Porch Awning or Full Awning

[Allan_374422551]

Dear all. I have never owned an awning before and have about £900 budget. I plan to use it mostly on long weekends. The advice I require is do I buy an expensive porch awning like a magnum (isabella), a full size Bradcot or maybe a sunncamp. I am looking for quick up down times but at the same time dont want to be buying another in 3 years time or fall appart after a few nights. Are isabella products worth the extra? Should I save up more and get a full version like the ambassador? Would I use it due to the put up time. I hope you can see my dilemma All advice appreciated. Al

 

[cooky1]

What about looking for a second hand Issabella (worth the money in my opinion) and a lightweight porch awning such as the sunncamp 260.

We have both types of awning and use either depending on the holiday - short weekend = porch, longer break = full awning.

Graeme.

 

[WilliamLX]

Full awnings are a pain in the backside to put up and take down. For some reason they are still using canvas a material abaondoned for actual tents years ago, which means you are in trouble if you need to take them down wet. My experience also is that it takes 2 - 3 adults 2 or 3 hours to put one up for the first time. I am sure this improves with experience, but I was so put off by my one that it never seen the light of day again. I now use a light weight Porch awning that cost

 

[J.Lo]

William,What takes up to3 hrs to put an awning up. I put a full Isabella on a 16 ft van in less than 1 hr on my own.J.Lo

 

[Allan_374422551]

thanks for your advice, any ideas on porch awings what do people recommend

A

 

[Glenn_5132962]

I had a full sized dorema which I never used for less than a week as it just took too long. I also bought a light weight porch awning for weekends. Thats great but is not really big enough to sit in without feeling squashed.

I've now just bought an outdoor revolution compactalite 400 which appears to be the answer to both problems. Its quick & easy to erect & once up is almost as big as a full size awning. Paid

 

[DeliDave]

we have Dorema full and porch awnings but bought an Isabella Ambassador size 875 and use it as a combi,we can see out of the front window when its up,its got loads of room and really feels solid,it cost us nearly

 

[Bryan_374360331]

Hi Deli Dave

I'd be interested to know your views on the Dorema v Isabella. We're thinking of getting a full awning, or maybe a combi like your Isabella 875. Nice to have a sitting-out area under the front side window, but I'm not sure we'd be brave enough to buy a full (but undersized) awning and convert it to a combi.

Bry

 

[Guest]

I couldn't be ----ed with a Porch awning.

No reason why it shouldn't take less than 20 minutes to erect our Bradcot.

Lovely space to relax in, have never seen the point of flippy flappy porch awnings. The ones with the bendy wibbly wobbly fibre glass polls are one of the best forms of site entertainment I have to say.

Get a system going and you can't beat a full size job, mark the polls and fold the canavas in a logical way and you have full size awning up in a flash.

 

[craigmurray]

Hi, i have a full size 1050 awning which i use on 2 week holidays and a bradcot porch awning which we use on long weekends, other than those we use our fiamma caravan store its great. Try the new Fiamma caravanstore Zip, its just like a porch awning but takes no time to put up.

 

[Allan_374422551]

we have Dorema full and porch awnings but bought an Isabella Ambassador size 875 and use it as a combi,we can see out of the front window when its up,its got loads of room and really feels solid,it cost us nearly

 

[LouisePretty]

Hi - we have an Isabella Opus 250, 1000cm. We have used it for a one week holiday so far. It took us about 2 hours to erect altogether from getting everything out of the bags and laying out on the ground to putting up the curtains. Bear in mind that we had never had the canvas out beofre so we had to identify all the parts. We labelled all the poles before we went with PVC tape and wrote the letters from the instructions on them so we knew exactly which pole went where when on site. My husband isn't a natural camper so he lets me take the lead and I just told him where to put things and where to hold things while I attached bits. We upgraded ours to the isofix brackets as well which makes tensioning really quick. The longest single job was threading it through the awning rail as we started at the front of the van and I think you are supposed to start at the back as we pulled it off this way and it was really easy. There must be a technique for this and I've not sussed it yet, lol!

For short trips we have an apache milano. Again not cheap but literally takes 10 minutes to put up. We use this one for long weekends. We don't sit out in this one as its not as luxurious but its useful for wet kit and keeping the bin in!

We got a good deal on the Isabella from Broad Lane in Alcester and really nice people but they are local to me, in Tewkesbury!

 

[DeliDave]

Hi Allan,I got 10 metres of electrical flex about 6mm diameter and cut a notch in it 3metres from the end.Fed the notch in the awning channel so the 3metre length was outside the channel and the remainder in the channel then pulled it along til it was where I wanted it to exit(between the door and the front window on our Indiana)then pulled the ends to the ground cut them off and measured,this came to 875 cms then when we had the awning we stretched it fully out,laid the cable on it and cut the awning cord with wirecutters .The cut has a section that slides on thecord and a foam pad attaches.The complete section snaps on to the porch support pole and is very solid for a porch.Kit cost about

 

[woodsieboy]

Like Deli Dave we use 950 awning on Senator Wyoming TA, we have Ventura Pacific made by Isabella, excellent awning for our use. Only thing I would say is that you don't need to cut the awning bead, if you mark the spot where the awning needs to 'break' you can then bend it backwards and forwards until the inner part breaks but the outer case remains intact which stops the bead from fraying.The big advantage for us is that you get the benefit of a full depth awning and unlike porches we looked at, none of the poles cover a window.I think almost any awning could be used you just need to check for the right size and buy the corner pole to covert the awning.

 

[DeliDave]

I had heard this,also that you could crush it with pliers but they must be stronger than me cos I couldnt but its an improvement if you can do it.Isabella say that as long as you only cut the cord bit and not all the way through the cord it will be fine but I would try Keiths way first see if you can do it,sadly I failed.

 

[Bryan_374360331]

Thanks, Deli Dave, and Keith for the info. Very interesting!

Bry

 

[cara89]

I see all views on the awnings really, agree with William (for once! LOL),what a difference our porch awning material is with the rain than our last canvas full awning. I asked my other half if we would have given people entertainment with our flippy flappy fibreglass poles blasting around but he says ours is usually fine..-"not like the one we seen at North Ledaig, Oban, Scotland with the west coast winds"...."nah ours is fine.."

Happy memories with the full awning though and would consider again for our main holiday now the kids are..kind of..at the age they can give us a bloomin hand with it!!(rather than need nappies changed in the middle of it!!) Its all down to personal needs!