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Subject Topic: Air awning question. Post Reply Post New Topic
Personbofs
via mobile 08/7/2021 at 8:41pm
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We are looking at changing our small (2.4 metre) porch awning for a larger (3.2 metre-ish) porch awning and OH is keen on getting an air awning. My question is, how does an air awning cope with a sloping pitch, as you cannot adjust the poles to compensate as you would with a traditional awning? Hoping someone can advise.


Personiank01
09/7/2021 at 8:51am
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You cannot adjust the awning on sloping ground. You may get away with it with a small air awning i.e. 220. We got rid of our air awning of only using it a couple of times. Weight was another big issue. Also it is quicker to set up a traditional awning than an air awning. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGibcUJBWew


PersonGari2
09/7/2021 at 9:46am
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Outwell air awnings have foam pads you add to the base of the air beam to accommodate slopes. Unfortunately Outwell no longer make caravan awnings but maybe other makes have a similar feature


Personbobmel
09/7/2021 at 10:36am
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iank01 what you on about? Air awnings are far easier than the divorce in a bag. Think you must have bought the wrong awning.
Outwell


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Robert (BoB)


Personbofs
via mobile 09/7/2021 at 11:01am
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Quote: Originally posted by bobmel on 09/7/2021
iank01 what you on about? Air awnings are far easier than the divorce in a bag. Think you must have bought the wrong awning.
Outwell



We are fine putting up and taking down our poled awnings (42 years and no divorce yet...) but OH fancies giving an air awning a go. I'm less convinced but happy to go along with it if this question can be satisfactorily answered.


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Personsilvertopsandra
11/7/2021 at 4:49pm
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We thought about an air porch, decided against because of the weight.
We went to a caravan dealer, looked at what was on the market and picked up the bags!

Chose the Kampa poled porch - its brilliant


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sandra


Personratcatcher
11/7/2021 at 8:28pm
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We have the Vango 280 as this is the size that does not cover half the window.
A doddle to put up and take down, not too heavy, good in the wind and never leaked a drop even after 3 days of heavy rain.
All this said the only drawback is that you don't have adjustment on sloping ground so if you don't want to use pads to adjust just do as we do and avoid sloping pitches.
It's a very small price to pay not to have a poled thing doing it's best to spear your caravan side.

As in everything it is down to personal choice and the air awning is ours


Personiank01
12/7/2021 at 11:16am
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Quote: Originally posted by bobmel on 09/7/2021
iank01 what you on about? Air awnings are far easier than the divorce in a bag. Think you must have bought the wrong awning.
Outwell



Why do you think putting up an awning is a divorce in a bag unless you have issues with OH? LOL!    We have never had an issue erecting any pole awning.
I doubt very much if any air awning will last as long as a poled awning taking into consideration the price you pay for a very heavy air awning.


PersonMick S.
12/7/2021 at 4:14pm
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A mates air awning tilts inwards when its windy, there seems no rigidity in it. Sometimes hes blocked in the caravan.
I watched, with great mirth, a couple putting up an air tent the other day. Went up in seconds - four times. Every time he unhooked the pump, it went down again. (then the instructions came out).


Personles + june
13/7/2021 at 9:57am
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I’ve had a bradcot air awning for about 7 years it has been up in all sorts of weather. The worst time was in Spain when we had winds reported to be 77mph I went into the awning at about 2 am as I was a bit concerned, it came down and hit me on the head then popped straight back up. In my case the bradcott is a brilliant awning just remember no to over inflate it.

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The worst day fishing is better than the best day working


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PersonOLLIEB
via mobile 20/7/2021 at 11:36pm
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Air awnings in hot weather...relax the pressure in the morning a couple of bar.. avoid blowouts


PersonColin21
21/7/2021 at 9:56am
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Air awnings again. Really a "Marmite issue". I am with Iank01 on this one. We bought an air awning and couldn't get on with it as it was far too heavy for us to cope with, being all in one piece. After having to get up at 3am to take it down in a gale, as it was slamming into the side of the caravan and keeping us awake despite the storm straps we had fitted, we decided enough was enough and went back to a poled awning. Our current poled full awning is twice the size of our air porch awning, but I can put it up quicker doing most of the work on my own. The air porch took both of us and far longer. Pegging out takes the same amount of time for either, and we now use screw-in pegs which saves more time as I don't have to keep getting up and down.


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Best Regards,
Colin


Personbofs
via mobile 21/7/2021 at 10:55am
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Well, we have carried out extensive research, looked at air awnings in caravan showrooms, comparing air with similar size and quality poled awnings for weight, price and aesthetics, and taken note of opinions for and against expressed on here, and have now come to a decision.
We have decided that as you cannot adjust air awnings to compensate for uneven pitches, putting up an awning is not "divorce in a bag" for us, the extra weight putting it on the van could be an issue, and a comparable quality air awning is more expensive than a poled one, we are going to stick with a poled awning for now. Many thanks for everyone's contributions.


Personratcatcher
28/8/2021 at 7:22pm
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Quote: Originally posted by OLLIEB on 20/7/2021
Air awnings in hot weather...relax the pressure in the morning a couple of bar.. avoid blowouts


A couple of bar??
Air awnings are only inflated to about 7 psi which to my reckoning is only half a bar


Persontango55
28/8/2021 at 11:55pm
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When an air awning tilt inwards in windy weather it's because they have no storm straps attached so the inflatable poles are allowed to flex without any restraint. I've spoken to a few people on campsites that have air awnings attached with no storm straps connected and many have said, "I wondered what those extra clips were for". Because the storm straps don't come with the awning as standard there is nothing in the instructions stating what the two clips are actually for. However, we have both a Dorema 900 cm. full awning with steel poles and a Kampa 260 cm. air awning so we just use whichever suits the time we're out really so no preference over one from the other really apart from the pitching time which takes a bit longer with the full awning. Regarding uneven ground it's quite true that the air awning poles can't be adjusted but you can purchase a pack of 8 awning pads that slide behind the awning poles that help to compensate with this. However, as our air awning is only a short 260 cm. model it's never really been an issue due to the small area covered.


PersonColin21
29/8/2021 at 10:41am
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Quote: Originally posted by tango55 on 28/8/2021
When an air awning tilt inwards in windy weather it's because they have no storm straps attached so the inflatable poles are allowed to flex without any restraint. I've spoken to a few people on campsites that have air awnings attached with no storm straps connected and many have said, "I wondered what those extra clips were for". Because the storm straps don't come with the awning as standard there is nothing in the instructions stating what the two clips are actually for. However, we have both a Dorema 900 cm. full awning with steel poles and a Kampa 260 cm. air awning so we just use whichever suits the time we're out really so no preference over one from the other really apart from the pitching time which takes a bit longer with the full awning. Regarding uneven ground it's quite true that the air awning poles can't be adjusted but you can purchase a pack of 8 awning pads that slide behind the awning poles that help to compensate with this. However, as our air awning is only a short 260 cm. model it's never really been an issue due to the small area covered.


I did have storm straps attached to our air awning when it started slamming into the side of the caravan. They didn't seem to make that much difference. Maybe if I'd had something attached to the centre of the awning and tied the other end to the car, that might have helped.


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Best Regards,
Colin



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