Hi all, we are looking into having a canopy fitted and then purchasing an awning room to zip on to it, liking the look of the Leinwand. We are thinking that this might be especially useful in France so we don't need to pack an awning and can have an optional sun canopy or awning depending on weather and pitch size.
What do others think, as I'm thinking that you can no longer fit a traditional awning to the van once you have the canopy fitted in place. I'm just starting to look into them so I don't really know much about it all yet, so any advice welcome, thank you.
On some installations a normal awning can still be fitted, this is when canopy is mounted on roof above awning rail. It's Thule Omnistor that make that type though so worth a look at those. I would think fitting above rail is the only way you could do it on your specific caravan. If you mount below rail it will obscure awning light, I think.
As this involves drilling holes you need to very careful that whoever fits it knows what they are doing & you need to be advised by Elddis to ensure they approve fitting this type of canopy & where they might specify holes to be drilled.
The Fiamma caravan stor zip doesn't involve any drilling of the van. It works really well and can be removed if required.
Cost around 800 quid - don't make the mistake I did and buy a small one get the 4m jobby and you won't look back.
You can use the canopy in winter for a bit of a dry area outside the van to dry the dogs, or in summer for a bit of shade to eat outside under.
You can then add any combination of side, front, side to make the full awning or just shade from prevailing winds.
Brilliant invention the Fiamma but I'd shy away from a model that involved drilling the van.
Oh and don't leave the 'stoppers' in the awning rail as they will sieze in position due to bi metal action. They aren't needed anyway ours never moved in transit.
We have a caravanstor and it works well for us. Shade and protection from rain. Also, it only takes 10 minutes to put up. As OP said we don't leave it up in high winds but in France it shouldn't be a problem.
It's easy to get on and off but we leave it on normally. We also have an air awning and use this when on longer trips. We just put the caravan store canopy on the other side of the van in these instances so have the best of both worlds
Have you had a look at the Quest Rollaway, looks very versatile, it can be used as a sun canopy, half canopy/half awning or full length porch awning. We really fancy one but there's always something else to spend the cash on (not least a new roof thanks to recent storms )!!
A lighter and very practical alternative is to simply use Isabella's Shadow sheet for the canopy role and their Magnum for the awning. The van remains unaffected relative to with a fixed canopy which could impact on its resale value, or even its potential market.
We do this and in hot weather when using the Magnum, we often deploy the Shadow on the van's opposite side for optimum shading. Or we can add the Shadow to the Magnum's front; whatever permutation best suits us.
Just another possible solution with a lot of merit, that might be worth considering.
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Topic: Fiamma F45 Canopy fitting to van
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