Mounting an awning directly to a camper shell

[TimoToothousand]

I have an 8 x 8 ft awning that I had mounted to the roof rack of the camper shell one my Ram 2500 Mega Cab. It worked well like this, but posed several problems: 1) the cross bars are over 7 feet off the ground, so accessing the awning was tricky; 2) accessing the roof basket over the awning was even trickier, even when using a tire-mounted step.

To fix this problem, I had considered getting a 6 ft awning, so it doesn’t extend past the camper shell, and bolting it directly to the camper shell right above its window. Has anyone tried this?


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[DrivinBettyWhite]

I mounted my tepui awning over the passenger side of my Tacoma camper window like you’re suggesting.. if you’re going to do this you might need 2 longer bolts and washers cause if you mount it flush to shell it will be angled upwards.. put a few washers between the top bolts and shell to make it level.

R/Tom Jones


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[TimoToothousand]

I mounted my tepui awning over the passenger side of my Tacoma camper window like you’re suggesting.. if you’re going to do this you might need 2 longer bolts and washers cause if you mount it flush to shell it will be angled upwards.. put a few washers between the top bolts and shell to make it level.

R/Tom Jones


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Thanks for the feedback! I was planning on using some standoffs to hold it at least 1/2” away from the shell anyway, just because the camper shell surface is not likely to be a perfect plane.

Have you had any issues with snagging trees or anything like that?


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[DrivinBettyWhite]

Like I said I bolted the bottom two bolts straight to camper and top two bolts I used a few washers to make it as level as I could. I’ve had a few branches get caught between awning and camper and everything was fine just ripped the branch. Just one of those things that time will tell.


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