the end of the world but it's getting a bit excessive just for an awning? The fabric used on the fox wing is extremely good IMHO, not sure about the ostrich with only pictures to go on but it looked a lot more lightweight? That might be one of the tradeoffs for it being free standing that it really would be too heavy with a similar quality fabric?
 
Ah, the link is no good :roll: If you go to their online shop and the stick it in the search function it should come up. I was using TBR's online weights as a guide, but as you've pointed out Jon, they appear to be a little out on the fox wing.

I can't remember for sure but I think the fox wing has a rip stop material? The ostrich wing had what appeared to be more like fly sheet material, not sure if it was rip stop though.

Cheers.
 
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Fox wing is the same fabric as an Oz Tent, which seems pretty high quality / strong to me, proving reasonably spark resistant so far :) There's not much about the Fox Wing mechanicaly that couldn't easily be repaired if something broke and I like that for the long term if it goes out of production, same for the fabric really, should last decades not just a few years ...
 
I checked the TBR site again and searched like you suggested and found the ostrich. Not much detail to go on there then! I've struggled to find much detail about it anywhere TBH which makes it much harder to consider.
 
The cast ends of the arms that fix into the fox wings hinge appear to be the weak point, I know of a couple that have failed in this area, I believe this is why Oztent changed the deployment instructions from a one person operation to a two person operation when in windy conditions.

The material is indeed good, as many Oztent owners will testify. I'm just not a fan of poles and guy ropes, someone always walks into them in the dark.

Cheers.
 
Jon Wildsmith said:
I checked the TBR site again and searched like you suggested and found the ostrich. Not much detail to go on there then! I've struggled to find much detail about it anywhere TBH which makes it much harder to consider.
Click to expand...
Indeed, the info is thin on the ground. I first saw this awning on TBR's stand at the Bad Kissingen show last year, and since then I've been asking TBR UK about it and if they are going to get a demonstrator in.

I know they are refreshing their kit and vehicles for this year so hopefully there will be one on display soon.

Cheers.
 
I have one of THESE

Takes less than a minute to put up and same to stow. Closes in a dust proof, waterproof ali canister.

Really excellent piece of kit.
 
Scott said:
The cast ends of the arms that fix into the fox wings hinge appear to be the weak point, I know of a couple that have failed in this area, I believe this is why Oztent changed the deployment instructions from a one person operation to a two person operation when in windy conditions.
Click to expand...
They look like it should take quite a bit of force to snap them but they wouldn't be all that hard to reproduce from billet instead of casting and look easy enough to change. I might be speaking out of turn but I'd guess most failures are really down to operator error and not taking common sense into account regardless of what instructions might say :)
 
Jon Wildsmith said:
I might be speaking out of turn but I'd guess most failures are really down to operator error and not taking common sense into account regardless of what instructions might say :)
Click to expand...
I know that in both cases it was a gust of wind that caused the breakage. One was during set up, the other was whilst trying to resecure an arm that was threatening to come adrift as the wind picked up during an evening camp.

Originally the Oztent demonstration DVD was to open the fox wing fully, then get the poles and ropes and work your way round installing them one at a time. This was shown as a one person exercise.

After a few 'in the field' failures, the advise from Oztent was changed, and in windy conditions they instructed that deploying the fox wing was a two person job. One person to hold the awning, whilst the second sets up the support pole and guy rope for that first section. You then open the next the next section of the awning and repeat the operation, till the awning is fully deployed.

This way the wind doesn't get the chance to catch the awning that isn't teathered by the guy ropes.

Another suggestion I've heard is to keep one hand on top of the pole so that the awning can't be blown free by the wind when tightening the guy rope during windy conditions.
 
Jon Wildsmith said:
The fabric used on the fox wing is extremely good IMHO, not sure about the ostrich with only pictures to go on but it looked a lot more lightweight? That might be one of the tradeoffs for it being free standing that it really would be too heavy with a similar quality fabric?
Click to expand...
There is (was?) a group buy on the Ostrich Wing on LCCSA and there were 2 options given for fabric IIRC - a canvas option, which was quite a bit heavier, and "nylon". I don't recall the weight differences or if it meant any alterations to design - maybe have a look at the thread on LCCSA.

Cheers,
 
The cheap awning I got for pyrenees is past its best!
pegs broken, shockcord in poles snapped and awning material stretched...

so now looking at getting a "big boys" awning, foxwing top of list
 
Andy, I wonder if we can squeeze BOAB on price for multiple orders - I fancy a foxwing too...
 
if you find out let me know

but - it looks like a foxwing might not work with a RTT - since it would block the enterance at back...
 
yes you need to be using a side entrance for the wrap around awnings to work for you but then your tent (if it's a fold out one) or tent awning (if it's a mag) completes the cover all the way round the truck :)
 
Aye, if you got the two aligned properly on a fold out tent, the coverage would be awesome :cool:
 
just remembered Gary has a foxwing and RTT - so had another look at his pyrenees pics, and see he had his RRT and ladder on drivers side, so foxwing could be extended fully
 
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