Darche Eclipse 270
By Topher
By now you have figured out that we are on a quest to bring all of you an honest review of every major awning manufacture that we can. With that, I present to you Darche, the new kid on the block, at least in the U.S. This past winter we got the chance to order one through Backwoods Overland and get one of the first few Darche Eclipse Awnings in the USA.
Let me start off by saying that this thing is just a little bit shady. No, no, not the company, the awning. I mean there are very few awnings that offer up this much coverage (123 SQF) on the U.S. market! A few weeks after placing my order the awning arrived. The awning and its brackets were packaged well and had no shipping damage incurred during its long voyage from Australia. I do have one packaging gripe that goes for every awning we have ever had and that is aluminum shavings from the manufacturing process. I feel lucky that the shavings did not cut a hole in any of the ripstop canvas. Seems like an easy QA fix?
After getting it all laid out the first thing that came to mind is BEEFY! From the three thick steel mounting brackets, nylon webbed metal buckled cinch straps to the stout aluminum box tube rafter system. The awning material itself is heavy duty-260gm cotton poly ripstop and its cover is a durable 600gsm laminated PVC. You could tell that this thing was built to last! According to Darche, the awning was designed to be free standing ONLY during setup and pack down. I suspect that the statement was put in there by the bean counters as it easily held my weight as I performed a pull-up from the base of one of the arms.
​
The awning sets up fast, just make sure you pay attention to how the material was folded up. I was too excited when opening it up for the first time and paid for that oversite when it was time to pack it back up. At first, it took my wife and I both to pack it up. But after a few uses, we got the hang of packing it up solo, although it’s still a bit tricky due to the height of our vehicle. One of the only drawbacks and my biggest complaint is not the awning itself, but the bag, it’s just too darn small! There are 3 support poles and the cinch straps that have to be stored separately. If they were to make the bag slightly bigger it would be much easier to pack up and keep all of its components in one place.
Just like many of the awnings nowadays, there is a wall kit that you can purchase as well. We opted to order the wall kit which is made from the same high-quality ripstop material as the awning. The wall kit does not come all together but must be ordered as 3 separate kits that when combined allows you to almost fully enclose the sides of the awning giving you over 200 square foot of shelter! The walls also give you the ability for an extended awning if you have additional poles. We liked that the walls had a built-in zip up doorway for extra ventilation if needed.
While I would not call this a game changer in this segment, it is most certainly is one heck of a bang for the buck!
Awning Packed Down Size: 88.5" x 7.8" x 6"
Wall Packed Down Size: 14" x 23.6" x 2.3"
Awning Weight: 60.5lb (With Walls 79lbs)
