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Dear all,

Excuse the extraordinarily silly questions, but I just want to check.  We have a new seasonal pitch with a full awning that is left up permanently from March to October.  So far, no problems.  The awning was previously used on a seasonal pitch and the previous owner bought extra roof and support poles, so it has 7 roof poles and 7 vertical poles along the front (caravan is around 22ft). 

It's a steel frame and I happen to have 2 other roof and 2 other vertical poles spare from an old awning I never use.  I wondered if the awning would be rendered even more stable if I added to two extra verticals to the side walls to provide for greater rigidity.  As I say, no problems yet, but the man on the pitch next to me recently told me his entire awning was ripped off the side of his 'van during a storm once.  Anyway, is it a case of the more poles the better - or can extra poles cause unforseen problems that just haven't occurred to me?

Any views out there on this?  Thanks a lot.

You may as well put them to use, extra clips can be bought quite cheaply.

Have you considered a storm strap too?

Bigger awnings tend to have extra roof poles fror that reason.

We have a Dorema sun canopy we use in the summer, which only had 3 roof poles.

One night in France we woke to find a huge pool on it and a bent pole.

I did a temporary repair with a bit of plastic pipe from DIY place.

On return bought 2 extra roof poles and legs quite cheaply from local dealer.Our full awning came with extra poles.