REVIEW: MoonShade Awning is Perfect for Overlanding Adventures
The compact and lightweight MoonShade awning is easy to set up, provides a nice area of shade, and stows away in small spaces.
There are many things to think about when planning an overlanding adventure. For me, I spend the most time debating which gear to take (and buy) based on two key factors — weight and volume. In other words, the smaller and lighter, the better. Enter the MoonShade awning, which was supplied by one of our sponsors for our editorial review coverage today.
The MoonShade awning weighs only eight pounds, can be attached to almost any vehicle using provided or optional hardware, and supplies 45 square feet of cooling shade. Yeah, it’s not as large as those cheapo canopies you’d pick up at Home Depot for tailgating on Sundays… But those bulky awnings weigh over 20 pounds and take up a ton of space.
The MoonShade awning weighs only 8 pounds and folds down into a 28-inch by 6-inch (diameter) roll. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got sleeping bags larger than that. The question, then, is does the MoonShade awning appear to be well made? Is it easy to set it up? And would we buy one to take on our next trip?
Let’s dive in to find out.
MoonShade Awning Specs
The MoonShade awning, as mentioned, measures 9-feet x 7-feet when fully deployed. But tucked away, it scrunches down to about 28-inches x 6-inches. Moon utilizes “420D ripstop polyester with UV protective treatment” for the shade top. And “heavy-duty polyester webbing trim” with a reflective coating for the bottom.
Moon supplies five poles with each kit (two 13mm aluminum tension poles, two 19mm telescoping aluminum support poles that adjust from 78-inches to 96-inches, and one 7-foot 19mm strut pole). Two sets of large and small suction cups also come standard, as well as the following hardware —
- Stakes (4)
- Guy lines/tensioners (4)
- Carrying bag with shoulder strap
- Tall Connect cords for attaching to out-of-reach anchor points (4)
Moon’s website also offers a long list of optional hardware, including magnets, awning and sprinter rail attachments, ground attachments, adhesive attachments, eye bolts, and twist ties.
Setup
Popping open the MoonShade awning shipping box, even though we knew the specs, we were surprised to see its nifty little storage bag in person. It’s quite literally smaller than a camping chair or pretty much anything else we tote around with us on a routine basis.
This is possible thanks to the MoonShade’s ingenious design, which includes telescoping support poles that fold up into smaller sections and are made from lightweight aluminum. Those same poles are also height-adjustable from 78 inches to 98 inches, which comes in handy because it means that one can angle the tent as the sun moves around, or just change the height to fit a specific vehicle.
Setting up the MoonShade awning is also incredibly easy and could be done with one person in a pinch, which is not something we can say for traditional tents. The awning comes with two different-sized suction cup mounts for the roof, as well as one set of magnetized mounts. The suction cups work perfectly on metal and glass, but on our review Ford Bronco Badlands, the MIC roof meant we needed to use a magnetic mount on the front windshield pillar, as well as a suction cup on the rear glass to make it work, as the suction cups don’t adhere to the textured top very well.
No big deal, however, as pretty much any other vehicle on earth won’t have this problem.
That solution worked nicely, however, and we proceeded to attach the shade top’s harbinger clip to the magnetic mount before attaching the second to the rear suction cup. Then, we attached the suction cup to the rear of the vehicle before extending the support poles and feeding them into the pockets at all four corners. The support poles are further held in place by a series of clips positioned in the middle of the awning itself.
From there, all that was left was to attach the support poles. Those simply slide up into the holes in each corner of the awning, after which each can be secured to the corresponding harbinger clips. Guidelines and stakes are included to help keep the awning from blowing away as well as providing a bit of extra security, which is helpful in our windy climate.
First Impressions
Once installed, it was immediately evident that this is a high-quality product. The MoonShade did a fantastic job of filtering out the sun’s rays with its UV protective treatment, as well as providing a cool spot to hang out in the extreme heat we’ve experienced over the past couple of weeks. The awning itself also features reflective illumination at night, which is nice when you’re trying to find your way back to your camping spot in the dark – or tailgate after a hard-fought victory on the field.
Even better, uninstalling the MoonShade awning was just as simple as installing it, at which point everything zips up in the provided bag, taking up precious little space in our cargo area. In fact, we just left it back there so we can have portable shade whenever we need it – the awning is just that unintrusive, which is perhaps its most appealing feature, aside from the fact that it’s so easy to put up and take down, especially when compared to other awnings on the market.
Currently, the MoonShade awning retails for $350, which puts it somewhere in the middle in terms of what aftermarket awnings cost. However, to us at least, MoonShade’s tiny footprint, lightweight, ease of use, and the fact that it can be installed on any vehicle without additional modifications make it worth every penny. If that sounds like something that you could benefit from, you can purchase your own MoonShade by heading over HERE.
Photos by Brette Foote & Moon
