Air or Pole Awnings

[Alanbrooke]

I've had my Kampa 390 Pro pole awning since 2011. It's quick and easy enough to erect, the longest job being pegging out correctly (12 rock pegs are enough) and fitting the internal poles. I use ratchet straps, one each end, to hold it up, and threw away the supplied spaghetti ropes.
I'm considering an air awning ('cos everybody else seems to have one!) but am put off by the price and negative comments on PC Forums.
Any advice greatfully accepted.
Alan

 

[otherclive]

I’m a pole man, but you almost seem to have answered your own query. I like the poles mainly as they can be packed separately to the awning and size for size/ fabric for fabric the pole awning tends to be lighter too.

 

[Grey13]

Used my Kampa 330 awning 2 weekends ago. Can say it was so simple basically just popped itself up after threading into awning rail. All that was left was to peg it. Easy!

 

[Craigyoung]

I must say it it's poles all the way for us it takes me 30 minutes to put this up no problems at all.

 

[Martin24]

Not everyone has one and there are many available second hand. I wonder why. Not for me, poles all the way. I won't be parting with my Isabella Magnum until it needs replacing with another one. The easiest awning we have ever used.

 

[otherclive]

Not everyone has one and there are many available second hand. I wonder why. Not for me, poles all the way. I won't be parting with my Isabella Magnum until it needs replacing with another one. The easiest awning we have ever used.

I agree with you, the Magnum is "poles apart" from any other midi awning. We sold ours in 2014 along with the van and tow car etc; when we gave up caravanning (sic), only to hit the return button in late 2016.

 

[thedoog1]

We also went from Kampa pro poled to Kampa air, we used the 4 or 5 times and then went back to poles!!!!
The only good thing about air awnings, is they are easy to sell.

 

[Craigyoung]

We also went from Kampa pro poled to Kampa air, we used the 4 or 5 times and then went back to poles!!!!
The only good thing about air awnings, is they are easy to sell.

We found that when we went to sell our other awnings last year , one being a full size one and a porch awning they were both sold on Gumtree within 6 weeks of advertising , the people came and they were both new to caravanning so they were gathering their stuff as cheap as they could for starting off . Both of them in good condition too and once seen they were gone!

 

[Kevin2306]

We have the Kampa Fiesta Air and find it great to be honest, I do have a full Isabella Magnum that was for our previous van and have to agree it is a superb awning.
we only use the Kampa if away for a week, for most of our trips they are 2-3 nights so we dont bother.

Kevin

 

[thedoog1]

Put ours on Gumtree Friday evening, sold on Saturday morning!!!!

 

[Craigyoung]

Put ours on Gumtree Friday evening, sold on Saturday morning!!!!

Excellent ! There's a lot more people caravaning now to a few years ago. I think anything you put on it to sell won't take long to go for beginners .

 

[Craigyoung]

Put ours on Gumtree Friday evening, sold on Saturday morning!!!!

Excellent ! There's a lot more people caravaning now to a few years ago. I think anything you put on it to sell won't take long to go for beginners .

 

[Alanbrooke]

Many thanks for all the replies and advice. On balance, I think I'll keep my pole awning, at least for the rest of the year.
Alan

 

[Thingy]

Just this week I have advertised our Isabella Ambassador and bought the Kampa Air Pro 390 Plus. I have had the air awning previously and the only thing I could reall fault it for was the weight to feed up thgrough the awning rail and more than acceptable condensation. However, we have also bought the kampa Easy Awning Pulley which should help the weight issue, and apparantly Kampa have increased the ventilation on later models, adding that to the roof liner and Im hoping that the condensation is reduced.