Air awning

Only two of us but do have two border collies, we have a Bradcot Air Aspire 2 , 390 we are very happy with it, it cost us £699 direct from the maker.  Good thing about Bradcot air awnings is they come with all the bits like back poles, storm straps etc. I also believe in most cases a 12v electric pump. not the cheapest, but you get what you pay for as the saying goes.

Thank you.

Do you have the same caravan?  Does the awning take long to go up?

We have a 2013 Elddis Avante 540 (dealer special) The awing takes a couple of minutes to thread through the channel and no more than 5 minuets to inflate. the time to peg it down is the same as a standard pole type.  One very important thing to take into account is the window configuration on your caravan in relation to the length of awning you choose. if you get it wrong you may have an awning that cuts across a window. I would suggest you measure what the longest distance is you can achieve without it cutting across a window. Here's picture of our Bradcot taken last week, as you can see it fits between the door and window at the front and past the window at the rear.  Hope that's helpful 

Thanks again for your very helpful post.

Back to reading up on awnings lol.

We have a Bradcot Aspire Air 390 original, now in our 5th season. Excellent bit of kit.

Make sure your awning rail is not full of sealant from an over enthusiastic applicant before you try to put it up.

Easy to put up single handed.

The pump uses crocodile clips to attach to a vehicle battery terminals or dedicated jump start terminals depending on vehicle.

Follow the destructions in the Bradcot literature, it will save all sorts of mistakes lots of people make. Peg under the caravan at the rear corners before inflating. Allow the pump to run, initially at high speed, then slower until it switches off itself.

Never knew re sealant.  Great tips.

Thank you.

We have two awnings which we use at different times of the year.  Main one is a Kampa AirPro 390 Grande which is a full 3m deep and of extremely high quality.  Loads of space and single inflation point but like many air awnings is very heavy - even with the side panels taken out and therefore not so easy to get on the awning rail.  Have owned a number of Kampa awnings over the years and back-up from Kampa should anything go wrong has been outstanding.

We also have a lightweight Sunncamp Air 390 - again good quality - and much cheaper than Kampa.  It is more of a 'nylon' fabric than the 'canvas' of the Kampa and therefore much easier to dry if it has to be packed away wet which is the main reason we bought it. Obviously much easier to get on the awning rail. Whilst the main tube has just one inflation point, there are three roof tubes which have to be inflated separately but only take a few seconds each - before securing them in place with velcro tabs.

Agree with the comments above re getting the size right to avoid any windows.

A passing thought, our awning has air release valves that release air if the beams get too hot and expand the air held in the beams.

its not too much of a phaff  having to inflate to correct pressure , but definitely better than having a beam go pop.

rgds

That’s great information.

thank you.

Zosh, I just had a look at a picture of your model / year of caravan. It doesn't look to me that there is a great deal of body length for a larger inflatable awning, especially because of the way the roof slopes above the window at the front. I could be wrong but it looks to me that you may be limited to something like a 2.6 mtr model. As I said before, take some measurements for length but also remember the height at either end as well.