Message Forums

You must have a big one then! Oh you mean the straps. I see, good idea, will try it!

all the way along the bag "seam"

and where the 2 bits of velcro are sewn into the join between the roof and the front wall.

just thought though, it's not so much the straps as the leather bag that flaps against the top of the van.

AND whilst drying it out today I found 2 little tears in the roof; it's really quite thin material. Yes I know it's only ripstop, but a tent made of such thin material wouldn't last 5 minutes, IMO

How easy is it to get the bag in the awning rail? i leave my van in storage and would prefer it to be removed, and left in van, when not in use and travelling.  I'm guessing that all the poles have to be removed when feeding through the rail!!!

Any help appreciated.

Thats the one thing i hate is putting up awnings, and trying to keep an eye on a 2 and 3 year old, the PDQ sounds ideal, if it works.

SP

I gave up trying to fold mine up look in the video! These days I take off the centre pole from rail to outer edge of awning; the remaining poles fold into a straight line (and can be kept in place by the velcro straps). Then its a fairly easy matter to pull it off the rail whilst the poles remain on the awning; although a second pair of hands does help slightly.

Keith

I know I *can* leave the poles in; its just that the bag is then too tight to zip up!

I reckon that, on my awning, the bag size was originally undermeasured/cut and in addition, the quality of the stitching is/was shocking; in several places I've had to cut the stitching where it was actually preventing the material from feeding into the van rail.

If my specific awning is alemon or not, I am still not impressed although of course if Pyramid were to send me a newer model for testing/comparison I'd be more than happy to help them! ;<)

I'm new to caravanning and i wanted to know if the poles go round the bend when pulling off caravan, surely they cant, or do you force the awning in the rail near the top of the caravn and slide it across.

SP

After weighing up the pros and cons, I bought a PDQ in August 2006. First the pros.

• Goes up easily.
• Travels in situ with no noticeable problem.
• Adequate size.
• Quite quickly put away, but does need two of us.

The cons. include:

• Not put up in windy conditions in Lancashire (windy location).
• Bag banged up and down most of night - sounded like someone thumping on the caravan door. (perhaps could have been held down with rope wrapped around the van?)
• Following morning bag found to be slightly split by the gas vent on the van roof which shows how high the wind was blowing it.
• The rolled up window in the damaged area suffered about eight splits in the window material, which was temporarily repaired with cellotape.

We spent January 07 to March in Spain.

• One side wall left out - longish periods without rain.
• Wind blew up one day and four ft split appeared in the roof over the left-out side wall.
• We moved site and put up awning again (lived with the split).
• Wind blew up while away from van and addition splits occurred in the vicinity of the first split.
• Reckoned awning was a write-off and material was disposed off in skip, keeping poles, pegs etc
• Moral of the story.........the PDQ does not like strong winds.
• It had travelled about 3,000 miles in situ without a problem....until it went to the "happy awning hunting ground".

Does anyone know if I can buy a replacement without the poles etc. which I still have?

Cheers,

Rambleruk.