Awnings

[bertieboy1]

In the past we usually erected a full awning but never really used it.It seemed as if we were hypnotised into thinking an awning was essential for successful caravanning.
Now we are of an age when erecting an awning is a chore (looking back it always was) and after some thought we came to the conclusion an awning wasn't really required and took up a lot of pitch space
,We now we enjoy caravanning a lot more by not putting up an awning and look forward to arriving at sites knowing we don't have this(test of marriage) ordeal ahead of us.

 

[Martin24]

I've never understood all this talk of an awning being a divorce in a bag and all derivatives of the same. As long as poles laid out at home and colour coded, there really is nothing to go wrong. We've always found erecting one quite straight forward.

 

[VicMallows]

I guess that to some extent it depends on how big your caravan is, and how long you tend to stay on a site.

Ours is a tiny Elddis Avante 362, and space inside is therefore at a premium. Equally, because quite small, the full awning is relatively easy to erect once you have established a routine. Even so, my 'minimum stay' to put up the awning is 4 days.

That leaves us with an issue when we stop for perhaps 2 or 3 days especially en-route to a long winter stay in Spain when the van is full of additional bulky stuff. I am in the process of designing a very simple pole-less awning about 1.2m wide to function as a mini store room. (Essentially a piece of canvas with sides which slots into the awning rail and simply pegs down). I'd be very interested to hear if anyone else has adopted a similar approach.

 

[Anseo]

Like some others, I prefer not to use an awning for short duration stays.

I find a base camp type tent so useful and quick to erect and put away, for more than a 3 night pitch I think an awning is worth the time and effort.

I've just returned from a trip, longest site duration was 3 days, and I really like the convenience of the Quechua Base 2.

https://www.practicalcaravan.com/forum/equipment-accessories/54852-an-awning-alternative#434683

 

[Craigyoung]

We used to have two awnings, a full size one for when we would do maybe a week away and the porch awning for every time we went away for like a weekend but now since we have the new van which is bigger , the big one didn't fit so we sold the big one and sold the porch awning which was a 360 campa rally pole and managed to get a kampa rally 390 which is better than a porch but slightly smaller than a full size one which is more than enough for us to use everytime we go away now , takes 30 minutes to put up no prob and with two kids every little bit of space helps !
Craig

 

[Raywood]

We have had a porch awning for years but with only two us on board now and the caravans getting bigger we very rarely use it now. It does seem to be an excuse to carry more kit in some cases.

 

[woodsieboy]

If we are only one nighting we don't use an awning, pretty much use one every other time,currently using a 390 air awning, mainly so that we can leave stuff in it that would otherwise be in the caravan or get wet,mind you we have a full size pole awning and porch in the garage, so will need to get rid of them if we carry on as we are.