Awning advice please

[gavalar1081]

Hi All,

We have a lightweight awning for our swift challenger 530 (4 berth) but will want a larger canvas awning for next year.

My question is when I am looking around, is there a specific size for this van? I remember once seeing an awning on a van that was so short it had a 6" gap all the way around the bottom!!

If anyone could reccomend that would be great thanks.

Gavin

 

[Steve L]

Hi Gavin.
You need to measure your awning rail length on your van to ascertain the size.
You need some 8mm polypropoline rope (pound shop stuff will do). Feed that around the awning rail and at the front and back of the van take the rope end out of the waist height awning feeder slot and follow the angle of the front/back panels to the floor. This will give you the circumference of the awning. Measure the ropeused in centimeters and this will give you the size required. ie 850 to 875, etc. Awnings generally have a tollerance of 25cm to allow for caravan size variations and ground fluctuation. Some awning manufacturers (dorema for instance), use sizes akin to dress sizes but they have a conversion table to sort out which one you want.

Regards
Steve L.

 

[Martin24]

Check your handbook which may have the size in it and pop on to awning websites such as bradcot where you can give your van details and it'll tell you the awning size, also companies such as NR keep a list for you to ring up and ask.

 

[Parksy]

Hi Gavin.
You need to measure your awning rail length on your van to ascertain the size.
You need some 8mm polypropoline rope (pound shop stuff will do). Feed that around the awning rail and at the front and back of the van take the rope end out of the waist height awning feeder slot and follow the angle of the front/back panels to the floor. This will give you the circumference of the awning. Measure the ropeused in centimeters and this will give you the size required. ie 850 to 875, etc. Awnings generally have a tollerance of 25cm to allow for caravan size variations and ground fluctuation. Some awning manufacturers (dorema for instance), use sizes akin to dress sizes but they have a conversion table to sort out which one you want.

Regards
Steve L.

This is what it looks like in practice

 

[Steve L]

Yep that's the picture I had in my head when I did the long hand, instructions.
As part of my Process Technician job, I had to write instruction sheets for the manufacture of every part of a Lotus Elise chassis and the Vauxhall VX220 chassis. It's fine writing instructions in english, but just try translating in Portugeese, Polish, Russian, Nordic and many other regional languages. Even Germany has it's own version of our welsh.
I used to take dozens of photos and put detail blowups alongside with dimensions in MM. Apart from the process description and company tracking descriptor, if I put 50 words on a double sided A4 sheet it was a miracle. But all my guys including a Romany friend of mine who can't read much, were able to produce parts right first time and maintain a 99.5% quality record.

I did think about doing a sheet for the awning measurement but as we all type english as our first language I thought words would do.

ATB, TTFN & CUL8R