Awning advice

I thought you'd been given a fair bit of constructive advice about awnings, PW, whilst others of us defended your right to choose.

Love your dog.

Yes more than a fair bit of advice given I would have said.

Given the advice here, are you still keen on a full awning? Looking at your present awning would double that size be enough? or even more. Decide that first then have a look at your local dealer.

Amongst the 'diversions' on this thread is a lot of advice.  Loads of options for you to consider.  It's a bit of a mine field but a trip to a dealer with a good range of awnings will help focus your mind; then see if you can get one nearly new where you could save a lot of money.

Also like your dog.

Phil, we bought a Kampa ari 260 awning. Never owned an awning previously so unable to provide comparison information but we are delighted with what we have bought. Hope what you buy meets your needs. 

What about a Fiamma or Thule caravan store canopy with add sides less to store as canopy will stay in awning rail

We have Thule omnistor windout awning with add sides on our caravan but was more than your budget 

I think that the times quoted for erecting full length awnings are a little on the optimistic side.

As with our days with a big frame tent, the awning itself can go up quite quickly (although dragging all that material through the awning rail can be rather 'testing'). However, it's the pegging out that takes ages, especially on a hardstanding. We've seen people still laboriously hammering away over an hour later (there are a lot of pegs on a full length awning with guy ropes).

Think carefully about the length of awning that you actually need.

I agree that your dog looks a cracker, by the way 

I think that the times quoted for erecting full length awnings are a little on the optimistic side

We've timed it. 21 minutes for one of our full awnings including pegging. I've also seen people taking ages but to be fair they take ages with other tasks too. 

The other one takes a bit longer - maybe another five minutes to zip the panel in. 

Actually a good point, don't forget the hammer you will use. The mallets (wooden or plastic) supplied with the awnings are usually useless on hardstandings, as are the pegs supplied.

You will probably have to buy rock pegs and buy the heaviest lump or club hammer you can, We use a 2kg one and it really does speed things up. Also I've seen some use drill pegs that can be used with an electric drill (you have to buy the special attachment for your drill). I've read mixed reports about them, but could be useful for awkward places next to the van.

Also a 'puller through' is useful if your awning has an eyelet for this and helps pull the awning along the rail from the ground, and a peg puller outer for the other end of your stay, see https://www.towsure.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=awning+puller

We always time putting the awning up, and I've posted our times, 30 minutes full  and 20 porch

saw someone use a sledge hammer once, quick but a little excessive

I thought my reply was very constructive, but as it came after pages of whys and why nots and choices, and criticisms you perhaps didn't notice that it ran to several paragraphs!

The problem with forums is that you just can't control what people write, and whilst some want to be helpful, others have their own reasons for writing what they do.