I have been a camper, now I am a caravanner, but I have to confess to being a dunce.
I am toying with the idea of fitting an awning (Eriba Troll 530) and have snooped around looking to see what people have and, more importantly, how they are fitted. It is not clear. Hence the question...
How to I choose the awning - particularly in terms of fitting my caravan's groove ?
For specific Eriba model/make stuff, I'd probably be having a look for Owners clubs and Eriba-specific forums, to see what they use? eg- http://www.eribafolk.com/forum.php
Chosing an awning for an Eriba Troll is dead easy because all you can use are awnings specific for Eriba Troll & nothing else. Eribas only have awning rail across the top so awning has to be Eriba specific & the various models from Puck to Troll all have different rail lengths so each require their own specific awning.
The poles hook into the loop at either end of awning rail & you may or may not have a similar fitting at centre of rail where central short vertical pole to form roof ridge fits. So from that you can see that awning must be specific & awning for 'conventional' caravan is not suitable.
Plenty of makes on the market & none of them cheap. Google 'Eriba Troll awning' & go from there. They do sometimes come up on ebay & always fetch a good price. Eriba-Shop here, have a used Troll awning in stock.
Ah! I see you are in France. If you are within driving distance of Germany/Belguim/Holland they will be cheaper there than France.
Oh dear, if they are Eriba specific they won't be cheap. I am going off the idea already
Having not had an awning, I am trying to balance the possible merits of: having more cover than the wind-out awning (sorry, memory loss sometimes can't find the correct term), plus wind and weather-break and privacy AGAINST extra weight and delays on arrival departure. We are tourers and tend not to stay in one place for more than a couple of days or three. We are also only two and no kids, pets.
What about a simple tarp with an awning "bead", slid into the groove(or would the rail be too low?), that would bridge the gap leading to something like a Quechua Base tent?
We had a Trigano Silver pop-up with similar problems of a low awning rail. There are two solutions, buy a motorhome porch awning, these will usually fit, or pay up to £1000 for a proper job.
In the end the porch awning was absolutely useless. It took ages to put up, and was small inside, though it fitted well. In the end we bit the bullet and got a decent full sized awning. Actually far less pegging, and easy to erect. It was quite light too and had fibreglass poles. It had a riser pole in the middle to lift the roof of the awning above the awning rail.
We generally don't stay anywhere for long, but I'd certainly recommend going for the proper awning.
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Topic: How to choose an awning which fits
