Motorhome canopies

Unless there is a very good reason to not wind it fully out I do exactly as DD and brue point out but I cannot see why you must always wind it out up to these limits.

. The only times I leave it out overnight is when there is a high degree of certainty that winds will be very light just like last night. Apart from the risks even in a light breeze the flapping will be an overnight annoyance.

peedee

Be careful about tensioning the ratchet straps too tightly.  I did that when staying in Provence in glorious weather on a very sheltered pitch .... but a sudden gust of wind (more like a tornado) caught the awning and gave it a good battering.  The straps held and the awning appeared okay but, despite many attempts, the canvas wouldn't wind back in fully after that as the whole frame was twisted.

I had to have a new awning (at a cost of about £800) but now use a storm strap with spring tensioners to allow some movement if an unexpected gust of wind blows.

As an alternative to putting the legs on the ground, does anyone have experience of securing them to brackets on the side of the van ?

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Our storm straps are spring tensioned. No experience of attaching the legs to the van although some designs seem to incorporate this. Our relatives in Australia have that system on their caravan.

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No, I like belt and braces.

My motorhome supplier advised against attaching the legs to the van and it is not exactly jerry-built.

 

peedee

If we were staying on a site and the Thule omnistore was extended from the caravan  ,the "sprung storm straps"clipped in the canopy frame and we always used metal pegs on the legs of the canopy 

If we stopped overnight on our journey and it was raining we only extended the Thule a couple of feet to keep the rain out of the door of the caravan and then retracted it overnight

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From the winds I have experienced, if the legs are not pegged down they could lift off from the ground at which point anything could happen! 

We used to peg down the legs, that is until one time on a site it Spain we couldn't get the peg out. No matter what we did the peg would not pull out, OH ended up having to cut through it with a hacksaw. We think it got stuck in a tree root.

Since then we don't peg the legs, can you imagine the damage to the awning if a storm or high wind had sprung up. At least with the storm straps you can easily drop the legs and unhook them.

Good advice on the springs, they do take the snap out of a big gust of wind.

 

We have noticed on some vans that they use a single storm strap that is fed across the roof arms, down at the front edge. This in addition to the 2 front straps. We've also seen a few vans using an 8 litre water container full of water then fastened to the roof Arms so that they just reach the floor, again in addition to the front straps. Can only think these are just extra precautions.