The pulley systems may be fine on some caravans but they don't help at all with the problems I had putting up my air-awning. It was simply lifting the weight up to that height, and when pulling it through, various attachments catching on things like the awning light.
Coming in several bits making the roof section so much lighter means that my current poled awning is so much easier to lift up there. The pieces where the poles attach still catch on things, but with two of us its easy. One pulls and the other one flicks the bits that catch out of the way.
Quote: Originally posted by daleswalker on 01/8/2019
+1 for the air awnings, our Kampa rally Air Pro 390 is a great bit of kit but that's not to say it's perfect. I 100% agree that it's flippin' heavy when threading alone and I had some issues with its rainproofing qualities (fixed with a Fabsil treatment) it does stand up very well to excessive wind though.
May be worth you getting the Awning pulley I mentioned before. It does make it extremely easy, honest. I'm 70 now and have arthritis and the pulley makes easy work of it
I think you will find that pulley system only works well with an awning rail that is straight all the way along like some of the modern caravans are. My caravan is 15 years old and has a slight slope from the centre to the front like many caravans did of that era and because the awning rail is lower (where the pulley is attached) it won't pull the awning cord in a straight line which could make it impractical due to this reason. The videos on youtube showing the pulley system are used only attached to the modern caravans with straight awning rails so the pulley system may not be universal unless proved otherwise. I wouldn't want to invest in until evidence can be shown that the system does work on caravans with front sloping roof.
I see no reason why it won't work as when you attach the pulley hook and feed the awning in the rail you can put tension on it which supports the weight of the awning which makes sliding it up the rail easier. On our 2010 bailey we insert the awning in the rail quite low down and the tension on the pulley takes the weight making it easy to feed in and lift the awning up. If you lived nearer I would have happy to lend you mine to try out.
John
That's really kind of you John. If I had chance to borrow a Kampa pulley system and shown how to use it properly, if it DID work I would definitely consider buying one.
We've just bought an inflatable driveaway awning off a friend, they've been converted to a proper caravan for the odd weekend they go away. We love it, more space and the 3 teenagers don't have to run in the rain from our campervan to their tent.
we have a kampa rally air 260 porch awning and a kampa rally air 390 plus awning, I agree they are heavy especially the 390 plus but we have had full framed awnings and in the strong winds I would recommend air awnings every time never had any issues in hot weather also I used to inflate them with a hand pump but decided to try the kampa gale electric pump and glad I did a lot easier
We have the Kampa Rally Air Grande 390. Love it. I agree it is on the heavy side, compared to the equivalent poled version, but I wouldn't part with it now. On a recent holiday on the east coast we experienced winds in the region of 40-50mph. Our awning just bent a little and stood proud with no detriment whatsoever. There were several poled awnings that were actually damaged and came apart in the winds. Funny thing was though, is that all the damaged awnings were not set up properly at all. None had guy ropes attached for a start. No wonder they all fell apart in the circumstances.
Once down side i have noticed is the condensation, quite severe at times. However, we have now sorted that with the addition of the roof liner. Made all the differences. As someone above has said, I suppose they are a bit like marmite. You either love them or hate them. I love ours :)
------------- Those who sacrifice Liberty for security deserve neither
We have two awnings, a big Vango, and heavy. Then a smaller Vango and quite a bit lighter. We love both of them.
We are Motor Home folk, therefore the awning rail is high. We use a double caravan step rather than the electric step on the van. If feeling agile, we can do the threading through the rail from the double step. If it has been a long day we roll out the awning rail a little and do it the easier way. Then roll it back in. We always use storm straps on both the roll out awning and the air awnings.
But....our air awnings also have sewn in storm straps along with small pockets to hold them when not in use, these straps replicate the first old tents (pointed roof and slab sides) they are something that are there if needed and are brilliant in use (once only this far) It makes the whole thing so stable we can sleep in comfort in the van with out a worry. I imagine it would be easy to make a similar strap for any awning giving trouble in strong winds.
Check out what I say on the internet re the straps to see what I mean as it is difficult to describe.