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Attaching a shade sail to the camper van

A practical solution for easy mounting
Author: wohn-blogger.de, Rockenberg, Germany
Online since: 11/06/2021, Number of visits: 123609
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For us, a sun canopy is essential during our camping trips because direct sunlight at the campsites often causes us problems. An awning creates a pleasant space in front of the camper, provides shade and also protects from wind, gusts and light rain. However, fixed cassette awnings for motorhomes weigh around 30 kg which also affects fuel consumption. For our camper, we purposely decided against a fixed awning and instead use a shade sail, often called a tarp, to provide shade.

Attaching the shade sail to the motorhome is not that easy. Our idea: attach the shade sail to the camper using magnets. The sun protection is quickly put up and, at the end of the holiday, just as quickly taken down.

Rubberised pot magnets type GTNG-66 with an M8 threaded stud are perfect for this application. The magnets are coated with rubber which protects delicate surfaces such as our car finish from scratches. The M8 external thread fits perfectly through the eyelets of our shade sail. As a counterpart, we screwed on the plastic handle with internal thread M8. With these handles, the shade sail can be easily detached from the ferromagnetic surface of the camper van. We attached this magnetic assembly to the two eyelets in the corners of the shade sail, stretched it over the van in a few easy steps and attached it to the roof and the side panel.
Our tip: Since we only used the two corners to attach the shade sail, it moved a lot in the wind. That’s why we used an additional four rubber-coated pot magnets with plastic handles to mount the shade sail on the side where the tarp is stretched over the roof of the motorhome. (You can see it quite well in the picture.) This minimizes the ballooning of the tarp during wind gusts. Now the shade sail holds securely and withstands the wind. We love our portable camping shade sail!



Note from the supermagnete team:
The rubberised pot magnets have a low profile which makes them very discreet. However, these rubber-coated pot magnets will rust when used permanently outside. We recommend taking the shade sail down when not in use to protect the magnets from the weather. You can also use anti-rust paint or clear lacquer to make the neodymium magnets weatherproof.

To transport the magnets when they are not in use, we recommend storing them in our sturdy protective cases with cubed and nub foam inserts. Other storage ideas can be found in the customer project Storing strong magnets.

General-purpose protective cases made of sturdy ABS plastic suitable for the transport of magnets from our assortment:


Other fascinating articles about camping
You can find other possible camping uses for magnets such as home-made magnetic thermal mats here: Magnet applications for camping. Discover additional interesting posts on the subject of camping in the blog of wohn-blogger.de.


Safety tips
With an adhesive force of approx. 22 kg, these pot magnets are very powerful. Be careful not to pinch your fingers when mounting the shade sail or during storage. This could lead to bruising. Here you can find additional safety tips for neodymium magnets.

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