Awning Skirt. and Press-Studs.!

[Douglas_5071825]

Hiya All, I have just purchased a Compass Rallye 500-5 [2001] but notice that the entrance door step is much lower than most door entrances and is subsequently lower than the awning skirt rail too! Other than cut the awning skirt which I would prefer not to do, are there any alternative method success stories or is it the scissors! The other issue is around the draft skirt that covers the wheel arch, my old van had press-studs to secure the draft excluder but this van has none and I am a bit worried that simply screwing studs into the side of the van might prove a problem when attaching and un-attaching the skirt i.e. might the studs simply pull away from the side of the van, leaving a few holes!! All thoughts/suggestions appreciated.

Regards.

Doug.

 

[Damian]

Douglas, we have had similar problems regarding how to attach the awning skirt to the van and have used small suction cups with hooks, which stick tothe van, and eyelets fixed to the skirt, in appropriate places, which then just hook over the hooks on the suction cups. You really do not want to start tputting anything through the body of the van as it will eventually be the cause of damp ingress, and will severely affect the resale value of your van.

 

[JimC]

Hi Douglas

The second part of your question on wheel arch covers was also a problem for me. My wheel arch cover already had the press studs on it, but like yourself there was nothing on the van. I bought a kit from Isabella which contained an adhesive similar to Araldite called Permaseal. I cleaned the area with the Meths pad supplied and glued the studs to the side of the van.They have survived numerous outings and none have fell off yet, though I'm very careful when pulling the press studs apart.

Regards Jim

 

[jacky3]

no need for screwing anything into caravan wall to attach wheel cover,can get wheel cover with suckers attached so as to adhere on to caravan wall from most good accessory shops.

as for the door being lower than the skirt rail,ive never seen that on a van before,and seems like it going to create a problem.

so what you are saying is if you run the skirt through the channel from end to end it actually covers the bottom of the door entrance,so you cant open or close the door,really would like to see that,to me thats a big design blunder if ever ive seen one?????

 

[Douglas_5071825]

no need for screwing anything into caravan wall to attach wheel cover,can get wheel cover with suckers attached so as to adhere on to caravan wall from most good accessory shops.

as for the door being lower than the skirt rail,ive never seen that on a van before,and seems like it going to create a problem.

so what you are saying is if you run the skirt through the channel from end to end it actually covers the bottom of the door entrance,so you cant open or close the door,really would like to see that,to me thats a big design blunder if ever ive seen one?????

Well really grateful for the replies, all really good stuff that I must admit I hadn't thought of before now. I will look out for wheel covers with suckers on [any idea where I can get this product] and the possibility of attaching eyes and hooks to the wheel cover and I will look over the Isabella web site to see if the stud and glue kit is still available. Interesting about the design fault, the lower step is a nice touch albeit a bit of a safety issue with seasoned caravaners falling out the doorway whilst expecting the usual step! Seems that this feature stopped in 2001 but is common in the Rallye for that period but obviously the designer forgot to consider the problem this would cause. The previous owner put Velcro under the door but it does look a bit messy so I might be tempted to use the sucker and hook method described by you all. Many thanks, really glad I used the site. Happy Caravanning and regards to you and yours. Douglas.