Southern Cross Tent Awnings

Submitted: Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 10:40
ThreadID: 30903 Views:9369 Replies:9 FollowUps:10
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I have a 9x9 centre pole tent and I am contemplating the purchase of the Southern Cross " small awning ( 2.4 x 1.8 ) & windbreak wall awning " to be used for for stays other than overnight. I would like to hear of others experience with awnings on centre pole tents or what awning alternatives centre pole tent people are using.The awning is only 2.4 x 1.8 m so I figure the side or windbreak awning will be needed to get wortwhile shade. I thought perhaps buy the small awning and get a side / winbreak awning made up from shadecloth
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Reply By: Member - Barry W (VIC) - Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 11:30

Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 11:30
Hi diver, We have the same tent as you bought it second hand (Great tent) it came with an awning that I believe was done by southern cross It has a HD zip sewn across top of door which awning attaches the awning then runs down either side of tent and pegs to the ground either side has one pole holding opposite side to the door of tent.
The awning is a piece of HD material same as floor of tent it measures approx 6x3mtrs. If you can imagine a "A" frame shape extending from front of tent out approx 3mtrs We have used it in heavy rain and it has been great We have had problems with condensation dripping from inside during rain which was a pain
I have had a piece of cord sewn along one 3mtr edge which attaches to a track on the pack rack on my cruiser so I can use it either on tent or cruiser
Hope you can understand all of that
Cheers
Barry
AnswerID: 155709

Reply By: Truckster (Vic) - Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 11:33

Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 11:33
Is your 9x9 a Southern Cross?? If not it wont fit.
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Reply By: Redback - Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 12:28

Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 12:28
Who in their right mind buys a $2500 tent!!!!!!!!!!
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Follow Up By: geocacher (djcache) - Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 14:21

Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 14:21
Anyone who buys a canvas fold off the top, off road camper.... (Me included!)

Still can't work out how a complicated box trailer (only complicated by inclusion of slides for kitchens and maybe a door or two) and a tent on top can be worth the prices we pay.

Is it a $10,000 trailer with a $3,000 tent or a $3,000 trailer with a $10,000 tent?

With some of the really flash ones I can see where money has gone (eg. T-van, Ultimate etc.) but in all of the garden variety ones I can't see it.

Is it just a case of market prices set by what a buyer is prepared to pay?

I bought a Kanga secondhand and I'm really happy with it & the price I paid for it (compared to the new price), but at times I look at it and all the other similar types of fold off the top camper and scratch my head in wonder at what cost so much on it.

Dave
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 23:12

Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 23:12
who in their right mind buys an explorer?
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Follow Up By: Redback - Sunday, Feb 19, 2006 at 12:24

Sunday, Feb 19, 2006 at 12:24
Yeh but Tourer and Oztrail make an identical tent for a fraction of the price of a Southern Cross, 1/10th of the price, i know what your gunna say, but the quality of the Southern X is better, might be, but not $2,250 better.

As for campers anything built for offroad has to be strong and thats what you pay for, along with the extras, mighten look like it but when you add them up it's surprising, i thought the same myself, but i sat down and added them up and was very supprised at the amount, add in profit margine and GST and you get around the figure you mentioned.

Baz.
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Follow Up By: Truckster (Vic) - Sunday, Feb 19, 2006 at 23:41

Sunday, Feb 19, 2006 at 23:41
Im lost where you got $2500 from... our ultimate trekker was ~$1200ish new with awning if I remember...

agree with paying $2500 for tent is insane, but yea...

I have the oztrail 9x9 as well, and you can see differences in quality of the SC and OTrail..

also remember theres canvas and CANVAS too
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Follow Up By: Redback - Monday, Feb 20, 2006 at 07:58

Monday, Feb 20, 2006 at 07:58
I got the price out of a mates 4X4 Australia yearly mag, you know the one with all the best from the year (he says ROTFLMAO), it was one of the 3000 adds in there, boy they have alot of adds.

Baz
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Follow Up By: Member - John (Vic) - Monday, Feb 20, 2006 at 21:45

Monday, Feb 20, 2006 at 21:45
Baz I would say the 4 X 4 mag have got the price wrong for the sized tents we are refering to here.

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Reply By: Alan H (Narangba QLD) - Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 13:59

Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 13:59
diver2

I have a Southern Cross tent and have the small and the large awning.

I found the large awning a lot better. It attaches as described above by a zipper above the door and then it sticks out to two poles straight out in front of the door.

As a counter balance we have a couple of ropes attached at the back to offset the pull of pegs on the poles. (very stable). The rest of the large awning is then hanging down each side making a tunnel to doorway. This is great for wet weather and the awning is long enough to peg down in this configuration.

In better weather you can lift both sides to give a large awning out in front with no walls. If windy, just peg down the one side into the wind and you still have a fair size awning and have wind protection for the door.

The pyramid tent requires some awning over the door or the smallest amount of rain will go inside the tent when the door is open. With the awning, you can just shut the screen door to give more air and prevent condensation.

The small southern cross awning helps protect the doorway and has a couple of cords to tie the side flaps down to tent pegs used to hold the tent up. This is effective in giving doorway protection but is very small to use as an awning.

While we tend to use the CT now we found the southern cross tent very good and very waterproof.
AnswerID: 155734

Follow Up By: Gajm (VIC) - Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 15:09

Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 15:09
Is that the other side of the comp tunnel pic??
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Follow Up By: Alan H (Narangba QLD) - Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 16:26

Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 16:26
No I don't think so. The tunnel in my rig pic is the road tunnel on the way to Wombeyan Caves.

