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Hi all i gave up the search for a used awning yesterday and bought new should take delivery before weekend i hope!!!  So does any body have any advice on putting it up as neither of us have put an awning up before we are going away at weekend and dont want to look to stupid when we get to site. All help and advice very welcome it may help save a life at the weekend LOL

Thanks

The normal advice is put the awning up before you go away for the first time with it.  We have never followed this advice.   The knickname for an awning is 'divorce in a bag', so just take your time.  Read the instructions first (if it has any).  If it does have instructions you may not be able to make much of them any way.  Is it a full awning or a porch/lightweight?  Lay out the poles first and feed through the awning on the rail.  Start at one end (or start in the middle), putting up the down pole and then the roof pole that fits to this and goes to the van.  Move on to the next down pole, putting in the front roof cross section as you go - connect the next roof pole to the side of the van.  Go across in the same way and attach the final poles.  Extend the poles a little and peg out, starting with the points either side nearest the van.  Then peg the front corners and the bit next to the centre pole.  Fill in the other pegging points and then extend the poles fully.  At each point you may need to adjust what you do according to the situation you find yourself in.  If in doubt, rest, and drink alcohol.

The way you put up an awning might depend upon the type and make etc., so of you could post details, someone might be able to help in a more specific way.  In the end of the day, folk tend to have their own way of achieving a result out of this seemingly complex activity.  It might be useful to read this thread.

Best of luck.

from bracot but the basics are the same

http://www.busyoutdoors.com/Bradcot-Awning-Assembly-Video.htm

You haven't said what make you've ordered, but we bought several new Doremas & we've unpacked each of them on a clean floor & removed the zip in panels to make the canopy both lighter & much less of a problem if it's a bit windy as the wind will go straight through the spaces.

Making sure the floor is again nice & clean, we then lay ours upside down on its roof & fold it & then roll it up so we end up with the convertor rail at the one end of the roll instead of being folded up & lost inside the canopy. We always tend to roll ours up from the back to the front of the van when we take the awning down, therefore when we put it up, we carry the roll to the front of the van, insert the convertor rail into the awning channel & as the anopy is drawn through the awning rail, it unrolls & ends up the correct way up & in the channel from the roll. That's how we do it.

Enjoy your new awning.

BB

I have to be honest and say we are now on our fourth van and I have never found it necessary to clean the awning rail seperately from the rest of the van - never had any problems.

The Pyramid Tuscany awning is basically the same as most standard awnings.  Like many others, I would unzip the panels before putting it up - it's less material to handle.  Not sure how the poles fit against the van on the Tuscany.  These days, most manufacturers have a plastic pad which needs to be fitted to a 'secondary beading' (which shadows the awning beading).  You will need to fit these before you can errect the poles.  If you have three roof poles, one pad goes right in the centre, and the other two (one either side)  at the point where you would envisage the 'roof poles' going at the sides.  In most cases you will be able to alter where you put these plastic pads if you later find they would be better in a different position.  However, some of these pads actually cut into the beading so it is a good idea to be as accurate as you can first time.  We leave our pads on the awning when we pack it away so we don't have to re-attach them next time out.