Message Forums

Hi

With a limited number of weekends left before we go to France and a reasonably promising weather forecast for tomorrow we are going top attempt to put the awning up for the first time!

We have never put it up before as we have only been away for weekends but as we are in France for 2 weeks we'll be glad of the extra space. Both of us are awning virgins so to speak so I thought I'd ask if anyone here has any tips or hints they could share with us?

Hubby has already said there will be no arguing and he will remain calm - as he is not the calmest person at the best of times I'm not holding my breath!

Any advice?

Karen

Hi,

Mrs UM says the awning is "an argument in a bag!"

If the awning is new and the panels zipped in, unzip them first.(if removable)

Sort out your poles and lay them in approximate positions on the ground first. (Not too far away...see later)

My advice is to take care when feeding the awning through the rail, have one person guiding and one person pulling. Pull the awning right through the rail and then make sure the awning is positioned centrally (gap to ground equal each side)

We then take the central vertical pole and position it through the awning part extended, I then attach the rafter to the "van end" and fix into the top of the pole.

Mrs UM then stands holding this whilst I go for a pint (only joking!)

I then sort out the first corner pole and pick up the eaves pole (see note above about being easy to reach) and fix the eaves member between the central pole and the corner pole.

Mrs UM then carefully edges along to hold the corner pole. I then fix the corner rafter

and Mrs UM holds it all up whilst I make a temporary guy line connection at the corner.

I then have another pint.

The process is repeated (the other corner, not the pint) to give the beninnings of an awing erected. A few more pegs are put in to tie it down. I then zip in the panels.

I then lift all the vertical poles to full height, tension the rafters and make sure all is square before pegging down fully.

I use a Hercules tensioner as I am puny.

Mr UM

I done my awning first time 3 weeks ago i hadnt done one b4 or infact seen anyone doing one.

i got all the poles out that were thankfully color coded ie red to red yellow to yellow i fixed the awning to the van but layed the poles down on the floor Ie the legs away from van i then pulled awning out next to the van and bit by bit threaded in to awning rail and pulled along until i had equal disatance both sides i then pushed/stood rest of poles up 1 at a time, then again extended to full height this took me approx 3-4 mins and wold have been fine if only i had the awning the right way around ( bl**dy thing was inside out.

a simple tug from one end (after laying awning poles down) the whole thing slid out i turned the right way around and proceeded as above.

I then put up 2 kite type tents inside for the helpers that I had with me (that funnily were no where to be seen until everything was done)taking me no more than 20 mins to complete the whole exercise

Take your time, lay out the poles on the ground where they are going to go, take the instructions WITH YOU and chill with a glass of wine or bottle of beer while you do it.  

Thinking it is going to be done in 10 minutes is what causes the arguements.  We've put up three awnings painlessly.  I go for a walk with the dog while hubby does it lol.  I help with threading, middle pole and end poles then off I go.  He has it done by the time I come back. 

Not sure what all the fuss is about to be honest and our awning size is 1050.  Reading forums had us panicking and it was pretty simple to be honest as long as you read the instructions and don't try to do it by "guess".