I have an awning on my Defender; it is very well made but relatively poorly designed. To set it up, I need to motivate the assistance of a teenager or my ever-busy wife, and over the next five minutes of unzipping, unrolling, pole deployment, and leveling, a relationship may very well suffer. Yes, I could set it up myself, but that is a long, tedious process. If it rains heavily during the night, and I forgot or chose not to close the awning, the chances of a blown support pole are very good; it has happened before. When closing up the awning, I will either pinch a finger or forget the exact packing process, which leads to a grumpy teenager and finger. If only someone came up with a simple, cost-effective awning (in defense of my Defender’s old awning, it is designed to accommodate fabric walls which add a large living area to our camp).
Kammok, based in Austin, Texas, is the designer of high-performance outdoor gear and has recently launched its tenth Kickstarter campaign for the all-new Crosswing awning. It is safe to say your pledge will be successful; at the time of writing, the campaign goal of $10,000 has been exceeded by $344,000. They must be onto a good thing here.
First impressions of the support-free Crosswing awning concept are good. We like that the Crosswing is claimed to be the fastest deploying awning on the market, and Kammok claims that the bag-free, aluminum-housed Crosswing will set up in under three seconds and break down in under three seconds! Even if they are smoking their socks and the awning actually requires 10 seconds in or out, that is still a super quick setup.
The Crosswing’s X-Frame eliminates the need for pesky support legs and guy ropes that will inevitably trip you when you least need to be tripped. Yes, awnings are great for shade, and they are equally useful when the clouds burst, but most awnings which we have used are okay in the rain, and most require some unlucky fool who will spend the duration of the storm pushing pools of water up over the lip (and onto his feet). The big question here is, is the Crosswing any good during a proper downpour? We believe it may be. Sure, the aluminum housing won’t rust and will protect the waterproof, mold-resistant polyester canopy fabric while stowed away, but it is the X-frame design that might make this an excellent wet weather awning as pooling is much less of a concern than a square frame awning which may have been designed with the secondary purpose of pooling water.
We look forward to testing a Crosswing in the future to determine whether this awning really has what it takes to weather a storm (the awning has a claimed wind rating of 20 to 25 mph).
The awning can be deployed to three lengths (2 feet, 4 feet, and 6.5 feet), depending on how much space you have available, and accessories attach to a T-slot rail that runs the full length of the underside of the housing. To accommodate a wide range of vehicles, the Crosswing is available in two sizes: 5 feet and seven feet. The package will include custom mounts for the Crosswing to attach to most roof rack systems, including crossbars and most racks with T-slots. These mounts apparently offer a simple, one-person install and allow the user to adjust the angle at which your awning deploys. Taller users with low-rider Scoobies can install the Crosswing at a 12.5-degree incline to allow for maximum headroom, while users with taller, manly vehicles may choose a 12.5-degree install for easier deployment.
“Kammok was founded with the simple belief in the restorative power of the outdoors, and we design gear to elevate time outside. Simply put, we want to make your experiences in the outdoors as restful and enjoyable as possible. The Crosswing is the first awning of its kind—your essential on-vehicle shelter for both the spur of the moment adventure and the extended stay at camp.“
says Greg McEvilly, Founder and CEO of Kammok.
The Crosswing is available exclusively on Kickstarter as of May 31, 2022. Check out the campaign here.
5-foot – Kickstarter Early Bird Price: $599.95 | Est. Retail Price: $849.95
7-foot – Kickstarter Early Bird Price: $699.95 | Est. Retail Price: $999.95
For other products or further information, visit www.kammok.com.
Our No Compromise Clause: We carefully screen all contributors to ensure they are independent and impartial. We never have and never will accept advertorial, and we do not allow advertising to influence our product or destination reviews.
