Motorhome Awning

there will likely be many responses to this post, probably polarised as MH 'awnings' really do split opinion.

i don't have one (other than a wind out and a lightweight side panel) as I don't have a compelling reason for one...

..and surely you need to ask yourselves why you (really) want one...what specific purposes?

in simple terms, if we're on site and it's hot, we sit outside...the canopy may give shade if required.

if it's too cold for that. we sit in the van....there's only two of us. we have plenty of room...

neither of us wants to sit in a 'tent' (too hot in the sun, too cold in the shade) when the van is far more comfortable.

our pals have a Kampa type awning, they keep their bikes in it, but to sit in, we'd have to be pretty desperate. 

for those that have kids or dogs, I can sort of see it being of use, but for a couple?

if you were considering giving up the van for health reasons, is taking on an awning (extra weight, faff) a good idea?

glad to see you're continuing, but keep things simple, I reckon....

good luck.

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Depending on your health issues and time you will be on site, i would go for the lightest type posible , air awnings tend to be quite heavy to slide into the channel on the wind out awning (two people) and if you wind out to bring the channel lower,it could put quite some stress on it when winding it back

We have a Thule wind out on our caravan who make a lightweight awning that can be installed under the awning when extended ,maybe it could be installed on a Fiamma

Wot he said 

We too have lightweight sides for our awning, on a previous MH we "inherited" a Fiamma front.  Put it up once, never again.  Too heavy to (wo)manhandle, if it rains, even heavier, then problems of drying it out.

We sometimes put either 1 or both sides on, they are the lightweight Lilypad Leisure ones.  More often though, we just wind the awning out, and that's it.   But in reality, that's only in spring and autumn in France.  We don't stay anywhere long enough to warrant all the faff associated with putting an awning up, and couldn't justify doing so, as we wouldn't be using it to it's full capacity.

It's more stuff to carry round and find space for, and more time-consuming to put up and take down.  IMHO of course

We have never really considered an awning on our motorhome. We do have a Fiamma wind out awning which we use when required, usually as a sunshade. We wind it in at night. As other s have said I think you need to think carefully why you might need and awning. I know a lot of dog owners like them as it gives their pet a bit more freedom. Awnings are usually pretty heavy, even the light weight ones! The Fiamma front and side are also quite heavy so you have to balance this against need. Don't mean to pry but you mentioned there were health issues driving the decision. I wonder if the need for an awning is to store a mobility aid? If so a separate  zipped shelter might be an alternative. The likes of Go Outdoors sell them.

David

We have a Kampa Motor Rally Air Pro 330 which we are very impressed with. For two of us and a small dog it gives us a nice area to sit around a table and eat in the evenings when it can get a bit chilly.

It fits in the inside rail of a Thule awning which needs to be wound out about three feet to set it up. We need a small lightweight ladder to feed the beading along the rail and is a two person job to position it. It inflates very easily with a hand pump in a couple of minutes after the Thule is wound back in. It takes us about an hour to set up completely with the hardest part pegging it down depending on the pitch surface. An electric drill and screw pegs save a lot of time.

There is no skirting rail so we tried the Kampa Lympet system to attach a skirt but it was not too successful and the dog could still escape under the van. We gave up the skirt and keep the dog on a lead in the awning. The awning weighs about  twent eight kilos and another ten kilos for the pegs and drill. 

Before buying you need to know the distance from the centre of your awning rail bead guide to the ground as Kampa have different sizes. It takes about thirty minutes to get it off the van and packed up. Again it needs two of you. It did get a bit hot last summer but whe side window panels can be removed or unzipped for ventilation. It does anchor you to the pitch so think about how to top up the water and dispose of grey waste. We enjoy our Kampa even if we are pitched for a couple of nights. 

 

John

fatbelly, we had a Bailey MH and joined the Bailey owners group on Facebook. A good number of the members on there have  awning that they use with their vans. The word of warning is as JVB66 said is the weight, some of them have damaged their Fiamma by trying to fit an Air awning to it then winding it in. Once they then wind the canopy out to take it off the problem then comes with the canopy not going back in properly. 

Some of the members have had an awning rail fitted to the van under the Fiamma, this way you can fit a normal porch type awning without any problem to the Fiamma and without the gaps.

We never found the need for an awning but thought I would just mention what others have done.

Hi TG, the problem with this latter solution is your warranty, which will become void.   Some new vans, like mine, have a 10 year body warranty.    That’s what turned me off that idea.

BillC