We use our porch awning, the full one has been used once when there was 5 of us staying in the van (3 teenage girls have lots of stuff) Me and my OH go alone now the kids dont want to come as they are all over 16 so cant see us using the full awning much at all!!
------------- Jan:Braids Gretna, Feb Stanwix Park Silloth & Braids Gretna,
You can never have too many awnings!! We have a full awning that we have used for longer stays - doesn't take too long to put up. We use a porchlite square for winter as it is just somewhere dry to store chairs / coats and boots, and last week I bought a sunncamp 260. Haven't used it yet but thought it would be ideal for warmer short breaks when sitting out is an option but can't be bothered with a full awning. We camped up until last year and I used to watch every weather forecast for the last few days of the holiday, paranoid that the tent would be wet, so now we have caravan I don't want to go down the same route with awnings!! The porchlite can dry easily in the garage and I don't think the sunncamp will take much more effort to get dry.
We have just sold our Isabella full awning, it was MASSIVE and weighed ,,,,,,lots !!! i couldnt lift the bag on my own !!! but it was very big, we will take delivery of our new awning in the morning we bought at the Birmingham show, its a suncamp with an annexe and inner tent,,,,,i will let you know what its like tomorrow, its brand new for 2010.
------------- wishing everyone,,,,what you would wish for yourselves x
Porch or pop up mainly, big one for more than a weekend if there are a few of us. As we tend to go with friends alot we all meet in one awning so take turns to put it up.
We've just bought the Kampa Rally 260, it's not been delivered yet, but if it gets here before this weekend, we'll be testing it in Keswick! Wanted the red one but they're out of stock everywhere, so a green one it is. We also have a full awning but we've just changed vans so it will have to be made slightly smaller before we can use it again. I hate putting it up, but love the extra space it provides. Think we'll have the best of both worlds having both types.
Wow thanks for all your responses. It seems there is a real split in opinion. The Kampa Rally 390 we have really is easy to put up and take down, the only issue I have with it is getting the sides to stay up against the caravan to avoid drafts. I paid extra for the poles which without would be a lot worse. For me the biggest appeal of a full awning is to have a larger draft free space. All I would say is with a 5 and 7 year old with us we are still to experience spending time sitting out after their bedtime, usually one or both of us fall asleep getting them to bed! Having seen lots of people sat in the awnings chatting and eating it does look appealing and perhaps a goal worth aiming for. The Kampa doesn't seem quite big enough to do this when everything is in there, since last June the weather was either good enough to sit outside completely or bad enough to stay in the van. I'll keep looking for a full awning second hand local to me. I think I may have another year with the lightweight to see how we get on. I am now confident that the money wasn't wasted as Jaqugra said you can never have too many awnings.We are off to Norfolk in a weeks tie so we don't have long to wait! Thanks again.
Quote: Originally posted by nigel16 on 21/3/2010
We have a Dorema Full awning and a Kampa Fiesta lightweight. We tend to use the Kampa early and late in the season when we do shorter breaks and the full awning for when we are away for more than 4 days. The full awning is great and we both prefer it to the kampa which meets our basic needs for 2 of us and our 2 dogs. With the full awning we setup a table and chairs as well as our recliners
We do basically the same. Full awning for a week or more, Kampa Fiesta for shorter breaks and when the weather looks as if it might be 'iffy'. Easier to try the Kampa. We like the full awning if we go with friends - somewhere to invite people in the evenings. We manage to get a largish table and three largish chairs in the Kampa - plus rubish bins and goodness knows what, but it is a bit of a squeeze.
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Topic: Full Awning or not?
