Isabella Air Awnings

[Thingy]

Firstly, after two bad experiences with air awnings, Im not their greatest fan. Some love them, others hate them.

So this morning during a preiod of intense boredom I had a look at the Isabella Air Cirrus, and one thing stood out that would concern me if I were purchasing one and after haviing experience of air awnings and their weight. I notice that the air beams appear to fit into a plastic holder (cup) at either end, which means until the thing is infalted, these could be hanging loose inside. The only bit thats actually connected at either end is the flow through pipe and lock. At times then this could mean this thin plastic tube, and its fittings are taking the weight of not only the air beam, but up to half the weight of the awning, not the best design idea imho.

I realise that the air beam is attached to the awning as well, but as it pulls itself up, the strain on these pipes/valves may be just too much.

 

[Beehpee]

Several awnings I looked at seemed to have some air beams that had to be inflated separately and were held in position with Velcro, I don’t think any of the tubes on our Kampa are removable and there’s one point where you inflate it, I’ve got it rolled out in our spare room to air it before packing it so I’ll check it when I fold it up later, it’s a Kampa rally air pro 330s

BP

 

[Thingy]

I had the Air Pro and know what you mean how the beams attach, on the Kampa this isnt an issue at all. This method on the Izzy though, not impressed at all, and I am a massive Isabella fan.

 

[Buckman]

I had the Air Pro and know what you mean how the beams attach, on the Kampa this isnt an issue at all. This method on the Izzy though, not impressed at all, and I am a massive Isabella fan.

Looking at the video it does not appear to an issue as once up it is just a matter of clipping in the cross member. See

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ttbI1xtcvQ

 

[Beachball]

Just been looking at the Vango has airbeams and the tubes do come out and you can pump them and replace them when needed .

 

[Thingy]

Just thinking of all that weight if canvas hanging off those tubes. Thats the video I watched. Once its up, yes fine, but I can see problems with the valves and tubes.

 

[Buckman]

Where ALL air awnings come short is when they are erected on a sloping pitch as you cannot adjust them like a poled awning.

 

[Hutch]

I think people buy air awning and Full size awnings tend to use them for two,week trips and maybe 4 to 5 times a year.
When we go away, and the last couple of years we have been stuck at home, we find folk have smaller "porch Awning" or light weight ones, even in the winter when the weather is rough , our lightweight awing is great, a single pump up bar, I would like the Vango like Mels, but the way our Sunncamp is going that could be a few years yet.
We just use it for storage for chairs table and dogs bed and the beer and wine storage, ( with dog security)

 

[Buckman]

I think people buy air awning and Full size awnings tend to use them for two,week trips and maybe 4 to 5 times a year.
When we go away, and the last couple of years we have been stuck at home, we find folk have smaller "porch Awning" or light weight ones, even in the winter when the weather is rough , our lightweight awing is great, a single pump up bar, I would like the Vango like Mels, but the way our Sunncamp is going that could be a few years yet.
We just use it for storage for chairs table and dogs bed and the beer and wine storage, ( with dog security)

We used to erect the full awning, but bought a porch awning for weekends or short breaks. We then sold the full awning as it was just too much hassle erecting it and bought a decent Ventura porch awning and have stayed with porch awnings ever since.
We bought the Kampa Air Ace porch awning in 2015, but had some many hassles with it including pooling on roof, condensation inside and poor quality fittings that we took a loss and sold it after only 5 outings. As we had sold the Ventura we then invested in the Isabella Magnum and have not looked back.
Strangely enough way back in 2016 we bought a small air awning 220 with no name on it which we use in the winter months , but suspect it is a Kampa. It is still going strong considering it only cost us £160 brand new.

 

[Johnb]

You must admire the quality in the Isabella product. Without doubt a durable and carefully designed air awning I'm sure.

I used to think it was just us who developed a hatred for full awnings but I'm now convinced we are not alone.

We bought a Kampa Pro 390 air awning when they were new sold on the notion of almost instant erecting and removing! Huh! We must be dunces at awnings because quite apart from the weight and the task of dragging it along the awning rail we could never manage the lightening speed that we were told was a feature of air awnings!

It became something we would only contemplate using if stopping for a minimum of 4 nights - and even then reluctantly.

We all buy items that suit our use of our leisure vehicle, motorhome or caravan or tent. Our European tours taught us that a roll out Fiamma was the way to go and we are now on our second. This we use with one, two or three sides depending upon circumstances but, in fact, mainly we only use the canopy and perhaps a sun shade.

When in the UK we have a light weight air porch awning (swift Sunncamp Air) and this serves us well. In this case the ease of threading through the awning rail is truly fantastic and inflation a "breeze" .

Full awnings of any description are not for us. Clearly there are many who swear by them. Horses for courses they say!

 

[Thingy]

We do things a tad differently. Its something I have mentioned recently but it fits in with what JohnB is saying. We use the Magnum porch from Isabella, and also have the tall Isabella annex. The annex is a substantial item and almost doubles the size of the porch. If on a short stay its the Magnum only. On a longer stay we use the annex as a porch to the porch and as the doorway. With all the blinds unzipped its light and airy and gives us almost the size of the full awning.

 

[otherclive]

We gave up full size awnings around 2010. We bought a cheap very lightweight poled awning at about 3.0m long. It was only bought for a trip to France but showed that we had more than enough space. So we then bought an Isabella Magnum which was slightly larger but still convenient to handle. But if we only went on long weekends it was the cheap porch that went with us. But similarly to what others have said re Kampa lightweight our cheap lightweight did attract condensation in early spring or late autumn winter.