Vegetation is a bit different to the comp pic unless somebody has been busy planting.
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Reply By: clayts - Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 18:26

Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 18:26
diver2

I have a Southerncross ultamate trekker which I think is the same as your tent but with the rear extention. I bought the tent after a reconmendation from a freind and have been stoked. We bought the Lg awning which zips on to the front of you tent as mentioned above.

Something I am currently doing (as we type - awning a the canvas place now) that you may be interested in is have a bolt rope (yachty term) approx 1200mm long sewn on the opposite side to the zip and add some extra eyelets . I have attached an aluminium rope track (purchased from Smart Aluminium - aprox $3.00) to the back of the rack (rhino alloy tray type) over the rear door of the Paj. This way I'll slide the awning onto the car and zip it onto the tent then pull the car forward which will form a tunnel over the work area/draws in the back of the car. I can also have it seperate from the tent with a few extra poles and have one or both sides up depending on wind and weather. We plan to head away in a couple of weeks so should be able to post some pictures.

If I were you I would buy the Lg awning as it is far more versitile.

Hope this helps
Clayts
AnswerID: 155750

Reply By: diver2 - Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 18:43

Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 18:43
Thanks Allan and Barry for your informative replys. Yes my tent is a Southern Cross,I thought the small awning alone would not provide much shade and had concerns about the large awning being difficult to erect and perhaps troublesome in the strong winds we get frequently here in the west and so thought of the idea of shade cloth sides to let some of the wind pass through. Sounds like the large awning has proven to be satisfactory. I can see the awning would attach via zipper to top of tent and I assume the walls are pegged down and I guess tied to the sides of the tent using the existing tabs on the tent
Many thanks Peter
AnswerID: 155751

Reply By: Scrubcat - Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 21:41

Saturday, Feb 18, 2006 at 21:41
Hi Driver 2
If you want an easy awning that works very well ( it does for me ) get a reasonable quality poly tarp or a light weight canvas tarp that is wide enough to go from a spot on the ground about 6ft wider than the side of the tent on one side then measured up to the pin on the centre pole then down the other side to a spot about the same distance out from the side of the tent. Gee this is hard to explain.
The tarp has 5 eyelets along the side, the middle eyelet goes over the spike on the tent centre pole.It is necessary to then run a cord or light rope from the pole to a peg or tree at the back of the tent, as mentioned previously, to take the strain off the back wall of the tent.The reason I changed to using the centre pole instead of the zip along the front edge of the roof is I found that the rain that fell on the front part of the roof ran down the front of the tent and into the awning area. By having the awning on the centre pole you have about half of the tent under the awning thus no rain in awning area and also much cooler in hot weather.The position of the 2nd & 4th eyelet is determined by measuring from the ground near the side of the tent to the centre pole at the top this is enable the awning to be pegged down to fit the same profile as the tent if the weather is bad.
The awning can be set up any way suitable to the conditions at the time as has been already suggested in other replys.
This might sound complicated but it is realy very simple and cheaper than the s/cross, no zip.
Sorry if I have confused you coz I have just about confused myself .
Cheers.
AnswerID: 155768

Follow Up By: diver2 - Sunday, Feb 19, 2006 at 11:30

Sunday, Feb 19, 2006 at 11:30
OK that sounds like a good idea. Instead of attaching the awning to the zipper front edge of tent it is moved back to the centre of the tent. So the only point it attaches to the tent is at the Centre Pole so avoiding the pooling of water at the zip area. My centre pole seats into a plastic moulding built into the tent roof and so I have a dome centre with no spike on the centre pole suitable for receiving the eyelet. There are some tabs in each corner of the roof section so I guess I could use these to tie and locate the tarp in the centre of the tent roof or can you suggest another way
Thanks Peter
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Reply By: Scrubcat - Sunday, Feb 19, 2006 at 16:42

Sunday, Feb 19, 2006 at 16:42
Peter (Diver2)
Sorry about getting your forum name wrong last time.
OK your tent must be a later model than mine. How would it be if ,still using an awning with eylets as other reply, but this time instead of 1 middle eyelet you had 2 spaced each side of middle the same distance apart as the tabs on the corners of the roof,a piece of tape similar to tabs could tie from each corner tab to these 2 eylets. It may be necessary to tie the tabs from each of the 4 corners to prevent the awning moving about if windy, unlike using a pin on the centre pole which prevents any movement. To save it from being too fiddly tieing tape or cord when attaching the awning some type of clip could be used ( like on the end of a dog lead ) to clip on to the tabs.You would still have to take some load from the back wall of the tent by taking a rope from the rear tabs to a peg or tree behind the tent.
cheers & good luck.
AnswerID: 155858

Reply By: clayts - Monday, Feb 20, 2006 at 18:35

Monday, Feb 20, 2006 at 18:35
Sorry forgot to add.

I priced up getting one made through so contacts but the price difference was negligible so just waited till the next show and bought a SC haven't regreted it. I found the poly tarp OK but it was easily torn and made a racket when it rained.

Also, As I am new to this forum thing can anyone tell me how I post a photo?

Clayts
AnswerID: 156061

Follow Up By: diver2 - Monday, Feb 20, 2006 at 23:25

Monday, Feb 20, 2006 at 23:25
Thanks for the information, sounds like you thought the Southern Cross canvas awning was the go with a bolt rope sown in on the opposite side of the tent so that it could be attached to the tent and vehicle or vehicle only with additional poles. Yes I had thought of pricing one up at a canvas place but sounds liike the Southern Cross awning price is competitive. As for the photo I would like to see them but hopefully some computer savy person will post the instructions so at least two of us will be wiser. Great responses to my post with many helpful suggestions, Yhanks everyone
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