How to use a drive away awning?

[interbear]

Sounds like you would be much better off with a decent tent rather than bothering with the drive away awning. Good awnings usually sell well on the second hand market so you might be able to at least reduce any losses. Enjoy the rest of the trip.

Yep that’s a likely plan. Although we now have the driveaway secured at the side, so it’s pretty much a tent anyway of course.

Will decide when we get back whether to sell it after 1 use, or keep it and use it either as a tent or driveaway depending on the trip.

 

[interbear]

@interbear. My read of your post was the same as @Shaun Witts and my advice would be the same. It's a bit late now but there is also a good video on YouTube by Attwools (who also happen to be my local camping store!) on putting up a Kela which is useful for any airbeam type Vango. The top tip that I've posted on here before is once you've got it right. put a small peg in the ground to mark the centre of each wheel hub and join them with a length of fluorescent guy line - that way, if you do actually use the awning as a driveway to go out for the day, it's super easy to locate the van in the right place when you return. Another top tip is to treat the whole thing as a learning experience - once you've done it a couple of times, it gets a lot easier. Oh and don't worry about the wheel, just drink some more beer and ignore it for the rest of the trip (and get it fixed when you get home).

So we’ve persevered and a week into our French campsite stay have pretty much cracked it. We can now attach and detach it pretty quickly and can navigate the van to the correct spot using the tips suggested, thanks folks.

A wee bit of practice and getting it wrong to learn from the mistakes is clearly required with these things. So we’re keeping it. Actually found it good in the heat to attach the dog to his tether just inside the van and have him sleep in the tunnel area. Keeping the sliding door open is good for air circulation as it’s 38 degrees here at night. We have a fan but crave air conditioning!

 

[Bargy62]

So we’ve persevered and a week into our French campsite stay have pretty much cracked it. We can now attach and detach it pretty quickly and can navigate the van to the correct spot using the tips suggested, thanks folks.

A wee bit of practice and getting it wrong to learn from the mistakes is clearly required with these things. So we’re keeping it. Actually found it good in the heat to attach the dog to his tether just inside the van and have him sleep in the tunnel area. Keeping the sliding door open is good for air circulation as it’s 38 degrees here at night. We have a fan but crave air conditioning!

As my very first employer used to say 45 years ago "we won't call them mistakes you will have learning days"

 

[interbear]

As my very first employer used to say 45 years ago "we won't call them mistakes you will have learning days"

Good advice that!

 

[Wanderlust]

After 3 uses, each one slightly better pitched than the last, I have not yet been satisfied with the connecting tunnel to my van from my Kyham Tourer Lite awning. Initially I had too much slack in it, but the next time I resolved that as mentioned above, by pulling the erected awning away from the van after it was attached and then pegging it down. However, despite that, I find that my sliding door always rubs on the roof of the tunnel when open, leading me to leave it half closed most of the time to prevent it wearing through the fabric. Is this a common problem or is my Kyham awning perhaps too low?
I have never ”driven away” yet, but I have made a mental note to peg a cord level with the offside wheels for guidance.

I'm having the safe issue, any advice?

 

[Shaun Witts]

I'm having the safe issue, any advice?

I’ve not managed to improve things yet, but I have since bought an “awning tunnel tensioner pole kit”. Although the primary purpose of this is to prevent pooling of rainwater on the tunnel, it might also help with the door catching. But I’ve not been able to try it out yet.

 

[cgtmiles]

I’ve not managed to improve things yet, but I have since bought an “awning tunnel tensioner pole kit”. Although the primary purpose of this is to prevent pooling of rainwater on the tunnel, it might also help with the door catching. But I’ve not been able to try it out yet.

Is that specific to your awning or generic? Do you have the details as I’ve not heard of that before?

 

[Shaun Witts]

Its generic. As I said, I have not tried it yet, or even opened it. I bought it from LightNing Leisure (lightningleisure.com) but they do not appear to have any in stock at the moment. I came across it by accident, and have not heard from anyone else about them, so have no idea whether it will help.

Edit - just found this, so maybe they have got stock:
Awning Tunnel Tension Pole