We have a Bradcot modulair 390 which we bought before our trip to France. We are still in France and have put it up and down 6 times now. The whole concept of air awning is its easy to erect, and it is. But our 390 alone is just useless. I can see that with the other 2 modules it will be a good awning but useless without them at an additional cost of nearly £700. Have a good look round at them and don't buy what we have unless you want a huge heavy full sized awning.
Kampa rally air seems ok so far. Not very well made, but it's easy to put up and take down quickly.
They're expensive for what they are. But they are quite clever.
We've now got the Kampa Rally Air Pro in sizes 200, 330, 390plus and the air annexe which is compatible with all 3 awnings. We had (now sold via Ebay) two Dorema poled awnings before (1 full size and 1 porch). We far prefer the Kampa awnings, so quick and easy to put up/take down and after getting caught in a horrendous storm with 50+ mph winds the 390plus was fantastic, the air beams obviously moved slightly in the wind but fared much better to some poled awnings that had suffered bent poles by morning! The only time I'd go back to a poled awning would be on a permanent seasonal pitch.
we have a very large porch awning - an outdoor revolution speed 2, and we love it. We don't want a full size awning as we would exceed our weight limits with either a poled or inflatable version and would take up far to much space when transporting.
(if i want a tent, then i take a tent!)
The revolution is really easy to pitch has a single inflatable beam, and it does have a single metal pole also. In extreme conditions i can get this down and in the bag in 20 minutes. The great thing is, is that it has a means of laying it out so that it is all lined up with a jig system built in via tapes that you peg out first, so it makes for an accurate first time pitch without need to adjust, even on a really uneven pitch. Plus i only need a little help with feeding it on to the rail....the rest is a one man job.
we had 2 suncamp ultimates before this and both got beaten by storms that the outdoor revolution just laughs at. These were a full 2 man job to get up in any wind.
when packed-up it is only slightly bigger than a poled alternative, but its all in one bag and really easy to fold up and fit back into its own bag.
it takes me about 20 minutes to pitch and peg all the guys (with an electric pump), about the same as the previous suncamp flexipoles things, so there isn't much time saving, but it is still much easier to peg out and do the inflating.
If you are comparing it with a full size, then tyhe inflatable option is more likely to be quicker.
we also have an inflatable tent that we use for scout camps (a campa breen 3) for when we cant use the tin tent.
I can get this up in 10 mins on my own (with e-pump) and faster than anyone else can on our camps, whcih does make for a lot of jealous scout leaders! plus i seem to be able to strike it in half the time as there are no poles to pack away! So this does have a lot of time saving opportunity
on both occasions of purchase we have had the salespeeps open it out, and then repack it to see what it is like. This gives you chance to check it and see what the weight etc is like.
Do bear in mind that they are odd shapes with the beams taking up more space, so you need to know tent folding techniques as they aren't quite so easy to just to ram in a bag like you might do with a normal canvas.
overall i would buy inflatable again for what we use it for, but would mirror what has already been said about seasonal as an inflatable wont take a full season as it will lose air in the same way that car tyres do.
We bought a Quest Leisure Easy Air 280 Lightweight Inflatable Caravan Porch Awning, thinking it would be easier to erect than our Trio Sport poled porch awning. Wrong! Also, we found it wasn't suitable for our caravan, as the awning rail is lower on an older caravan. Should have measured it first!
Colin21, I see you have an Elddis Wisp 450CT. The trouble is that most porch awnings have to go along the straight part of the rail, I have the same (although mine's a dealer special) van and the straight part of the rail is only just over 260cm long as it curves downward at the front (another snag with older models).
Other potential awning buyers should be aware that they should measure the straight level part of their awning rail for a porch awning. Also, much less important is the position of windows.
------------- The Sun always shines on TV.(and not on my caravan!)
Quote: Originally posted by Rob Johns on 22/9/2017
Colin21, I see you have an Elddis Wisp 450CT. The trouble is that most porch awnings have to go along the straight part of the rail, I have the same (although mine's a dealer special) van and the straight part of the rail is only just over 260cm long as it curves downward at the front (another snag with older models).
Other potential awning buyers should be aware that they should measure the straight level part of their awning rail for a porch awning. Also, much less important is the position of windows.
Hi Rob, we originally bought the porch awning for our previous caravan, an Elddis Tornado XL of 1988 vintage. We haven't tried it on the one we have now as it would probably come halfway across a window and we wouldn't like that much. Now we don't use an awning on short stays, and use a Trio Sombrero full awning for longer stays. The full awning is actually easier to put up than either of our porch awnings, as it comes in several pieces. Once up it is HUGE!
We have 2 air awnings and also a Dorema pole one now we are on a seasonal pitch.
Both air awnings, Suncamp and Kampa we cannot fault. Both have gone through really bad storms and have come out unscathed. They bend in the wind and bounce back. Others with poles were loosing there's but not us.
Would never go back to pole when touring but for seasonal we had to have a pole.
I think it's a personal thing and perhaps go see them both up and make up your own mind. Our Kampa is one inflation point and is up in a minute....great 👍
We recently bought a Kampa rally pro 260 air awning ,and used it for the first time in early septembers gales ,we got it for our swift challenger 480se .
The good points ,the wife pumped it up in about 3 minutes ,it's extremely sturdy when up .there are a couple of niggles though they still have to be pegged out properly this does take a fair bit of time the same as standard awnings .
I also bought the clamp system to attach it to our van ,that has its own problems I.e my van has strips of nobbly bits built into the sides Sod's law some of the holes line up with these strips and won't stick ,I also found that the clamps tend to lift off in extremely high winds ,I will therefore be buying a set of rear poles for our next trip and use the clamps in conjunction with them .
Overall though we found the awning to be extremely cosy and spacious for its size and wouldn't hesitate to recommend buying one
Well, for the OP or anyone else wanting an air-awning, Ebay is rammed with them. Many advertised as 'as new' or nearly new. So there are bargains to be had. But, you have to ask; why so many 'as news' are there for sale on there??
I have Got kampa airpro 200 . 3rd time I used it it leaked everywhere.. some say they have to get wet to seal... rubbish.. you wouldn't but a waterproof coat to get wet in when you wore it!,,
Avoid
We've had our Trigano air awning for 4 seasons now. Easy to put up, even easier to take down, lightweight, easy to peg out, and we've never had to add any more air to the poles once pitched. It still looks like new.
Quote: Originally posted by Mick S. on 23/9/2017
Well, for the OP or anyone else wanting an air-awning, Ebay is rammed with them. Many advertised as 'as new' or nearly new. So there are bargains to be had. But, you have to ask; why so many 'as news' are there for sale on there??
Simple really, there are 520 awnings advertised on EBay second hand, 100 of those are air awnings. Try looking at the adverts, most say changed van, new awning does not fit, or sold caravan.
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Topic: Air Awnings
