Haven't even brought a caravan yet, but I'm already thinking about awnings. Do you use an awning? If so, what for? Are they easy to put up and are they worth it?
Have a roll out sun canopy for France, and a porch awning for the UK.
Would not put the porch awning up for anything less than a week.
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Remember, if you buy something you bought it, not brought it.
Pros and Cons to awnings, basically it's just a 3 sided tent with all the same qualities and a odd unique 'feature' or two!
It's got bulk and weight that you need to transport and store, the big air awnings are really very bulky and heavy when packed. Consider where in the caravan/car it can go BEFORE purchase.
It needs to be dried before storing BUT generally can't be erected unless attached to caravan, so not so easy to put up in the garden/garage on it's own to dry on return from wet caravan trip, as really not self supporting as a tent is!
They have limitations of how much wind they can stand, and can be a challenge to get down safely and without damage when the wind has got up!
..... and I've got two of them! I've a larger 3.3 metre airbeam porch awning, and a smaller lightweight 2.6 metre 'single pole' metal poled one. I use the larger one on longer stays and if entertaining friends, and only really in the summer when dry weather is more assured (ever the optimist!), and the smaller one if I'm likely to need to take it home to dry or on short stays where it's quick up and down pays off, (not enough space at home to dry the big one, and van in storage yard!), small one just about hangs on the cloths line to dry.
I've got a shaggy Border Collie dog, and I like hill walking, so the awnings come into their own when shedding wet and muddy outdoor gear and cleaning up the dog before letting her in the van. It's also great for storing wet/muddy stuff you don't really want hanging about inside the van.
It's a nice big airy 'room' that is a good sitting/dining space for family/friends.
It can be the difference between a little bit of shelter from chilling night air or showers etc. with the doors still open and the alternative of full blown retreat into the caravan.
Are they worth it? To me, absolutely.
Are they easy to put up? Unanswerable question! Depends of a lot of things, including but not exclusively, how able you are, the actual awning design, whether there is a breeze/wind, if the pitch/caravan are level, well it goes on! For some they're easy, for others not!
From my point of view, I'm an old git - OAP, usually caravaning on my own so no assistance, but fairly tall, pretty fit, quite strong, now I can fit my Kampa (now rebranded Dometic) Rally AirPro 330 air awning on my own with the aid of the Kampa pulley device without any difficulty, it's pretty heavy, but technique overcomes sheer weight to a large extent. My lightweight SunnCamp Swift SC 260 is a doddle, as the single 'hoop' pole is so easy to fit without any risk of 'dinging' the caravan wall.
Poled awnings are widely known as 'Divorce in a bag', as they do seem to prove a challenge to some (including several of my friends who ditched them and bought the same air awning as me after seeing how easily I could do it on my own whilst they were still struggling and were no longer talking to their spouses bar the odd profanity!!!! - typical of putting the awning up for them apparently! ), but others will still stand by them as being perfectly easy to erect. I think the biggest problem is that you need to be able to easily identify which pole fits where, your own colour coding and/or labelling is the secret, the manufacturers are pretty poor at that! Others will argue that air awnings are too heavy as all the weight is always there in the canopy as air tubes are permanently affixed, whilst poles and flysheet split the weight. Either air or pole, you still need much the same number of ground pegs and guy ropes, which I find the back breaking and long winded part.
I had a porch awning ,used it twice, a full awning I gave up using it after 3 years unless I was staying on the same pitch for at least 2 weeks, I had a sun canopy 3 poles 3 guy ropes up in 5 mins tops I used nearly all the time.
saxo1
We have a 2.6m Kampa for spring and autumn use and a full size Dorema for long stays in summer. It has zipout panels often left out.
We find the small one ideal for storing coats shoes etc and is large enough for 2 seats. Full size is lived in in summer especially on France trips. Even in spring or late autumn it gets nice and warm in it.
For short stays we don't take either. Both travel in the car boot as we plenty of room in our Hyundai and it's less weight in the van.
Ours are both conventional poled type, the Dorema alloy as there are a lot, Kampa has steel and fibreglass ones.
A friend has a large air type.I helped put it up and it is surprisingly heavy, but once slotted in pumps up quickly.
We have no problems putting either up as we have had loads of practice!
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Yes they have an awning rail,around the side of the van into which you slide the edge of the awning. There is a beading stitched into the outside edge of the awning material.
------------- DS-There's more to life than football!!!
We have a large metal-poled full awning which more than doubles the size of the caravan, but we only bother with it if we are staying anywhere for more than a week. It's a bit time consuming to put up, but quite straightforward. We usually have most of our meals in the awning when we are using it, and sit out in it if we are on-site during the evening. (Picture in my profile)
We did try an air porch awning, but found it too heavy to put up easily as we are both in our 70s, and due to back and neck problems I can't lift anything much above head height. Being all in one piece the air awning was just too much for us. Despite being nearly twice the size, the poled awning is much easier for us as it comes in 5 pieces with separate poles. For pegging out we now use screw-in pegs as I can put them in with a battery drill, which is much quicker and easier.
For the summer months and stays of longer than a 5 days we have an Isabella Coal porch awning. For shorter stays and winter months we have a small 22o Kampa air awning which is quick to erect and can be done by one person. Very handy in the cooler months when it is raining and freezing cold. Also a place to let shoes dry. If you have a dog a windbreak is almost essential to contain them.
Not a caravan user & our MH has a wind out awning, rarely used, but observation suggests that the usual rule applies = stuff expands to fill the space available.
So you don’t just have the bulk & weight of the awning, you need to add a groundsheet, carpet, recliner chairs, spare chairs for visitors, a full size waste bin, outside cooking paraphernalia, and the flame effect electric heater… (not a criticism, just saying what I’ve seen). Maybe that is why it often seems to take all of the final evening on site to pack it all away, ready to leave promptly next morning. The minimal porch type awning seems sensible for leaving boots etc to keep inside clean, with no room to tempt extra stuff.
However, big enclosed awnings seem handy for containing small dogs that aren’t good at escaping under the flap, rather than attaching them to the ‘van with a lead.
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Topic: To awn or not to awn
via mobile 09/2/2022 at 1:58pm
I've a larger 3.3 metre airbeam porch awning, and a smaller lightweight 2.6 metre 'single pole' metal poled one. I use the larger one on longer stays and if entertaining friends, and only really in the summer when dry weather is more assured (ever the optimist!), and the smaller one if I'm likely to need to take it home to dry or on short stays where it's quick up and down pays off, (not enough space at home to dry the big one, and van in storage yard!), small one just about hangs on the cloths line to dry.
- typical of putting the awning up for them apparently!
), but others will still stand by them as being perfectly easy to erect. I think the biggest problem is that you need to be able to easily identify which pole fits where, your own colour coding and/or labelling is the secret, the manufacturers are pretty poor at that! Others will argue that air awnings are too heavy as all the weight is always there in the canopy as air tubes are permanently affixed, whilst poles and flysheet split the weight. Either air or pole, you still need much the same number of ground pegs and guy ropes, which I find the back breaking and long winded part.
