TL;DR:
I really liked the concept of this awning and for the most part it seemed well made. But there were a few odd quirks, and the main issue: it turned into a paddling pool when it rained.
I ended up returning it after only using it for three nights as I could find no way of setting it up that didn't lead to it gathering all the rain that fell on it.
Update(s)
Latitude replied and accepted a return.
So I ended up driving from Kent to Somerset to return it as it's so large and heavy it was hard to find a courier to take it and the ones I did were quoting silly money. I'm yet to get the money back in my account, but that should happen over the next couple of days. As I went in person I talked through several of the issues/quirks I'd come across with the awning and they placated me by seemingly listening. They had one of their other awning models out on one of their vehicles in the car park and this did look like it wouldn't suffer from the same water pooling issue as the 90 that I bought, as the previous update speculates.
–
I've noticed that the issues I've experienced with the Wingman 90 might not affect their other awnings (Wingman 180, Wingman 270 and Wingman 270+), as the structure is different.
There appears to be no parallel cross support poles for the canopy to form a dam against. This is because the larger awnings have straps to hold them out under tension – in effect a working version of the 'no support poles' iteration I tried but doesn't work in practice with the Wingman 90.
I've included a photo of this, taken from a Google review, at the bottom of the page.
If I sound pissed off in this review, it's because I am.
Should I have waited until I wasn't so annoyed to write it? Probably. But I wanted to put my experience out there so other people who might be looking into the Latitude Wingman 90 (or any of their other awnings) would have more information to help them decide if they want an awning that actually works as advertised or one that doesn't...
We recently got another van, having had a Caddy in the past. This time around there was a desire to have some additional space in the form of an awning. So the research began and things seemed to largely fall into a few categories:
- Roll or wind out awnings in a solid ‘cassette’ fixed to the roof, common brands are Thule and Fiamma.
- Tent style awnings, either with solid poles or air poles.
- Tarps
Cassette awnings seem to be the most common awning type people go for, but to me it looked fragile and expensive for what looked a bit like a roller blind.
Tent style awnings are also popular, but I didn’t like the fully enclosed by design element. It’s also a big thing to set up and dry out.
Tarp style awnings just looked like hassle.
So when I found the Wingman awning range from Latitude I was impressed with how sturdy they seemed and the self supporting feature seemed handy. Partly I also just didn’t want a classic cassette awning because everyone seemed to have one, and I wanted to support a smaller company.
Nearly £900 later and the awning (and some walls) arrived and were on the van. I had two roof bars mounted close together in the centre of the roof for mounting a Thule roof box and kayaks, but they proved too close to together to properly support the awning. The main back plate appeared to flex at the ends where it was unsupported, so I ended up buying two more roof bars to be able to mount the awning with the brackets closer to the ends.
This improved mounting made the whole thing more stable when self supporting, but there was still quite a lot of movement (the whole thing is one massive lever).
Arms & Legs
I was impressed with the build quality overall, but began to find the first quirks pretty quickly.
The legs are apparently meant to slot into a hole in the arms of the awning, but after doing this a couple of times the metal around the hole began to show signs of damage and I could see it not taking long before the metal fatigued and cracked. So instead of putting it into these holes, I added some zip ties to slide up behind the hooks on top of the legs and hooked the hook into a plastic end cap. Not ideal.
The arms have built in lights (which is a neat feature, and they light they give out is very nice at camp), and Latitude supply a cable to plug in a battery pack, but there’s nothing to hold the cables up and so they just sag all over, blocking the door to the van. I cut some strips of velcro to neaten the cables up with – which wasn’t the end of the world to have to do myself, but it would have been nice to not have to. A very nice feature, but only half finished.
The first actual use of the awning while camping went well – it provided great shade and with the legs and some guy lines out was stable in the gentle breeze (I’d only be comfortable using it without the legs in perfectly still conditions – which in practice is rare, so feel this feature is somewhat oversold).
Surprise Paddling Pool
It was however, only the second trip and the awning’s third night of use that things began to go south.
On arrival I’d set up the awning with guy lines and legs, even though the conditions were calm. The awning successfully did awning things during the day, providing cover and shade.
Unfortunately it proved not fit for purposed by 3am on the third night of use. I happened to wake up and see that the awning was sagging significantly, having collected rain water during the night. Assuming that I’d done something wrong and it was a one off I got out the van to push up on the canopy and clear the water. I checked the guy lines and legs and flipped up the little flippy up bit on the middle pole again.
