Tapered Extension for Rhino-Rack Batwing Compact and Sunseeker Awnings

Video Transcript for Rhino-Rack Awnings Tapered Extension Review

Hi, it's Evangeline here at etrailer, and today we're looking at something pretty cool which is the Rhino-Rack Extension Pieces for your Rhino-Rack Batwing Awning. We have two extension pieces here, the one with the door as well as without the door. These are gonna be tapered extension pieces, creating a lotta space for your awning. In fact, if you get all four, you can create an enclosed space for your Batwing Awning. If you use one, it can create one windbreaker for you. Now, as you add on, you can move them around.

If it's a windy day, though, it is gonna create a lot of space for the wind to catch, but good thing, it includes all the stakes and guylines to keep things down. These extension pieces are a durable, olive green, polycotton canvas. So they clip together using hook-and-loop patches, and they fit with your Batwing Awning, creating all that space to work with. You can also fold them up, bring them up. Really make it yours for your different adventures.

Now, I'm impressed by the material this is made of. You actually have two sides to it. The outside is gonna be the matte side, and this is gonna be waterproof, tear-resistance, and has a UV protection of UPF 50-plus. So the good protection would be at your 15 to 25 range, and 50-plus is very good because it'll block those rays from hitting your skin while you hang out inside. So compared to some other tent fabric awnings where you can kinda see through the awning itself, you can see nothing behind it.

We have etrailer, its parking lot, behind the awning, and we are protected from the view from the parking lot as well as from the sun. So while that thick fabric is great for privacy as well as breaking the wind, what if you want a little bit of wind or a little bit of breeze since it's a hot summer day You also have the option for having this mesh door for the door version of the extension. So let's set that up. We have tabs here holding our mesh door in place, so we'll just take out those tabs, and that will allow us to unroll the door and zip it up into position. So with our mesh door installed, we can now unzip our canvas door all the way up, and now we have a breeze going through our awning.

