I have a Shady Boy awning on my 86.  Picked it up personally from Wolfgang
on a trip to Vancouver 2 years ago.  He is a very nice, very meticulous
fellow.  We were travelling with our 5 week old daughter and he was nice
enough, on a lovely Saturday afternoon, to install our awning for us,
while I jogged down the street to a bank machine.

Anywho, I too marvelled at the simplicity and robustness of the design.
And just to back up that there is nothing flimsy about it, here's our May
long weekend story.

Wandered away to our usual spot at the base of the mountains, about 2
hours from Calgary.  Went on Thursday to get a good camp site by the
river.  It was a pretty rainy weekend by the forecast, so we didn't expect
it to be too busy.  Got set up in the rain, but cozy enough in our van.
Wake up Saturday morning, and the van is filled with a bright blueness -
HOORAY!  Rain is gone, and nothing but sunshine in blue skies, I think!
Weather forecasters are about as accurate as the Psychic Friends Network
around here.

WRONG.

We got 4-6 inches of wet, heavy spring snow.  The blueness was from the
fact that our awning (which is blue) was touching the ground and that was
like a "filter" for our windows.  Can't open the sliding door, can't open
the passenger door.  And my shoes are neatly tucked under the sliding
door.  Bail out the driver's door in my slippers (into aforementioned 4-6
inches of weat, heavy snow) and see the awning is still attached to the
van, but the tip is on the ground.  Like at a 45 degree DOWNWARD slope.
Eek.

I start brushing the snow off the awning, and bit by bit, the awning
recovers back up.  Get all the snow swept off, and the awning is back in
normal position.  No poles broken, no aluminum bent, no fabric torn.  The
only ill effect of this overload was the U-shaped brackets that mount the
unit to the van (go up under poptop) have opened up a bit.  A little brute
force fixed that up right away.

So there's a testament to the durability of Wolfgang's design.  Flimsy
fiberglass tent poles, they are not.  And Wolfgang, I'll be in touch to
buy a new set of U-brackets - just in case ;-)

I reccommend the Shady Boy, for sure.  My in-laws bought one for their 95
Eurovan Westfalia.  And at VW shows, people are always gathered in the
shade of our awning.

Cheers,
Keith Adams
calgary.ab.ca | www.clubveedub.com
86 Westy|66 Beetle|59 Beetle|04 Passat