Awnings and windy weather.

[Dustydog]

Here’s the dilemma. To leave alone or take down when the weather is very very bad?
My take is leave it alone. A decent awning is designed to withstand winds. Our Isabella has never failed. 15 years ago FIL at 5.00 am de iced to take his awning down in the high winds. A disaster. As he removed the securing pegs and guys the canvas blew over the top of the caravan causing £ 2500 damage plus a written off awning. One of the poles at speed hit him in the face knocking him out.
I say don’t put your life at risk, leave the awning and hope for the best!

 

[Kevin M]

I’m of the same opinion DD.
Fiamma Storm Strap over the top, check the pegging and pole tension and hope for the best.

Kev

 

[Danddandy]

Interesting. Take it down before or after bad weather. We have a rollout awning. 5am one morning the wind woke us up so my idea was to roll up the awning. . So there we are about to roll it up when it was snatched out of our hands and disappeared out of sight. On looking at the offside of the caravan the awning legs were sticking out over the roof, very bent. We laugh about it now and still use the same awning (with new legs). Just one of the joys of caravaning!

 

[Dustydog]

I forgot to mention the current trend of seasonal pitches. All have massive awnings, usually top drawer kit. The storm fastenings for the Izzy are pretty substantial. An 18” peg with a webbed guy . Fitted internally and strapped to the main frame. Hand on heart I can say it works. If the seasonal withstands the worst why not leave alone until the storm dies down☔️🌧

 

[Parksy]

Being just the two of us we don't use an awning for every trip.
If we're away for a fortnight I take the Isabella porch, but for short trips I have a Sunncamp air porch awning.
We're not really into sitting inside the awning on campsites anyway, we're inside the caravan unless the weather is sunny and we sit outside.
Herself usually studies weather forecasts before we go on caravan outings, so if there's a likelihood of strong winds I don't bother with the awning.
I agree that if the Isabella is up and the weather becomes windy it's best left alone with storm straps and lots of pegs.
Our Sunncamp air porch comes down, it's not designed to cope with stormy weather.

 

[Thingy]

And now to throw something else into the equation. Storm straps and where to place them. One Isabella suggestion, and btw what I do myself is to place the storm bands inside the awning. Ours have a buckle system that loops over the tri--corner with the band following the leg to the ground. I have done this for the last 10 years or so and we have stood in some incredible winds.

 

[otherclive]

And now to throw something else into the equation. Storm straps and where to place them. One Isabella suggestion, and btw what I do myself is to place the storm bands inside the awning. Ours have a buckle system that loops over the tri--corner with the band following the leg to the ground. I have done this for the last 10 years or so and we have stood in some incredible winds.

Our Isabella Magnum also had secondary attachment points along the front and sides. They were a bit fiddly to use but combined with the normal pegging points plus the internal storm straps that thing would still be standing when the caravan had blown away.
We look at forecasts and will drop the awning a bit early as we get towards the end of the trip if the weather looks bad. Although this trip we dropped it this morning after the wind and rain had passed. I dried it off as best I could and tomorrow it will be airing in the garage. But I always do that irrespective.

 

[Dustydog]

And now to throw something else into the equation. Storm straps and where to place them. One Isabella suggestion, and btw what I do myself is to place the storm bands inside the awning. Ours have a buckle system that loops over the tri--corner with the band following the leg to the ground. I have done this for the last 10 years or so and we have stood in some incredible winds.

Snap⛺️

 

[Thingy]

I agree, properly pegged and guyed, with storm bands a good quality awning will stand. That is, as long as the frame stands. Heavy steel or lightweight carbon, but i have no faith in alloy.

I never worry about windstrength within reason, but putting away a wet awning is something i keep a weather eye out for. I once put a wet frame tent away in another lifetime and forgot to dry it for three days. It shrank nearly a foot. Whilst modern awning fabrics shouldnt do that, i dread mildew.

 

[Darren.H]

The only advantage in my experience of our single beem Sunncamp air awning is it bent in high winds, oh and one February around 3 inch of overnight snow brought the roof down. We killed it, left it up for months and UV did for the roof,
but
I loved that awning so much I bought the pole version, dead cheap and with the foam edge strips cut off the busted one we get a pretty good seal on the caravan wall now too.
See what June 18th brings, going Cornwall for a fortnight.

