Three years ago, Texas outdoor gear brand Kammok smashed its Kickstarter goal for a convenient vehicle-mounted awning designed to set up in seconds, nearly as easily as a bedroom window shade. Now, it's expanding the design with a fast-pitching bug room that installs like a bedsheet. The four-walled hideaway sets up quickly to help campers escape the bloodthirsty swarm of mosquitoes, biting midges and other gnawing pests that can be an inevitable part of an outdoor stay.
Having endured the sometimes-tedious process of unraveling a regular rectangular vehicle awning, setting up the telescopic poles, pulling it taut and even, staking it out, moving those poles and stakes around to get it properly level and supported, and doing it all over again after a wind blows through and knocks it down, we can appreciate the sweet spot Kammok hit when it crowd-funded the Crosswing awning in 2022. Kickstarter responded to the tune of $383,000.
Not only is the Crosswing one of the select few simple, rectangular vehicle awnings on the market to feature a freestanding design without needing support poles, guy lines or stakes, but Kammok goes so far as to say it takes only three seconds to deploy. Simply pull it straight out of its case, and the integrated X-frame automatically slides and unfolds into place to hold the awning up, providing an immediate reprieve from beating sun or light precipitation. There's also a lever that locks and unlocks the awning and ratchets the fabric taut, but that's it – as close to "instant" as you'll get from a vehicle awning.
The all-new Bug Room pairs with the 7-ft (2.1-m) Crosswing to create a no-see-um screen room that's also fairly quick and easy to deploy. Using an open elastic top, it wraps around the perimeter of the awning and secures in place with a buckle, letting the four mesh walls drape down to the ground.
On a still, quiet day, users can just slip inside one of the three doors to escape the swarm. If it's windy, they'll want to knock in the eight stakes and possibly install the two outer telescopic poles to tauten up the four walls and prevent them from blowing around like a flag. Of course, if that wind kicks up to 25 mph (40 km/h) or higher, they'll want to put the whole kit away as that's as windy as Kammok recommends keeping it up without risking damage.
Setup time should be comparable to that of a standalone instant-pitch screen room, which will also require staking out in windy conditions. The Kammok Bug Room is a lighter, simpler, more portable solution, though. At just 5 lb (2.3 kg), packing into a carry tub measuring 16 x 8.5 in (41 x 22 cm), the fabric body itself is way smaller, lighter and easier to carry along than a full-framed pop-up screen room.
The included telescopic two-pole kit tacks on another 3 lb (1.4 kg) and some bulk with a 42 x 3 x 1.5-in (107 x 8 x 4 cm) packed size, but compare that to something like the 20-lb (8-kg) pop-up Clam Traveler that packs to 54 x 7 in (137 x 18 cm), and the Bug Room is still quite light and portable (assuming you have a Crosswing installed for use as an awning, of course).
We chose the Clam Traveler screen room for comparison because it features an instant pop-up design that can compete with the Bug Room's fast, easy setup, and its 36-sq ft (3.3 sq m) ground area is close to the Bug Room's 45.5 sq ft (4.2 sq m) without going over. Many pop-up screen rooms offer ground areas of 100 sq ft (18.5 sq m) or more, which would be oranges to apples.
The Bug Room extends 7 feet (2.1 m) high, and the poles adjust between 42 and 91 in (107 to 231 cm) high to fit to different vehicle heights.
As compared to other vehicle awnings, the Crosswing Bug Room benefits from its fast, simple setup. Plenty of rectangular and larger 180- and 270-degree awnings offer available mesh or solid fabric walls, but they typically involve zipping each wall individually into the awning and/or attaching to the awning frame and legs rather than simply wrapping a single piece of fabric around the top of the awning.
All in all, the Bug Room seems like a smart way of turning the fast-deploying Crosswing into an equally convenient escape from relentless insects, something that can mean the difference between enjoying a camping trip or drenching oneself in bug spray or hiding out inside a small tent or car.
Kammok launched the Bug Room as a full bundle this month, packaging together the compatible 7-ft Crosswing, the Bug Room kit, the Pole Pack and the stakes for an early bird price of US$1,340, discounted from a displayed $1,655 MSRP.
Kammok sold out its initial early bird production run, but once it stabilizes supply with demand, we imagine it will also sell just the Bug Room for those who want to add it to an existing Crosswing awning. There's no word on how much that will cost before or after discounts and direct-to-buyer tariff fees, but we do know the 7-ft Crosswing is set to increase to $1,300 in response to tariffs in the coming days, so subtracting that from the upcoming $1,655 bundle price, we gather the Bug Room itself will cost $355 or more.
Source: Kammok