awning poles

[TonyAsh]

Last summer I bought a second hand caravan, very nice, clean, virtually unused. I also bought a second hand awning from a different seller. When I took the awning home I found that it had three plastic brackets which needed to be screwed into the caravan side. Rather that screw into my caravan I bought large suckers which fasten to the ends of the roof poles, these are held in place by tapes which I stiched onto the inner edge of the canvas awning, my question is:

Would it be beneficial to actually screw on the plastic brackets as this would make erection of the awning much easier and probably cause less damage to the side of my caravan? and how would I determine and confirm if there was a solid section behind the point where the brackets would be fixed. Obviously I dont want to risk any damage and allow water to ingress the walls.

Many thanks

 

[ray_5039995]

stick to the suckers, less hassle, just as effective.

 

[Don_5041022]

I dont like screwing those brackets on the van. However well they are sealed, with the movement of the awning in wind or by walking about in the van, there will always be chance of the seal going. I know that sometimes where there is now wooden member to screw the brackets into, some dealers pop rivet them on. Trouble is that if a bracket breaks(as they often do) You usually have to drill the rivet out, this enlarges the hole in the van wall. Have you tried a set of the rubber bracket pads that stitch into the awning slide. The bracket allows some movement and used on my last two vans, showed no damage to the van walls. These rubber bracket pads are available in any good caravan shop. Hope this helps.