Does anyone know if Cornwall gets bad weather? 😇😇😇😇

 

[Thingy]

Bad weather in Cornwall? Never 😄

We are bound for Cornwall arriving 24th June after a week in Devon. Where are you staying?

 

[Darren.H]

Little Winnick, below St Austell, my favourite beaches are within cycle distance, well electric bike.

No I like a quieter site thats easy to get to,

 

[Thingy]

Trethem Mill for us. We use the Nat Trust beach at Carne.

 

[Beachball]

The only advantage in my experience of our single beem Sunncamp air awning is it bent in high winds, oh and one February around 3 inch of overnight snow brought the roof down. We killed it, left it up for months and UV did for the roof,
but
I loved that awning so much I bought the pole version, dead cheap and with the foam edge strips cut off the busted one we get a pretty good seal on the caravan wall now too.
See what June 18th brings, going Cornwall for a fortnight.

Does anyone know if Cornwall gets bad weather? 😇😇😇😇

Well with what we are getting this year so far anything possible

 

[figbat]

I’ve not used an awning in bad weather (yet) but I was unlucky enough to camp in a tent with an extension in Storm Francis last August. The tent and extension survived in part due to me keeping the extension door partly unzipped. With wind getting into the extension it was effectively like a sail so I opened the zips which let the wind blow through it rather than inflate it. I could imagine a similar situation if the wind blows from the opposite side of the van, underneath and past the draught flap.

 

[Mel]

My view is that the weakest point of an awning in the wind, is the pegs. If they pull out then the whole thing can lift off taking the frame with it, (if the frame is not internally strapped). This was an issue one very windy night in North Wales. Awning fabric intact but flapping like mad because all the pegs had pulled out. This was on hard standing whee Screwpegs were useless. The best we found are straight 12inch groundhog pegs from Halfords.
mel

 

[Buckman]

And now to throw something else into the equation. Storm straps and where to place them. One Isabella suggestion, and btw what I do myself is to place the storm bands inside the awning. Ours have a buckle system that loops over the tri--corner with the band following the leg to the ground. I have done this for the last 10 years or so and we have stood in some incredible winds.

We have the Isabella storm straps and use them inside the awning. They are really good. I wonder what you would use if you have the Isabella Cirrius air awning?

 

[Buckman]

My view is that the weakest point of an awning in the wind, is the pegs. If they pull out then the whole thing can lift off taking the frame with it, (if the frame is not internally strapped). This was an issue one very windy night in North Wales. Awning fabric intact but flapping like mad because all the pegs had pulled out. This was on hard standing whee Screwpegs were useless. The best we found are straight 12inch groundhog pegs from Halfords.
mel

We use screw pegs but if really bad weather with high winds we use rather large tent pegs or stakes for the four corners.

 

[Beehpee]

I bought a new Kampa air awning yesterday, I looked at one erected on display and it seems to be really substantial so I’m hoping for the best when we go away next Thursday, looking at the latest forecasts it does look as though it’s going to gradually improve over the next few days so fingers crossed, I had a Vango awning on order for around 3 months and still no sign so I cancelled and bought the Kampa, with a Kampa you can see and feel the quality and I’ve got extra storm straps if needed so I can but hope, staying safe is first thing to consider.

BP

 

[Beehpee]

Oh and a thanks to Thingy I also bought the awning pulley so I’m hoping for great things from it, at £22 it’s got to be worth a try and if it fails it’s not a big loss but I watched a couple of you tube videos and looks great.

BP

 

[Beachball]

When we were seasonal we use to leave the awning up and always have heavy duty tie down straps just in case there was any windy weather .

 

[Raywood]

A good quality awning correctly erected and with storm straps will survive most storms but it is a matter of judgement and not easy to give an answer for all situations. What is difficult is taking it down if you leave it too late.

 

[Guzzilazz]

As a 55 year experienced wind driven sailor, never underestimate the power of wind... The force generated increases with the square of the windspeed, so at 20mph the force is a quarter of that at 40mph...

 

[otherclive]

As a 55 year experienced wind driven sailor, never underestimate the power of wind... The force generated increases with the square of the windspeed, so at 20mph the force is a quarter of that at 40mph...

Somewhat like driving and hitting an immovable object. 50 mph gives 2500 energy units, 70 mph gives 4900. And they are all dissipated through your crumples zones.

 

[Beachball]

That was some years ago when we were seasonal a friend of ours would take our awning down if it got really bad that what they did on that site