New Van Man New Awning Scariness!!

[Paul_374413575]

Hi All,

Me and the wife bought our first caravan, a Pageant 7 Series Limousin, in November last year and have so far enjoyed many succesful long weekends away!

We love it and its great to just get away and forget the stresses of work for an entire weekend!

We have some holidays planned this year and lots of weekends. So in the hope of the weather picking up (please!) we decided to invest this week in an awning. By the way Dorema are doing great discounts on there website just now.

I have only purchased the awning itself with a view to possibly getting a groundsheet later. We are away in a few weekends time to trial the awning anyway. The question I have is this - we use mostly hardstandings - how do I peg the awning down to concrete!?!?

Thanks & Happy Caravanning!!!

 

[WilliamLX]

Was wondering this myself, but to be honest awnings are a nightmare, difficult to put up, prone to damage your caravan if the weather gets stormy. Had one for our last caravan. Used it once, as it took 3 hours and a near divorce to get it erected. Same weekend the wind got up on the Saturday evening and we were wakened by the noise of the awning vibrating. We got up to check it was secure only to see that the awning on a caravan a couple of pitches over had blown up over the caravan doing a lot of damage not only to the awning but also the caravan. If what you enjoy about caravanning, is the relaxation, forget an awning!

As for Dorema, the discount would have to be good as these are very overpriced to start with . You can get identical awnings branded as 'Starcamp' for a lot less. Same design etc but made in the far east. They are sold by the same company as Dorema so are not illegal rip offs.

 

[Heethers]

Paul if you use the CC sites hard standings they are mostly chatter or gravel in wich case you use the hard standing pegs, wich basically are like a big six inch nail with a plastic end to attach to the awning.

Some private sites just have concrete where the only solution is to park the van so the awning comes just over the edge, that's the only way you can peg it down, unless someone knows of another way.

NegelH

Ps welcome to caravaning and the forum

 

[Paul_374413575]

Thanks for the comments all.

NGH - Would hard standing pegs come as standard or would I need to purchase these seprately?

Cheers

 

[Heethers]

Paul we have just come back to caravaning we bought a Harringtons from Discovery 1000 cm took me and the wife just over an hour to erect it,don't agree with William Dorma are dam good awning.

The only reason we bought the Harrington was l got

 

[Heethers]

Paul you by them seperatley, the Caravan Club sell them in the site office, are quite expensive about 75p each last time bought some l have had mine for a couple of years all o/k

NigelH

 

[Paul_374413575]

We have two big dogs (Boxers) so the awning is ideal for us and the dogs irrelevant of the weather and we would be mostly only using the awning in the warmer months anyway!

Another question - do you need curtains for an awning? Or do they also come as standard!?

 

[Heethers]

Paul come standard

NigelH

 

[Parksy]

Hi Paul

Welcome to the forum

Most awnings come with curtains which are standard to that particular awning.

To secure your awning onto a gravel hardstanding use rock pegs.

Copy / paste the following into your web browser to view them

http://www.towsure.com/product/9442-Rock_Peg_Kit
A awning 'storm strap' is another good piece of kit which will help to prevent your awning from excessive flapping during high winds.

I hope that you and your wife enjoy many happy breaks in your caravan.

 

[Paul_374413575]

Cheers for the info Parksy, looks like good quality pegs and a nice little wallet & hammer to boot!

May also look into a storm strap - going to have a trial in a few weekends and then have easter weekend away as well so hopefully after these trials I wont ask so many silly questions!

Cheers

 

[Parksy]

Hi Paul

There's no such thing as silly questions because we all had to start from scratch at one time or another and it's better to ask beforehand than cause unnecessary damage to your unit or stress to yourself.

Good luck with the trials but if you're not sure of something ask away.

 

[WilliamLX]

Yes get a storm strap! That was why my awning stayed intact, while the one on the van a couple of pitches along ended up over the van. Dorema have special clips on each corner to attach their own makes straps. Some other awning makes require you to stretch a strap up over the actual awning.

 

[COCAROBR@AOL.COM]

Hi

If you have a easy alloy system (supposedly) they tell you not to use storm straps. Does this include normal alloy poles.

Cheers

colin

 

[COCAROBR@AOL.COM]

Hi

If you have a easy alloy system (supposedly) they tell you not to use storm straps. Does this include normal alloy poles.

Cheers

colin

oops and welcome to caravaning hope you enjoy as much as we do ,wish started years ago

 

[Paul_374413575]

I do have the allegadly easy alloy system - was only an extra 19 quid so I thought it would be worth it.