As you can see, you can clip up one or the other, or both, depending on if you want the sun or the breeze or even none of the above. So this has seams on the inside similar to the rest of the canvas. It's gonna be taped seams. Really nice because it's not fraying anywhere. This is going to be a very fine mesh also because that will help keep out those flying insects as well as that debris that the wind carries. Since this does not have a floor, though, just be mindful that it's not completely insect-free. Definitely a lot better than just standing out in the wind, though. Now, there will be several anchor points in this extension awning piece. You have some in the middle, you have some in the bottom, and it's up to you to use them. Even with just the bottom stake down, it's holding up pretty well in the wind. Now, I do recommend taking up some extra guylines and stakes in case you're in even windier area. If a sudden storm kicks up and the rain starts pouring down, you can see here how the water just slides off that canvas. This is probably one of the most water-resistant awning fabrics that I've seen here at etrailer. There's two-sided zippers all throughout. So whether it's the mesh door, the canvas door, the connection pieces for the extensions, or even the awning itself, you can access them all from the inside or the outside. This is definitely different from the Thule HideAway Awning which has more of a sliding function when you attach the extension pieces. I personally prefer the zipper because I think it's a bit sturdier. Now, the downsides to zippers but could also be a pro is if you have these flaps that go over the zippers. This is gonna be good when it's raining because then it will help protect and maintain the water resistance of this awning. The downside is when you are using the zippers, just be very mindful so the flaps don't get caught up in the zippers which they have as I install this. My personal facts about the tapered extension with the door is you really get all of that versatility. In fact, if I could choose, I will get all four extensions with this design just because I can pick and choose if I want sun, if I want wind, or if I want both. The downside to this is it is gonna be a little bit pricier than without the door version, so you would be able to get away with getting three of the extensions without a door and then still having one access point. Now, personally, for the tapered extension with the wall for your Batwing Awning, I think it works great because you still have all of that versatility. You can bring this up so it creates another roof, or you can bring it down so it creates a tent space or a windbreaker. The downside to this is if you do want access, let's say you get four of these, your access points are going to be in the corners with those zippers, so not as accessible as if you had the door. Also, they work really, really well with keeping out the sun and the wind, and that can be a downside, too, if you want some breeze flowing in through your awning. Now, we have a lot of really cool awnings here at etrailer, and they are designed for different types of people and different types of adventures. So we have like the Yakima SlimShady, the Thule HideAway Awning, and even some awnings from Kelty that can also work with your roof rack. So comparing the Rhino-Rack Batwing with its accessories with those different awnings is this is going to be ideal if you are camping a lot and you need a lotta space. Let's say all your friends are out, all your family is out, you're having a big party. This is great because you get a lot more floor space and you have a lot more privacy and a windbreaker, too. With the zippers connecting everything together, everything is super sturdy. It's as close as you can get to carrying your home with you. Now, the downside to that, though, is that it's not as compact as our other brands. So, for example, the Thule HideAway Awning is a very easy roll-out awning, and then you can just slide the extra walls through, and that has different options for walls compared to this which just has the door versus the wall. So you have your different pros and cons, but hopefully this video helps you out with seeing what type of adventures are you going on and will this work for you So this is what your awning is gonna look like in its compact position. You have this storage case included. You have two straps for it. It's pretty lightweight, easy to maneuver. Now, downside for this being so compact, this is actually a little bit difficult to roll it up enough to fit it right back in. But once you open it up, you have zippers on each side, you see that the awning is rolled up with the hardware which is your stakes as well as your legs on the inside. The dimensions of your bag is going to be four feet long, and then you have a pretty short depth. So it's gonna be five inches in diameter. Now, this is gonna change depending on how well you roll it up, but this will help you figure out if you have space for in your trunk or not. This is gonna be a very simple process. You're gonna start by making sure you have all of your parts. So you should have your awning extension, your two legs, as well as your stakes and your guylines. Also, we'll set aside those stakes and guylines later. Some things I recommend adding onto this would be if you have your own stakes that you prefer or your own guylines as well as your own mallet and stake puller. To attach your extension piece, you are going to have a zipper on all three sides. So that could be confusing at first. The best way to figure out which part goes where is that your Rhino-Rack logo will be facing forward. We're gonna have the matte end facing out and the vinyl facing in. You're gonna wanna line this up with your zipper on your awning, and then you're gonna bring it through once you have it lined up. Maybe a little tricky at first so just be patient with it. Then you're just gonna bring your zipper all the way through until your entire awning is set up. The perks of this is if you have it folded up, you should be able to just hold and zip. So to make things easier for me, I do a quick guyline adjust and pole adjust. Once I have things install, I just bring our awning back up, and we have everything set up and tightened down. And from here, you can attach your different extensions or choose your layout for your extension. Now, here's what I mean by having it folded up. I put our clip here for the bottom of our extension piece, and that way, as I get things set up, it's short enough where even if the wind catches it and brings it towards the car, it doesn't make contact. We're gonna do this on the other side just so I can show you how this works out. What I actually do is I get my guyline set up. I'm gonna use an S-hook to make it quicker today, then we're gonna put this through, and once that's through, we're gonna bring the pull up and make sure we get our good-enough tension. We have adjusters on the pole. We're just gonna twist it to loosen it and twist it again to tighten it. We're gonna get our guylines and stakes inbound. There's a couple of different configurations you can put your extension awning into. Now, there's the different options, and it's really gonna be up to you and your different situations, but on the center of your extension, you're going to have these anchor points for your guylines. Now, you can use an S-hook, which is what I did here, or my preferred method is just running the whole guyline through and then staking that down. You can have it folded up like this for air, or you can extend the tapered end and stake it down by the grommet. So here we have the stake on our awning. Just make sure you do both sides and double-check all your guylines as well to see if there's enough tension all throughout the awning. This is going to be what I consider the tent position where you have it fully extended out and staked down. You have one, two, three grommets. Now, if you want to, you can also extend this up. So you have this stand. This is gonna go right where your ends are. You're just gonna pull out those stakes. Make sure guylines are there. This is what it's gonna look like when you install the extension with another extension, and this is going to be the door version. You're gonna wanna line it up right over here with your zipper, and you're gonna wanna make sure that your extension has the open hook-and-loop patches on the side. Then once you have the zipper in, you're just going to zip up the entire extension, and once that's in place, secure the end to each other. So the corner patch goes over your strap on your Batwing, and then the other patches, you can use to go around the pole. Make sure that's all secure. So our other extension is already staked down, and that's fine. You just put the zippers together and then zip it tight. Now do the same on the other side. And if you do not have an extension on the other side, perfectly fine. Just don't forget to stake down the ends of your extension. And that was a look at our Rhino-Rack Tapered Extensions for the Rhino-Rack Batwing Awning right here at etrailer. My name is Evangeline, and I hope you enjoy the journey..