What do you use, a Porch or Full awning? Just bought our first van and can't decide which to get. We've come from a folding camper which took us a good 1.5 Hrs to put up including the awning. So even with a full awning we're thinking it will be a lot quicker than that to get set up. We usually use the awning for eating in as a family and somewhere to put the dogs! If we did go for a porch one it would probably be something like the NR Coniston Luxe (a bit hard wearing and solid) don't fancy the tent style ones. Would this be so much quicker to put up or should we just go for a full NR and enjoy the space. Don't want to spend money on a porch awning only to find it saves 20 mins but has no usefull space. All replies gratefully received.
i would go for the full awning everytime more space and somewhere for our dog, we have a porch awning which is great for short stays keeps the cold from the door, mike
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i would go for the full awning everytime more space and somewhere for our dog, we have a porch awning which is great for short stays keeps the cold from the door, mike
So how long does it take for a full awning? Are we taliking half an hour or half a day!
We put up our awning (full 7 metres long) for the first time - with no instructions (left them at home), the poles all mixed up and unmarked - in about 40 mins - next time it'll be down to less than 20 minutes.
What we put in a awning you would never get in a porch - overnighting we just wouldn't bother, but 2 or more nights we'd use the full awning
------------- Caravanning is a way of getting a cheap holiday out of an expensive hobby
hi i would go for the full awning we tried a porch one but to be honest our full awning only takes about 30 mins to put up we are well practiced and have a good system we did try a porch awning but really the time saved and the lack of space wasnt worth it. we also had a trailer tent ,then a folding camper so a full awning is nothing to put up /take down
Thats good to know Rune Caster, the more I think about it the more I'm erring towards the full one. If we're only there for the night the dogs could sleep in the car as they did in our camping days. The room would be invaluable with two little kids as well.
I guess its a matter of personal preference, and what you want to use it for.
There are only three of us (me, OH and 13 yr old son) and our dog, We prefer a porch awning, ours is the Compactalite Pro 250. We dont use it to sleep in, its not suitable for that. We do eat in ours and have some room left over for storage. Its lightweight and reasonably sturdy (survived gales in Angelsey at end of July better than some full sized awnings on site) It goes up/down in about ten minutes flat and suits us fine. Works fine with our van as it doesnt cover/partially cover any windows.
Also, if we have to take it down wet (as we often do!) its easy to dry out when we get home.
Recently bought a cheap porch awning - a sunncamp platinum ultima 390. To be honest, we are really impressed. 3.9m x approx 2.3m deep. Well waterproof (it was up all last week in se England lol), seals ok to side of van, big enough for plenty of space but small enough to dry at home once packed away wet. Not exactly Rolls Royce quality but cheap enough to be excused an acceptable build quality insted of an excellent one. Also realativly lightweight at 26 or so kg, easy to errect (did it today on my own with the 'canvas' wet in about 25 mins). I recon an Issabella full awning is leagues ahead in build quality, and in a storm our sunncamp would probably blow inside-out! But for £175 compared to £1500+ for a decent full awning whos complaining !! For quality buy a leading brand of full awning. For value buy a porch and forgive its lesser quality. Whichever you choose, enjoy your extra outdoor space!!
------------- Why am i doing this instead of camping??!!
The porch awning we have has an annex added onto it and we have a table in there for eating off. But not a lot of room for all the other stuff i like to have in there so i much prefer the full awning. We are still learning how to put up the awning so don't actually know how long it will eventually take us lol. Get the kids to hold the poles for you :)
A full awning only has 1 extra pole and about 5 extra pegs (may have an additional 2 roof poles too depending on size) so hardly takes any extra time to put up, we've got both and use the porch for weekends and the full for longer breaks, purely because for a weekend we need less storage space.
Have a look on eBay, there are some bargains on there, awnings don't hold their price at all and the market is flooded with them because people swap their vans so often.
We've recently bought one that was new in april costing £1025 and we paid £200, the pegs and curtains have never been out of the pack and the awning had been used once.
We have both but to be honest would only use the porch awning for one night, it takes almost as long to put it up, although it was a bargain £30 for a bradcott portico from Preloved, used once previously! Prefer the full awning for dog proofing and the space even for a night or two!
We use porch for short stays and only full awning for a week or more. It's not so much the time it takes to put up, it's the time it takes to pack up!! We find that the more space we have, the more space we fill and I resent spending half a day packing up when I'm only there for a weekend. Also, I take into account the weather, if it's wet it's a lot easier drying out a nylon porch tent than a full canvas awning. We had a couple of years trailer tenting when we often had a 4m awning draped round our conservatory, drying. To be avoided at all costs if possible.
Alison x
We have had full, porch and part awnings[Magnum], now our preferred solution is the part awning.
Clearly it depends on the family size, the van size, length of stay and time of year. We are two plus an occasional one.
Our last two vans require a 1000 CM awning [6.3 metre van body]. This size of an awning whilst taking little more time to erect than the part awning is a great deal more hassle to live with when it is taken down wet. Having to bag up and find somewhere for the wet bits to stop them drenching the car and to hang it all up in the car port to dry. When we are three we take an annex for the part awning, unless its a longer holiday then its the full awning.
The smaller porch awnings are not for us, simply too small for eating in.
We have both a full awning old bradcott and a suncamp , I like the space the full gives you but as we are mainly weekend get a way caravanner we use the porch it big enough for us two to sit in should we want to a it's idea for wet dog and boots and shoes, I thought our suncamp wouldn't last long as it was cheap but really suprised it's stood up to quite high winds.
We are going to sell our old bradcott next year though and get a lighterweight full awning.