Vango air awning query

[Pinto]

We've recently bought a Vango Kalari air awning and are very pleased with it. My query is does anyone know what the piece of tape about an inch wide, with holes in it that runs around the perimeter at ground level is for other than to try and trip you up ? !!
Our dealer didn't know.

 

[BaileyNiggles]

Doesn't it act as a tension band to help maintain the shape of things at lower level even when the doors are unzipped? Their tents have them too in my experience and, like the tents, our same awning has eyelets in the tape so you can peg them down to lessen the trip hazard.

The bigger frustration and disappointment I've found with these ... and which never seems to come up in test reviews ... is (a) the slope of the walls and lack of porch effect on the roof mean leaving it open in the rain ... one of the joys of an awning surely ... is a no no else water just comes in, and (b) the layers of zips in the end doors are just stupidly annoying and less than ideal configuration.

 

[Pinto]

We find with the air awning you have little choice at positioning the 'poles' as once inflated they are impossible to move and the tape is slack so as far as I can see has little or no effect. We don't use ours open if it's raining so haven't had that problem and also haven't found the zips a problem., We don't caravan abroad only in the UK so when it's raining it's usually cold so in the van !!
Thanks for your reply though

 

[Icaru5]

I use it as a guide as to where to position the bases of the poles to “Square” everything up prior to pegging down. I adjust the span of the 5 legs with respect to each other so that there is more or less equal tension in the band all the way around, and then step away from the van eyeing up the poles for alignment, and adjust the positions of the bases again if necessary before pegging.

Just the way I do it. Before I adopted this method I used to find that I’d start pegging and then when I got to the last side of the awning, its pole was at about 20 degrees to the vertical, and the only way to correct was to unpeg all and start again !

Hope this helps ?

Ic.

 

[Pinto]

Thanks for those tips Icaru5. Will give your method a go next time. Most sites we stay on are CLs so not always level which may be our problem. We've never got on very well with awnings

 

[Icaru5]

No worries. Yes, it’s quite surprising how much difference it makes to the geometry of the whole setup when the pitch is even slightly off level (as many are B) )

 

[Icaru5]

No worries. Yes, it’s quite surprising how much difference it makes to the geometry of the whole setup when the pitch is even slightly off level (as many are B) ) . When there are level issues, there’s always going to have to be a compromise somewhere ...