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Hi, My husband & I & our two young sons are complete novices and we bought our very first caravan yesterday, a Bailey Olympus 525 and we are incredibly excited about the prospect of using it year-round.  We need to purchase an awning and I'm looking at a Tuscany Corsican or a Dorema awning.  Can anyone please give me ANY advice on awnings as it would be very, very much appreciated!! The awning will be full size and should we upgrade to the alloy poles...???  Any help you can give us would be great ..!

We were new to caravanning in March after having boats.

We bought our full awning from Outdoor Revolution and opted for the carbon lite poles. It's only the entry level but we and our friends (who have been carvanning for 30 years) are well impressed with the quality. It's easy to put up and you don't need to label the bars like our friends have had to. I would definitely buy another one.

http://www.outdoor-revolution.com/Products/2/69/New-England/

It depends where you want to be on price IMO, if you want the best, go for a new Isabella. I rate them very highly but can't justify one for the amount of caravanning we do. 

Apart from that you could do what we did, price up a Dorema Senator Lux awning direct from dorema with the carbon poles. They're a lovely awning & have sewn in clips for storm straps. I ran them one afternoon, told them what I wanted from the awning, took the mans advice & ordered & paid for it there & then. It was delivered to my house 2 days later.

We have the awning in Blue, 2 tall nnexes with sleeping inners, extra roof poles & storm poles & we're very pleased with the awning & the service form Dorema.

BB

I like the look of the New England awning ...  this may be just wha we have been looking for i.e. a full sized awning (that fits completely into the awning rail, end to end) and yet lightweight.   

Does it actually fit completely into the awning rail?  Difficult to tell from the photographs.  I am assuming it does as you seem to be able to buy different sizes???

Quote: Originally posted by jacquelineob on 27/8/2011

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Thanks, we've spent all day looking at awnings today and definitely wouldn't be able to justify the cost of the Isabella.  In fact, after examining many awnings I feel that the only difference is quite often the name and price..!  Many of them are made of the same fabric and materials to exactly the same specification and are all much of a much.  As we are complete novices, I have decided to purchase a Pyramid Corsican from Northwich Camping at an unbelievable price of £395.00, including free delivery..! 'Which Caravan' gave this awning a very good review.  If, after becoming more experienced, we decide to upgrade, we won't make too much of a loss by selling this on and upgrading.  Many thanks for all your replies.

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No doubt the proof of the pudding will be in the eating but at that price you'll probably get your money back on Ebay if you need to change.

To be honest, they're far from being much of a muchness IMO. Even the Doremas we've had don't compete with the Isabella we had originally but, as I said in my reply, we can't justify the cost of a new Isabella considering we only caravan in good weather & no where near enough for to need better than our Senator Lux.

I hope you're pleased with you purchase & look forward to an update after you've used it.

BB