Fibreglass Frames for Awnings

[stationmaster1]

I am in the process of buying a "full awning" for my caravan and am confused about the relative merits of Fibreglass frames v Steel or Aluminium.

I have been put off Alloy frames by adverse comments i.e. they are prone to bend in windy conditions.

I prefer the idea of lightweight fibreglass but cannot find any objective assessment of their performance against the heavier steel frames.

Any advice/comments on the subject would be much appreciated.

We tour about 15 weeks per year virtually throughout the year so need something reasonably robust.

I am looking at: Vetura - Atlantic, Bradcot Classic or Dorema Senator Lux, comments on these wouls also be appreciated

Brian

 

[Chrisbee]

Hi Brian, I have a Bradcot Classic with the alloy frame. The awning is excelent but the alloy frame is very weak. It only has to look like there might be a wind and the poles bend.

 

[Rick1]

Hi Brian

I have Isabella with carbon X pole been using these fibre glass poles for about 7 years never had a problem with them. light weight as well

 

[AdifferentJim]

I've had steel, easyfit alloy and fibreglass over the past 25 years. Fibreglass every time, stronger and more flexible than alloy, lighter than steel and don't corrode. I wouldn't consider anything else now.

Had a couple of Bradcot Classics. Very good awning but can't comment on the others.

 

[Ian341]

Hi Brian,

We currently have a Bradcot Classic with steel poles, they are really heavy and put us off using the awning, tomorrow we are going to pick up the alloy poles for this awning, however, I am a bit concerned about people saying that they bend easily.

We have an Nr porch with alloy poles and they don't bend or move at all.

Ian

 

[J.Lo]

Ian, If you follow the instructions they dont bend easily. Each pole is in three sections, use the thinnest segment as short as possible, that is the weakest. used mine for years and have had no problems. J.Lo

 

[Dustydog]

Hi Brian

An awning is not an everyday purchase. Thus I spend the extra and always go for fibreglass / carbon x with the Isabella. Very light in comparison to steel and very, very strong.

Cheers

Alan

 

[rob_jax]

Hi Brian,

A summary we made for the awning section of the Eriba web-site:

Steel - certainly heavy, but even quite narrow diameter tubes provide sufficient strength for extreme weather conditions.

Aluminium - certainly lightweight, but for adequate strength this needs to be at least 28mm in diameter and thick walled tubing too - Our Dutch made awning uses 35mm diameter thick wall tubing, but I've seen some awnings using 22mm thin walled tubing and that won't be good.

GRP / fibreglass - pretty much the same story as Aluminium - thick wall, wide diameter tubing is essential. The only concern over composite poles is keeping them free from deep surface scratches - when stressed these will easily propagate and cause the structure to fail.

Summary: Steel, strong and heavy; Aluminium, light and strong - but only if the correct diameter and grade is used; and GRP composite, light and strong - if the correct diameter is used and the owner looks after the poles.

Robert

 

[valinspain]

Hi Brian,

We have had a Bradcot Classic with alloy frame and we found it a good solid awning in general but did experience some bending of the front cross poles, noticable from the inside, but they sprang back when the tension was released. I believe that the problem lay with the length of the awning (950cm), and this is not the case with shorter awnings. On changing our van we needed a 1000cm awning so opted this time for a Ventura Atlantic with fibreglass frame. Magic!! We have used it for extended stays in France and Spain for the past two years and it still looks like new. We wouldn't hesitate to reccommend it.

 

[AnnM1]

The ONLY time we had a problem (with a small dent in the side of the caravan) was when we had fibre glass poles. Not only did they move and, being very mindful of this we tensioned them every two days, they were also quite noisy. They tended to click/grind away in the slightest of breezes. This was with an awning that fastened down both inside and out (double pegging!). We returned to steel poles and had no further problems - even in the seriously strong winds!

Ann

 

[Christine_374375549]

I bought a new Bradcot awning last summer, with the Aluminium "Easy System" frame. I particularly wanted a light frame and a good system for locking the poles in place once tensioned. With my previous awnings, an Apache and a Dorema, I had the heavy steel frame. With the Dorema in particular, I found it difficult to get the poles to stay tensioned.

