Returning to the fold [sorry!] many years after disposing of our much-loved NR Nova, last weekend Mrs ericonabike and I took our newly-purchased Trigano to Glastonbudget for its first outing. Thanks to a very careful previous owner, it was in great shape, very clean and with no faults.
The only problem we had was in getting the awning up! Our collective memory of the Nova seemed to have been wiped clean, not helped by the Trigano awning having removable doors and windows, which confused us immensely. It probably took us an hour to work out the 'pole positions' and then to get the awning over them. Even then I wasn't entirely convinced we'd got it right!
Is there an indiot's guide to awning erection that anyone here can recommend?
Read on here recently to zip on and flip over roof before putting poles together so plan to try that myself next time. Make sure poles are marked once they're up to make it easier next time.Always take four sections out prior to dismantle and out in last when going up. Easy to tell side from front as sides have straight top and front angled with right one highest at left top corner and left panel highest at right top corner.
Not sure about storm straps as yet to do myself but someone else will add that I sure.
Thanks both - I guess the 'zip first then flip' technique hlps explain why all the windows and doors are removabel - with them in as one piece of canvas would be pretty difficult to throw it over the top of the unit!
I've made a note to get some different couloured insulating tapes for next time - then once erected can code the poles properly.
Once we'd got it up last time it was reasonably taut - stretching the adjustable poles seemed to sort that - but I had no idea whether to peg it out first then stretch, or stretch then peg! Nor, for that matter, whether the 'skirt' was meant to be on the outside or the inside....
Oh no, we had the saggiest awning to date on our last trip last week! I had meant to take photos of the poles to show you for comparison (I was wrong we don't have a diagram I don't think, just a list of parts or something?) but I forgot...I can do next time? But it sounds like if you'd got it all fairly taut they were right.
Anyway with all our sagginess we were wondering if we had got it right or not and beginning to doubt ourselves but we could not see how else the poles should go. We were getting very despondent about our sagginess as this time we got bulges that got weighed down when we had heavy showers then the standing water leaked through the seams because it has pooled so much...
...then I came home and looked again at the picture in the trigano brochure for help and then it came to me. My hubby has been zipping in the panels first because every time he tried to zip them in after erecting the rest, he could not zip them up as there was too much tension in places and saggy bits elsewhere...so he had started to zip them in then erect. We knew no one else does it this way - we watch people putting theirs up. So it has to be something to do with these panels surely - I had kept looking at them on hol trying to work it out. Anyway, looking at the brochure I realised at one side of each front panel there was a bit of window close to the zip and the other side there was canvas between window and the zip...and I realised that our windows were the wrong way around ie they were close to the zip on the outsides towards the edges of the awnings, not the insides as they should be! So basically our left window was zipped into the right side and vice versa! This explains why my husband could not zip them in after erecting the rest of the canvas and why we are sagging so much with excessive tension in other areas! Oh dear!!!! How could we make such a glaring error!? I knew on hol it was something to do with those panels but could just not see it for the life of me! We hope to have less sagging next hol!
It's taken me a few attemps to get our awning up correctly and using various techniques. I tried the zip & flip method but the unit fully erected is too high unless you let down the centre poles. Then you have to struggle to push up with the extra weight! The previous owner had duct-taped the joins in the cross-poles which didn't help at all. Then i realised what the joints were for!
My favorite method is now to erect the framework with outer legs at lowest setting and the cross-poles about 8ft long. Hooking them into frame and leaving them dangle before conecting to the fromt frame. If I put the awning carpet down first it gives me an idea where to place the down poles. Then we drag the top canvas over the frame which supports the weight and offer up to the zip (s). The short springloaded joint then pulls out to 'dog-leg' down allowing access to the zip and to progress the zip along. You do this one pole at a time relocating joint as you go along. Finally awning is zipped into place so, with all crosspoles straight and in place it is time to raise the height of the front. Adjust tension and peg down! Then zip in sections and re-adjust tension to fit snug and taught. Then zip in other bits i.e draught excluder. I had been wondering for a while why there is this 'silly' join about 50cm from unit hook and then it dawned. It's actually very clever! Dismantling is reverse process.
I hope this helps
Frank
------------- Mavericks don't get to lead the herd - not that they want to!
Glad to see I'm not the only one to whom the awning erection process doesn't come naturally! Many thanks for the tips - we'll try them all out at some point over the summer I'm sure, and then hopefully settle on a processs that we can repeat each time. Someone really ought to write a book on 'great awning disasters of our time' - I'm sure there'd be enough material!
I definately found zipping and flipping to be the easiest method then just extended the poles until everything tightened up.
I have the basic A4 sheet guide which was actually really useful.
My only tip would be (lesson learned) -- put the side panels in before pegging the main body or you run into all kinds of issues.
I was dreading putting the awning up after reading this post but if i am honest, I actually found it pretty straight forward. If anyone needs a copy of the instructions email at Craig_Dawes at btinternet.com.
------------- Life is not a rehearsal. You get one shot......Live it to the full.
When we had our trigano 575 we made the mistake of throwing the awning into a skip. We were in France and putting it away in a deluge. We decided we weren't going to bother with it again. We lost a lot in the value of the camper when we came to sell it.
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Topic: First use - Trigano Randger
