These are heavy duty commercial rigs and very heavy.  Shipping weight is 55
lbs.  They are designed for daily use, and need to attach to a rack, not the
vehicle.  Probably last forever though.

I had a www.shadyboy.com on my Vanagon that I left on it when I sold it.  My
EVC had a Catalina awning on it, so I didn't think I needed it.  Big
mistake.  The Catalina is a POS, and only 8' wide, as opposed to the
shadyboy being 10'.  First time I tried to use it I destroyed it. It was so
difficult to open and close that a light wind made it impossible to close,
and I broke off one of the flimsy aluminum posts trying.  That meant the
spring unwound, and I had to unwind the other one too to manually roll up
the awning.  I almost had to cut it off the side of the van.

It wasn't suitable for the EVC, it needed to have the posts attached to the
side of the van to work properly, and that can't be done on the EVC.

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Monsieur Lafaire aka obeechi
Sent: Friday, May 30, 2008 6:11 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Thule Awning

Haven't seen anyone review this one here

http://www.etrailer.com/p-TH326.htm

I know some have reviewed the other ones out there... forget, think the
fiama was maybe the best (so far)?