can anyone help...we have just bought a drive away awning for our motorhome but we don't know how to attach it to the van. we don't have a ladder so can't climb on top very easily. The van came with solar panels and a sat. dish so the isn't a lot of room on top! Thanks
We have a driveaway awning for our VW camper and took it on our first outing - to skirlington on a meet. Hadnt even had it out of the box. 1 1/2 hours later we eventually got it up and its huge. On ours (from Just campers) there is a bit which u attach to the gutter on the side of the van also theres a piece of material that u throw over the van and attach to the ground with the guy ropes - as webby says what do the instructions say and is it specifiacally for your MH????
Good luck - if all else fails take it back to where u got it from and ask them for advice!!!!!!
We bought a Kyham Motordome Excelsior a few years back, there were no instructions as such on how to attach it to our van. After a bit of probing, found out that we needed to but some aluminium 'U' channel that fixes to the upper side of the van, and some 'figure of H' plastic profile that fixes onto the side curtain of the awning. Having said that we have yet to buy these parts, and still use bungies to fix it to the roofrack bars on top of the van, this works fine though but you do need a good sturdy step, our van is about 2.7mts high. Have a look on my gallery image to see how it looks.
We bought a free standing awning when we had our motorhome.
The dealer said we can throw the guy lines over the top of the van and peg it down that way. He said you could push the guy through a tennis ball before hand and then throw it over the van which was a good idea.
However I pushed for an alternative method and he said some channeling could be attached to the top of the side of the motorhome and the awning would have some 'H' strips attached to it and it would simply drop onto the chanel. This is what we opted for.
However when we went to do this last year in the windy conditions of October on the Isle of Weight it was more dificult than I imagined. The chanel that was attached to the motorhome was too high for me to reach. I had a small set of steps but could not reach it. I managed to get it attached by starting it off while standing in the nmotorhome doorway and working my way accross the length of it doing a very poor balancing act as I progressed. Eventually I got it on but after a night of gale force winds I decided to pack it up completely and that is what we did. We haven't used it again since but are away at the end of May and will use it again.
A final thought to the whole problem was to use the bunk bed ladder from inside the motorhome and lean it against the side of it, so I think I have finally cracked it now.
Mike
Hi Again Jamiejess,
When I bought the awning from Mendips in Newport, I asked them to fit the channeling on for me. They did this and they did not charge me as I bought the awning at the same time. If you had to get the rail fitted I can only imagine it would cost about £10 to £20 for them to fit it but you would have to check with a motorhome service centre. I would think the rail would cost around £5 to £10. I did not fancy fitting it myself even though it must be a simple job, as I couldn't bear the thought of me not doing it properly and then having water coming in.
Hope this of use to you.
Mike
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Topic: drive away awning
