Quote: Originally posted by cheekyboots on 10/8/2006Oh no please dont tell me that awnings are bad news to put up! We havent tried ours yet. We were hoping as we are used to a frame tent that it would be a doddle, hmmm mebbe not?
Permit me to give you two bits of advice which work for us.
Don't arrive on site and make the awning your first job. Arrive, do the essentials ie water, electric, waste then sit down and have a cuppah and RELAX. This works well for us particularly after a long drive. We have been known in extreme circumstances to leave the bloody thing until the next morning!
Then when you have successfully got it up correctly, colour code all the frame joints with coloured insulating tape while it's still erected. Doing this will enable you to erect it so much more easily the next time around.
This second item may sound obvious to the more experienced of us, but believe me it really does work.
Thirdly have a divorce lawyer standing by just in case!!!!!!
we;ll i have put up a few awnings in my time -but the hardest was a porch awning ? on my new van it was a nightmare -;oh for a full awning again it was a bradcot porch awning it just dont work coming half way round the van and twice as many poles as a full awning plus slides here ;there ;and foam pads to protect side of van ; better with a full one .
we,ll i have said my piece on awnings lol hope i havent started a war
When newbies we had a canvas porch awning that was heavy and hard work to put up so we got rid of it (was 2nd hand off eBay). We now have a Porchlite awning, takes 10 minutes to put up (2 people), wouldn't be without it. Our first 6 or so trips out were a very steep learning curve but then it all started to click. Stay with it.
Thanks all for the advice. We have colour coded for next time so hopefully we will make a better job of it. Next outing is 21st September as hubby watches everton and they are at home for most of September. Really enjoying it though and feel really relaxed apart from the awning and the hassle the arrival brings lol. Next year we want to take it abroad possibly do the Portsmouth to Bilbao and go somewhere Northern Spain or Normandy in France havent decided. Need a few more trips before then. Thanks again
Arriving at 7pm with a 15 month old baby? Nightmare, whether you have a tent or a caravan. Not recommended. Why on earth didn`t you just leave the awning to the next morning? It`s not like a tent, where you`ve got to pitch it to have somewhere to sleep. The whole point about caravans is that you wind down the steadies and put the kettle on, surely?
Also the warden was quite right about grass pitches being a darn sight better for toddlers to play on. Hard standings are...well, hard.Especially for wobbly toddlers that fall over a lot.
Can sympathise but well done. I have a Dandy who have awnings which are notoriously difficult, unless you have them adapted. My solution is that I joined the club and I found when I rolled in at 8pm after a hellish journey a mug of tea was shoved in my hand and a mass of people swarmed around the unit and the awning and the thing seemed to magically erect. When I took it down I carefully first labelled every damned joint with coloured tapes so I know exactly which bit goes where.
Now there must be a similar club for your caravan somewhere..... It helps when there are people on hand to help and when you are experianced you can be part of the merryband that helps latecomers.
Val I know, but hubby was commuting to work on the Friday so obviously we arrived Thursday evening after he finished work and he wanted it done so the next day I would ok on own with baby. Next time we go he is taking the Friday off and we are leaving it until then.
well talk about putting awning up, when we took ours DOWN it had been raining in the night so so undid the zips (part of) and let them flap about abit to dry off when dry off they came just leaving the roof and leg bits.
ME I decided to take out all the pegs so it could flap dry hahahahahahaha yes you've guessed it a big gush of wind and the AWNING,POLES, were on the roof I wet meself laffin my brother in law had to pull up beside us climb in his truck to get the daft thing down...
we never take pegs out now till we're ready to take awning down!!! hahahahahahaha
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Topic: Second time with van -nightmare!!!
