How to Install a DIY Awning Clothesline on Your Caravan for Under $50

Words and photos, The Adventuring Pals

How good is it that our new caravan came with a washing machine?! It’s only a 2.5kg unit, but it’s perfect for keeping up with our daily laundry needs without having to fork out endless coins at the laundromat.

Now that we are doing washing daily, I quickly got tired of having to tie up temporary ropes on the arms of our awning. So, I decided to finally install a permanent awning clothesline that can stay up even whilst traveling.

I’m not even trying to take credit for this one, as this popular caravan modification has been around as long as I can remember. It’s easy, cheap, and can be removed or left in place depending on your preferences.

What You Need

Materials

• 10m roll of 2mm PVC coated galvanised wire
• 2 x 6mm stainless eye bolts
• 2 x 6mm stainless nyloc nuts
• 4 x M6 stainless flat washers
• 2 x 3.2mm stainless swage crimps or wire rope clamps
• 1 x 5mm stainless D-shackle
• 1 x 5mm stainless turnbuckle
• Heat shrink (optional)

Tools

• Electric Drill
• 6mm drill bit
• 10mm Socket spanner for the Nyloc Nuts
• Bit of string or rope for a dummy run
• Pliers or crimps if using swage crimps

Measure (twice)

Firstly work out how far down the leg to put the line. You need to clear the awning barrel when it’s stored, as well as clear the door so as not to obstruct its opening when the awning is packed away. This is where that string or rope comes in handy to do a dummy run before we drill any permanent holes. For us, 110mm below the top of the legs worked a treat.

Drill the Holes

Fitting the Eye Bolts

With the holes drilled, give it a quick deburr if necessary, then secure the eye bolts with the Nyloc nuts. The eye bolts should be short so as to allow the awning arm to slide past without fouling and you can also use washers if the eye bolts or nut does not have much bite.

Attach the Wire

Open the turnbuckle fully to its maximum length then attach one end of the wire rope to the closed end of the turnbuckle using a swage or wire clamp, then hook the open end into the eye bolts on one end of the awning legs.

Heat Shrink (Optional)

We can now attach the D shackle to the other eye bolt, run the wire rope from the turnbuckle, the length of the awning and feed it through the D ring, pull tight and crimp or clamp down to secure. Then cut off any excess wire. You can also use tape or even heat shrink to hold down the ends of the wires if necessary to avoid jagging whilst in use.

Lastly, tighten the turnbuckle to desired tightness but be careful not to over tighten and pull the awning legs in.

Final Thoughts

So there you have it! As you can see, this is a super easy DIY project, even for the not-so-handy person out there. It’s also a really cheap caravan hack, with all the gear from Bunnings setting us back less than $50.

You could go cheaper by not using stainless steel fittings, however, we figured it was worth using them as we tend to spend a fair bit of time on the coast.

If you do need to remove the line for whatever reason, you can simply loosen the turnbuckle, unhook it, then take off the D shackle off the other end and it’s off. We leave ours on all the time while travelling.

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