Shortening awning draft excluder

[Silversusie]

Our awning draft excluder (if that's the right term for it, it's the long piece that slots into the lower edge of the caravan) is too long for its channel. We feel it should be possible to cut it to fit, since it feeds into this channel from each side of the wheel arch.

Has anyone done this successfully? If so, what implement did you use? Stanley knife, scissors, that sort of thing? And should we do anything to the cut end to finish it off neatly?

Sorry if this seems a really dumb question, don't want to do anything that might damage it irrevocably. Many thanks in advance.

 

[RogerL]

Just let the excess hang out at each end. The ground length of the awning depends on the slope and terrain you're pitched on - when the ground is higher, the awning is longer - you might be grateful for the extra one day.

 

[David.O]

Just let the excess hang out at each end. The ground length of the awning depends on the slope and terrain you're pitched on - when the ground is higher, the awning is longer - you might be grateful for the extra one day.

Roger

I have had the same problem. you cannot fit this piece from the ends only from the middle by the wheel . with ours we were left with a piece hanging down by the wheel. I over came it by removing some 2 inches with a pair of scissors.

David

 

[Silversusie]

Roger, we have the same problem as David, we can only feed the draft excluder in from the middle as the front and back ends of the channel are "stopped up". So we too have a baggy bit around the wheel which funnels the breeze nicely into the awning!

David, if you used scissors to trim yours, I guess we can too. Is there anything in the cord which runs through the channel which might fray once cut?

 

[David.O]

Susan

I cut a zig zag at the cord and heat sealed it with a hot piece of iron. in fact I was too cautious and had to do it twice . I made more of a muck up on the second try but you cannot see it.

David

 

[weejock]

I just cut mine to size with a large pair of scissors.

I first saw this being done in the shop where I bought it the chap just cut through the top bit and run the scissors down it.

As for the baggy bit at the arches even when tight mine used to suffer from this so I just pierced a hole either side of the arch in the material and use a suction cup to hold it in place.

I also use the same suction cups on the wheel cover bit to give an almost draft free fit.

 

[RogerL]

Awning skirt rail stopped off at the ends - is this a modern "design feature" - seems like a backward step to me.

"Change is inevitable, progress is optional"

 

[Christine_374375549]

I had the same problem - wheel strip (that's what I've alway called it) too long and feeds from centre out to stopped ends. Like RogerL I did not want to loose the extra length and its potential for wrapping around to provide extra protection - or the flexibility to use it one day on a slightly longer van.

My solution was to make two cuts (one each end) to reduce the cord that feeds into the channel to the same length as the channel. I didn't cut off the surplus strip - just used a sharp knife to cut through the top cord. I didn't do anything to secure or seal the cuts - though I might have used a couple of pieces of duct tape to prevent the strip iteslf from tearing. When feeding the strip into the channel, I just ignored the short stub of cord that I had separated from the rest, and fed each side from the fresh cut.

This worked fine for years - no baggy bit in the middle, extra length tidied up when pegging the ends of the strip, and the wheel strip did not tear.

 

[Silversusie]

Thanks Christine, that's a great idea and I think it's what we'll go with.

Thanks to everyone else for your input!