Awning Times

[RobertP]

We are planning to buy a Swift Challenger 540 and take it to Europe next year. As we are new to caravaning my wife and I were debating how long it would take us to put up an awning from the unpacking, erection to putting up the curtains and placing the flooring / groundsheet.
We are planning to buy 2 awnings: 1 Full Size Awning (probably Isabella) for stays of 1 week plus and 1 Porch Awning (for 2 / 3 Night Stays).
Advice please on overall erection times for these 2 types of awning.

 

[Cathryn1]

Hi Robert

We have a porch awning which goes up quite quickly - I would say from start to finish it takes no more than 30 minutes. The full awning we have is a light weight so that goes up quickly too (about 45 mintues) - I would imagine your Isabella takes longer. We find it's the pegging down that takes the time as we do like to put plenty in.

Hope this helps
Cath

 

[LMH]

I'd say five-ten minutes for the porch awning and probably 30 minutes for the full but I guess it depends on the type you buy as don't some Isabellas have off shoots etc? We have a full size annexe for the full awning but never use that now.

We only use the full awning if we're going away for longer than five days. At all other times, we use the porch awning (for the doggies). We bought a Dorema awning, takes about ten minutes total to put up. It's got padded sides. It seems to be very sturdy. It hasn't even let any rain in. We've been using it for the past year, all through the summer and winter and its fine (that includes gales and snow/ice). As I say, it's just to house the two dogs and our boots/shoes and wet jackets etc.

I have to say hand on heart, putting up the full awning is the biggest pain in the rear ever. It's such a drag, it's hard work in red hot weather (if you can remember any red hot weather) and it's awful in the rain and when its windy.

Lisa

 

[forestgump]

if you code all your poles before ie colour or some kind of marks this saves time we do a full awning in 30 mins as we lay all poles out in the position on floor first.

 

[Mel]

What

. 30 minutes!! It takes us 30 minutes to work out which end to put in the awning channel first. The arguement about how it to put it up takes longer than 30 minutes! Robert, some people can put a full awning up in 30 minutes but for others anything under 2 hours is a triumph. Its all down to practice, dexterity,height and good coordination. None of which OH or I have.
Good luck
mel

 

[forestgump]

if you had a trailor tent then a awning is a breeze.

 

[Mel]

We had a trailer tent. That took even longer. There are some things that some of us are just rubbish at.

mel

 

[MikeA]

It depends on the awning. For about a year we had an Isabella Opus with a revolutionary blind system. I think I managed to get the erection time down to 1½ days after some practice. Nowadays our big Isabella takes me about an hour on my own.

Mike A

 

[AdifferentJim]

We only use the full awning for our 3½ week stay in France. It's a very heavy, 3 metre wide, Isabella Opus including everything, storm straps, skirt, groundsheet, etc. about 1½ - 2 hours. Sometimes longer if it's very hot and I stop for a beer or three.

Our Rally Kampa 260 takes about 20 - 30 mins