Hi all. Last year we got the fibre poles on our Inaca trashed by a French storm. Insurance paid out for new poles and the damage, but we decided to invest in a Vango Braemar 280 to see if life was easier with a blow-up. Took both to Europe this year and the answer is yes, with caveats.
The Inaca is rock-solid, huge and fits the caravan, but takes an hour to be fully up & needs two people. The Braemar is sooooo easy to go up (one person, 15 mins fully pegged), but not big enough. It does feel pretty solid though.
The upshot is that we are looking at ebaying the Inaca and Braemar and getting one big, luxury, strong inflatable. The choice seems to be the Ace AIR and the Kalari.
I hoping someone has experience of one or other of these and can answer a couple of questions. We're up at the NEC in Oct, but an honest user opinion is worth ten salesman!
1. We have a Bailey Unicorn III Cadiz. It has a full sized awning track of 1050 or so. Would you recommend the 400cm/420cm or the 500cm/520cm? We'd like the bigger, if it would fit.
2. Does anyone know the difference between:
Kampa - "Extra high quality extra heavy duty 300D Weathershield" material
and
Vango - "Sentinel Luxe 600 with600D double ripstop threads combined with a 300D texturised base" material.
I can't find any info on these materials or what they do?
3. We carry awnings on the roof box, so humping it up there is a factor. The Vango is much heavier at 40kg (vs 27kg) but is it worth the extra weight?
We had the same decision to make earlier this year and bought the Kampa Ace 500. There are pros and cons for both however the single inflation point closed the deal. Couple this with an electric pump and setting up is so much easier.
My friend has the Vango and it's also a good awning. Lots of separate inflation points so an electric pump isn't really feasible so lots of huffing and puffing. It has removable guy straps which is useful as the Kampa has them sewn in and they aren't always required. The vango is slightly larger as it's a 4 bay design with 2 bays at full depth where the Kampa is 3 bay. Vango blinds are better than the curtains you get with the Kampa. We never used our curtains too much faffing.
Material wise not much in it to be honest, both are good.
Not sure you would fit a 500 on a Cadiz though we had it on a twin axle.
Up at the NEC, we had a look at the Vango Kalari and the Kampa Ace Air. This summer, we got bad mossies sitting out by the Italian lakes and no candles, oil lamps, smouldering coils or plug ins kept the little pests away. An awning solution is needed.
The Kampa is winning because you can buy replacement mossie mesh front panels, whereas on the Vango, they said no, although they were thinking about it.
I say 'winning' rather than 'won' because while there, we also looked over Outdoor Revolution Esprit Pro and the Outwell Mirage 400SA.
The Outwell looked OK, but the fabric on the Esprit Pro looked incredibly tough, bullet proof almost, and if the Esprit had mossie net options on the panels, we'd have got one then and there at the show. The Outdoor Revolution salesbloke also said that mossie panels might be a good idea for the future.
All four models have netting on the doors, cost broadly the same and come in loosely the same lengths.
So we still can't decide, although the Ace Air 400 with an annexe, carpet and front mossie panels is looking good.
BUT if anyone from Outdoor Revolution is reading this, if you can provide replacement or integrated mossie panels for the front by March next year, we'll be your customers!
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Kampa Ace AIR or Vango Kalari?
