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I reckon if you get yourself a porch one you will end up getting a full size one anyway so why not cut to the chase !

Caravans are very small and confining so you will find like everyone else ,you spend most of the time in your awning rather than the van anyway!

OOps welcome to the site by the way !

Think you'll be surprised actually...coz there's not such a lot of difference in the price between a full or porch awning. Hubby wanted to get a porch awning just incase, (aint ever  gonna happen with his coaching committments), we ever managed to get away for just a few days at a time and the porch one would suffice.

So, I looked at the Dorema ones, coz it's a Dorema full one we've got, and there was only about £100 difference! Of course, it would be little bit lighter in the towing weight department, but not that much cheaper. OK, so a £100 might  sound a lot, but not when you're talking several hundreds for the full size one anyway, (around the £500 mark for ours).

I'm with Skatty, go the whole hog to begin with if you can afford it, coz you'll defo want more space once you're living with it.

Thanks for the quick reply! I think that the main obstacle of awnings is the erecting isn't it? Any advice on the best sort to buy for ease and price would be appreciated.

Thanks for the welcome!

We've had a Telt Larsen, (really old and probably no longer in production), that we got secondhand with our first caravan of our own and that was......a pig to get up! Had to colour code each pole so we knew which bit went into which other bit when on site. Worked it all out in the garden putting up three hooks on the outside side of the garage wall! Handy for erecting it again too when it needed re-proofing.

But the Dorema ones are really simple. You also get decent diagrams with them which is a big help. Didn't need to colour code these poles and this time we've gone for the aluminium poles for less towing and lugging about weight.

Hubby lays all our poles out on the grass in their proper formation, before he starts putting 'em togther and that seems to work for us.

Then we thread the awning itself in through the awning channel thingy, he then puts the poles up against the van and pulls the material over it. Pegs, in, curtains up, grounsheet down and time for a cuppa coz the kettle's always boiled by the time we're done.

Most modern ones are fairly simple now but word of warning about the PDQ ones, (Pretty Damned Quick), while they look handy, they haven't had very good reviews on here. So ya might wanna do some research on them if that's what you were considering. Don't wanna waste your money, even though they seem much cheaper than other makes, it could be more expensive in the long run.

Other's that always seem to get a lot of positive stuff said about 'em are the NR ones, never used one meself, but they are a bit cheaper but this doesn't affect their quality by all accounts.

If we didn't already have the Dorema annexe, we may well have gone for an NR one when we got a bigger tin tent last year.