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Porch Awnings are they worth it

B

BaronsHuman

Debating purchasing a porch awning for short trips and wonder if it will be worthwhile.

Some of the questions I'm pondering are?

How long do they take to errect?

I can put my full awning up in 15-20 mins

What use will it get?

Our full awning serves as an overflow storage area and a place to sit, eat etc.
 
David

Porch awnings are handy if you are going to caravan in the winter, if you take it down wet, it will be much easier to dry that a full size awning. Also depends which one you buy they are much quicker to put up than a full size one.
 
Hi,

We use a large awning for the summer months, and a biggish porch awning for spring and autumn.

We find that the porch takes nearly as long to erect as the big one.(Maybe because my husband is so fussy.... he has to have it absolutely perfect!) But, they are ideal for keeping wellies, waterproofs and all the stuff you would'nt want in the caravan.

Of course there is the added bonus of, they are more stable in high winds and bad weather.

Our advise is, get one!
 
It takes us longer to put up the porch awning than the full size awning however it si definitely better in winter than the big awning.
 
We don't have a full size awning, caravan is big enough so we have a large(ish) porch awning. Some go up faster than others, just like some are more expensive than others. In the end we settled on a Bergamo Caravan Porch, fairly cheap but big enough to store/sit in on a fortnights holiday.
 
Ive just got a Scenic Plus porch awning and used it for the first time at Clumber Park last weekend and its brilliant, ideal for the short trip as it only takes 10 mins to erect. I got fed up with putting the full size awning up only to use it for 2 days so getting the Scenic Plus has made our short trips more a pleasure. They're ideal for storing muddy boots, table and chairs etc and it was only
 
Hi David

We have one of these lightweight awnings and they are great. Just one point about the Scenic Plus, they do need a straight channel run of 3m over the door for them to fit properly and the height from the ground needs to be between 225 and 240 cm. Spoke to someone this weekend who had one and was having difficulty with the fit, and I suspect his van was not long enough. Got ours from Wessex Leisure on ebay for
 
David,

Have a full and a porch.

Use the porch weekends etc and the full for when out over 1 week.

The pegging out at least is reduced with the porch particularly if on a hard standing!

I do agree there is not much time saving. However there are other advantages with the porch which have already been mentioned.

Don't agree with the comments about winter use as the porch is more draughty than the full where it meets the van walls.

Just don't be a mug like us and buy Isabella's.....
 
Why should one not buy an isabella awning Paul, have you had problems ?. personally i have a full isaballa awning and a porch by them,my porch is now 4 years old and has been used extensively in summer and winter and it still looks like new with no leaks holes or other problems, in contrast a good friend of ours has a two year old dorema porch which is already starting to fade. we have found that by buying models from the previous model year we can get top of the range isaballa awnings for the same price as mid range awnings from trio dorema etc. We also find that it is just as quick to erect the full awning as the porch but the porch is much more suitable for weekends especially if it is likely to be wet.
 
I am thinking of getting one of the lightweight nylon porch awnings.

Anyone weighed up the different brands - does one make stand out in terms of quality ??

Haydn.
 
Hi Haydn

Yes the lightweight awnings are worth getting. Several years ago we had an Isabella which was great and the children used to sleep in it. Now we have changed our van and there are just the two of us we decided the big awning was mainly more work than we needed.

I did look into several different makes mainly at that time there was the Scenic, Scenic Plus and one I found on ebay sold by a company called Wessex Leisure. The Scenic seemed too small, the Scenic Plus needs this 3m straight channel run and the other from ebay (Pyramid Products) was just a bit bigger than the smaller Scenic. This was the one I bought and since using it, I have seen both the others on sites over the last two weeks.

The small Scenic just fitted round the door and housed two chairs and not too much else. The Scenic Plus was leaking(I suspect the van did not have the 3m run) and I have heard of one or two problems with seams. I can only speak from experience and I am very pleased with the Pyramid for the following reasons-

1) It has an extra 'bit' which gives quite a lot more room than

the smaller Scenic. In it we can sit in two chairs, with a

small table, clothes airer and still have room without

feeling cramped.

2) The main advantage is the ease with packing it away. It is very light and if it is wet, then it is much easier to handle when at home, to dry it out. It is also much lighter to transport.

I think it fair to say that these type of awnings cannot be compared with the traditional frame type. They do not fit tightly to the van at the sides and they do not have draught skirts. However, if you want easy of handling, somewhere to sit out of the elements and somewhere to leave chairs, shoes, etc. then I don't think you will be disappointed. Incidentally the first time we used ours, it withstood VERY strong winds for many hours and it came out unscathed. Hope this helps.

Chris
 
Hi Haydn

Yes the lightweight awnings are worth getting. Several years ago we had an Isabella which was great and the children used to sleep in it. Now we have changed our van and there are just the two of us we decided the big awning was mainly more work than we needed.

I did look into several different makes mainly at that time there was the Scenic, Scenic Plus and one I found on ebay sold by a company called Wessex Leisure. The Scenic seemed too small, the Scenic Plus needs this 3m straight channel run and the other from ebay (Pyramid Products) was just a bit bigger than the smaller Scenic. This was the one I bought and since using it, I have seen both the others on sites over the last two weeks.

The small Scenic just fitted round the door and housed two chairs and not too much else. The Scenic Plus was leaking(I suspect the van did not have the 3m run) and I have heard of one or two problems with seams. I can only speak from experience and I am very pleased with the Pyramid for the following reasons-

1) It has an extra 'bit' which gives quite a lot more room than

the smaller Scenic. In it we can sit in two chairs, with a

small table, clothes airer and still have room without

feeling cramped.

2) The main advantage is the ease with packing it away. It is very light and if it is wet, then it is much easier to handle when at home, to dry it out. It is also much lighter to transport.

I think it fair to say that these type of awnings cannot be compared with the traditional frame type. They do not fit tightly to the van at the sides and they do not have draught skirts. However, if you want easy of handling, somewhere to sit out of the elements and somewhere to leave chairs, shoes, etc. then I don't think you will be disappointed. Incidentally the first time we used ours, it withstood VERY strong winds for many hours and it came out unscathed. Hope this helps.

Chris
Click to expand...
oh yes they do have draught skirts, we have a scenic plus and its brilliant.
 
Have just purchased Panorama XL Caravan Porch Awning off ebay.

This came with no instructions. Has anyone got instructions they can email me. Also has anyone any experience of these porch awnings - they are said to be like a Scenic Plus.

Also we a thinking of buying a full awning possibly an NR Pullman(13ft) - any comments on this.

New to caravanning so any help tips etc most welcome.

Thanks.
 
Just bought the pyramid products Compactalite awning - this is similar construction to the porchlite but is quite a bit bigger and great value at
 
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