Used the Bradcot awning in September/October last year in windy conditions - no problem. Second outing was not until my September/October holiday this year when I went back to the same site. The awning went up well and stayed tensioned, though rather noisy in the windy conditions. I was feeling very happy with the awning - right up until the moment when a loud cracking noise announced that four of the five roof poles had failed - bent to nearly 90 degrees.

As I mentioned, the conditions were windy - but nothing exceptional for British weather at this time of year. My van is a Sterling Eccles Opal, which requires an awning size 968cms.

I have not yet been in touch with Bradcot about this (it is Saturday today - the awning collapsed on Thursday evening and Friday was spent packing up and coming home!).

Does anyone have any experience of the Bradcot glass-fibre frame or the Isabella Carbon X frame? Also has anyone used the Isabella Isafix locking clamp or similar?

This is my first post on this forum, but I wanted others to know of my experience with this frame system. Any advice on where to go from here would be very welcome.

 

[BigTim]

Hi Folks

We currently have a Bradcot Classic with fibre poles (1050 cm) It is my second Bradcot Classic and we have found the awning fabric to be of very good quality. On my previous Classic I had alloy poles. The alloys were fine for a couple of summer seasons until the Summer of 2007. At a site near Lake Como (Italy) we began to take down the awning because of a storm warning and advice from other campers about damage sustained to awnings in a previous storm. Unfortunately the storm arrived at just the wrong time - the awning was unpegged and we were just in the process of taking down the frame.

Awning ended up upside-down on 'van roof with frame poles sticking up like a dead cow. Several alloy poles were badly bent. Awning fabric was okay and 'van roof, also, suffered no damage. If we had steel poles 'van roof would have almost certainly been damaged but on the other hand awning might not have blown on roof!

We changed 'van soon after and bought new Bradcot Classic with fibre poles. We, also, bought the special Bradcot Classic tie-down straps with corkscrew pegs. Bradcot say that ordinary strap over the top tie-down kits are unsuitable and will invalidate their warranty. The Bradcot tie-down kit works well but we found them impossible to screw in hard sandy pitch at a site on Ile de Re this summer.

New awning came with some of the window-ties missing. Dealer sent it back and had them sown on though they were rather flimsy plastic bits. Fibre frame is the same as the Isabella fibre frame. We had to wait a while for it to be delivered as Bradcot had none in stock in the UK!!?? On our first outing with the new awning to France we stopped at Dover overnight before Ferry and decided to try awning as the delay with frame had prevented us doing this earlier. A couple of plastic bayonet joints on frame were damaged with bent "lugs". After phoning Bradcot for details I made a made 70 mile round-trip dash to the nearest Isabella/Bradcot dealer and bought replacement joints. I meant to ask awning supplying dealer for reimbursement of the cost of the parts and fuel but never got around to it!

Incidentally if anyone does need to remove damaged joints from fibre poles the best, and perhaps only way, is to insert a long metal rod, longer than the pole, in the other end of the pole and bang rod on the floor thus pushing off joint on the other end, as demonstrated by the above dealer. The joints are push fit but an INCREDIBLY TIGHT push fit.

The awning has now served us well for 2 seasons - we go to the Continent for 5 weeks each summer. The only problem that we, and others, on forums have had, is water pooling on the roof in heavy rain. After discussions on the forum I am planning on buying addition roof poles easier than having to get up in the night and poke roof with a broom!!! This is not only a problem for Bradcot but common to other awnings, especially the larger sizes.

Another commemnt is that the "instructions" with the fibre poles are very limited - just a diagram with no text. The Bradcot instructions for pitching are very good but don't cover the fibre frame.

All in all I would recommend the Bradcot Classic with the fibre poles as being a good choice

Tim

 

[Christine_374375549]

Hi Folks

We currently have a Bradcot Classic with fibre poles (1050 cm) It is my second Bradcot Classic and we have found the awning fabric to be of very good quality. On my previous Classic I had alloy poles. The alloys were fine for a couple of summer seasons until the Summer of 2007. At a site near Lake Como (Italy) we began to take down the awning because of a storm warning and advice from other campers about damage sustained to awnings in a previous storm. Unfortunately the storm arrived at just the wrong time - the awning was unpegged and we were just in the process of taking down the frame.