But standing there in the darkness it became quickly apparent that it was just going to fill up with water again. So I decided to pack it all away and try again in the morning.
I woke up the next morning unimpressed by the awning’s performance overnight, but gave it the benefit of the doubt and set it up again, with the rain having stopped.
All was well until early afternoon when it began to rain lightly and I went to see how the awning was doing in real time and watched as an unexpected feature of the awning became clear – it doubled as a paddling pool. Water immediately started pooling on the canopy instead of draining off.
I tried giving it an extra chance by backing down off my levelling ramps a little, so that the van was now lower on the awning side, giving it a marginally steeper angle – still pooled.
I checked the Latitude website for any guidance, or set up tips, still thinking I was doing something wrong. But the set up is so simple I couldn’t see what I could do differently.
Testing (my patience)
I emailed Latitude about my disappointment with an explanation about what had happened and asking for advice.
I got quite an underwhelming response in return, which doubled down on how good the awning is and to try loosening the outside support pole and using an additional guy line to give a low point.
By the time Latitude had actually replied I’d already wasted a not insignificant amount of time trying out various configurations, including the one they suggested. Which sort of half worked, but just meant that my paddling pool was only half as big instead of full size, as it still pooled in the section closest to the van.
I went through lots of different iterations over the course of the next week or so. There were a few times where I thought I’d found the solution, only to find water pooling somewhere else on the awning.
I tried adding a taller section to the clip on flippy up bit – this didn’t solve it and caused the cross pole to bow under the strain.
I tried adding an additional pole perpendicular to the van (with and without two additional high points) – this didn’t solve it and just gave four/six pools instead of two.
I bought some flexible pipe to try and create a hoop to give the canopy some tension and height – this didn’t solve it.
I cobbled together some steel I happened to have and created an additional support beam that could take the strain of creating a much taller high point – this solution had the most promise, but no matter how tall I made the extra support, or how careful I was with the placement the awning still pooled with water.
I remembered that the recommendation had been to remove the outside support pole and guy the canopy down, so I came back and did this with the additional beam I’d added – this was the most successful, but water still pooled somewhere or other on the awning, if I move the high point to stop water gathering in one place, it pooled elsewhere.
The only configuration that didn’t pool water was to have no supports holding the awning apart, just the legs and the guy lines. Which turned the awning into one big bowl and water did successfully drain off. The only downside however was that this renders the awning completely unusable underneath as it sags about four feet off the ground, providing no usable height underneath and completely defeating the point.
For my own sanity and to check I wasn’t being unreasonable, I came back to test the awning with the default “full” set up and watched as it immediately started becoming a paddling pool, with not a drop of water draining off.
It may not look like a lot of water in the photo, but there's easily a few kilos of water on there already after less than a minute. And the more water that pools, the more the canopy sags, giving a deeper area for water to gather, it doesn't just gather, reach a certain point and then drain, it just keeps going. And tempted as I was to keep spraying water to find out when/how it would fail I didn't want anything to get damaged.
Common advice to stop water pooling on van awnings is to lower one side/leg, which can't be done on a Wingman awning because of it's self supporting construction. If you were to force one arm lower you'd only get a small range of movement and it would end up damaging the hinge.
I really, really, wanted this awning to work. Not least because I'd shelled out almost £900 on it and the walls – but I really like(d) the concept and it's clearly well built with the exception that it doubles as a paddling pool.
Refund, please
At this stage I’ve sent multiple emails, photos and videos to Latitude and had one underwhelming reply.
I took a gamble on a smaller company and lost.
It seems that they are all out of office at an event and there’s no one left to respond to customers.
So I’m currently stuck waiting for a response to get a refund on an awning set up I’ve paid nearly £900 for and isn’t at all as advertised or fit for purpose.
Right now I’m pissed off (the decreasing levity in my emails to Latitude illustrates this well) – and that’s not my usual state. I’ve got a product that isn’t fit for purpose and customer service that is, so far, underwhelming. I’d forgive one or the other of those, but both simultaneously is disappointing and I expect(ed) better.
I need a refund and to get an alternative that works, ahead of upcoming trips but right now I’m stuck with an awning that will end up collapsing in the rain and end up injuring anyone underneath it, and/or damaging my van.
Extra image(s)
