Yeah well I admit, does rain up here :)

I don't want to make a big thing about the shady boy gap (at the "wings" - either side of the box). It just can be a tad annoying when you have the sliding door open in a drizzle and the inside panel of the door gets wet.

But I'll say again I like my shadyboy a lot.

I second the motion of getting poles. Downdrafts, or downdraughts up here, can push the awning hard down and even can bend the mounting brackets slightly. That happened to me this last summer when I did not use the poles (hey, it was dead calm). The slight bend on the brackets allowed the sliding door to catch slightly on the box. Was easily fixed. Same thing goes for guy lines, don't want the awning to flip up with the wind.

I've had my awing for almost 6 years. It is holding up really well. I washed the material this last summer, took a lot of accumulated grime off. (http://shufti.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/vanagon-cleaning-the-shadyboy-awning/)

I marked the poles too, with coloured electrical tape bands. Helps even if you do think you know what you are doing.

alistair

On 2011-12-16, at 4:33 PM, Tom Buese wrote:

> I have the silver shady boy w/ optional vertical poles-make sure you get those also-  Although I live in the Desert, I have never had the rain in the gap problem, & don't consider that an issue unless you live/camp in places like the soggy PNW.
> Also mark your poles in some sort of order to make assembly quicker.  The pole sections are not all the same & must be assembled correctly.   Also drill holes in the pole bottoms so that you can anchor them to the ground for windy conditions.
> 
> YMMV,
> 
> Mr. BZ-also known as Shady Boy Slim-not
> 
> 
> On Dec 16, 2011, at 5:22 PM, Art wrote:
> 
>> Thanks all for your input.  Love this group! I'm going to go with the silver
>> Shady Boy, also because there was a huge difference in shipping that
>> increased the price gap even more.  I'm sure I can figure out something to
>> deal with the gap between the body and the shade to deal with rain.
>> 
>> Art
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: turbowesty
>> Sent: Friday, December 16, 2011 5:15 PM
>> To: Art
>> Cc: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: Re: 86 Westy Camper Awning
>> 
>> Silver shady boy, love it.
>> 
>> Regards, Peter Kraiker
>> NextChapter.KraikerPhoto.com
>> 
>> On 2011-12-15, at 4:55 PM, Art <awa0330@GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>> 
>>> Shady Boy