Awning ended up upside-down on 'van roof with frame poles sticking up like a dead cow. Several alloy poles were badly bent. Awning fabric was okay and 'van roof, also, suffered no damage. If we had steel poles 'van roof would have almost certainly been damaged but on the other hand awning might not have blown on roof!

We changed 'van soon after and bought new Bradcot Classic with fibre poles. We, also, bought the special Bradcot Classic tie-down straps with corkscrew pegs. Bradcot say that ordinary strap over the top tie-down kits are unsuitable and will invalidate their warranty. The Bradcot tie-down kit works well but we found them impossible to screw in hard sandy pitch at a site on Ile de Re this summer.

New awning came with some of the window-ties missing. Dealer sent it back and had them sown on though they were rather flimsy plastic bits. Fibre frame is the same as the Isabella fibre frame. We had to wait a while for it to be delivered as Bradcot had none in stock in the UK!!?? On our first outing with the new awning to France we stopped at Dover overnight before Ferry and decided to try awning as the delay with frame had prevented us doing this earlier. A couple of plastic bayonet joints on frame were damaged with bent "lugs". After phoning Bradcot for details I made a made 70 mile round-trip dash to the nearest Isabella/Bradcot dealer and bought replacement joints. I meant to ask awning supplying dealer for reimbursement of the cost of the parts and fuel but never got around to it!

Incidentally if anyone does need to remove damaged joints from fibre poles the best, and perhaps only way, is to insert a long metal rod, longer than the pole, in the other end of the pole and bang rod on the floor thus pushing off joint on the other end, as demonstrated by the above dealer. The joints are push fit but an INCREDIBLY TIGHT push fit.

The awning has now served us well for 2 seasons - we go to the Continent for 5 weeks each summer. The only problem that we, and others, on forums have had, is water pooling on the roof in heavy rain. After discussions on the forum I am planning on buying addition roof poles easier than having to get up in the night and poke roof with a broom!!! This is not only a problem for Bradcot but common to other awnings, especially the larger sizes.

Another commemnt is that the "instructions" with the fibre poles are very limited - just a diagram with no text. The Bradcot instructions for pitching are very good but don't cover the fibre frame.

All in all I would recommend the Bradcot Classic with the fibre poles as being a good choice

Tim

Tim,

Thanks for the info on the Bradcot fibre frame.

Can you tell me how the fibre poles are tensioned - do they have something like the Bradcot Aluminium frame "Easy System", or do they have old style screw clamps (or something else entirely)?

My awning is a Classic and I have found the Bradcot tie down straps to be much better than an external over the top of the awning tie-down. because the Bradcot tie-downs are used inside the awning, there is no thrumming/vibrating noise or loose ends flapping in the wind. The Bradcot tie-down held the awning steady in the windy conditions that wrecked my aluminium poles!

 

[RobE]

HI Brian

I have previously owned a Bradcot Classic with the "easy up" alloy frame which game me good service without any probs.However I now have an Isabella with "carbon x" frame, best move ever. whatever awning you buy, it is well worth the extra for the fibre poles in my opinion.

Rob E

 

[DJGB]

We have had an Isabella awning with fibre glass frame ever since they first come out in the mid 1980's and would not go back.

We have had over the years an Olympic Acryl,four Ambassodor's (it could have been more), a Buckingham, a Capri, a Combi porch and at the moment we have an Isabella Commodore awning for our Coachman Pastiche 470/2. I would not look at any other awning. We find them easy to put up - after 35 years of Isabella's we can put them up without talking to each other.

We don't find them expensive as we put the old awning in part exchange for the new one. The last few have been bought at Yorkshire Caravans of Bawtry who have always given a fair trade in. We also don't buy new. The Commodore was an ex-demo, been up once at the Caravan Club National Rally. The price was reducred from