MoonShade - The Portable Awning for your Car
We first featured the MoonShade in our “Best New Camping Gear for Summer 2022” and since then have had it out on several adventures as part of our Car Camping Kit. It’s been an essential part of road trip adventures this Summer, providing shelter from the mid-day sun and light rains.
In case you didn’t know about MoonShade, it’s a portable vehicle awning that easily affixes to any car, truck or camper and almost any other sturdy structure. It is easy to set up and provides a coverage area of 9ft by 7ft but packs down small and weighs only 8lbs so it’s easy to take it anywhere. This is not a permanently fixed awning so it doesn’t affect your gas mileage when driving and instead stores securely in the provided carrying case inside your vehicle. Two large and two small suction cups are provided to affix one end to your vehicle no matter the make or size—you can also purchase heavy-duty magnetic anchors that temporarily affix to steel surfaces like the tops of most vehicles. The other freestanding end is then pegged out with poles and guy lines.
MoonShade is made from a super tough 20D ripstop polyester with UV protective treatment and comes with two 13mm aluminum tension poles, two 19mm telescoping aluminum support poles that adjust from 78in to 96in and a 7ft strut pole for narrow-base mounting.
The MoonShade includes two large suction cup anchors, two small suction cup anchors, four stakes, four guy lines/tensioners, four connect cords for attaching to anchor points and carrying bag with shoulder strap. It retails for $445CAN / $350US, weighs only 3.6kg / 8lbs and provides a coverage area of 2.7 x 2.1m / 9 × 7ft when deployed and packs down to 71 x 15cm / 28 × 6in when stowed away in the carrying case.
The MoonShade is part of my car camping kit and allows me to chill out of the sun on hot days and protects me from light rains when a storm rolls through. It also provides protection for my dog at night since he sleeps outside the car while we sleep inside. Durable, packable, lightweight, easy to attach to my Subaru Crosstrek and simple to set up—the MoonShade does it all!