Erecting an awning

Tips on putting up awnings

Erecting an awning can sometimes be the bane of a caravanner's life. Thankfully help is at hand from our members who have chipped in with some helpful suggestions. A must read for any awning first-timer or any one who hasn't quite mastered the art.

You can discuss erecting an awning on the Caravan Talk forum or if you wish to contribute to this article or provide feedback please email us.

Bigdrinks: The advice I give to anyone erecting an awning for their first time is to erect the frame, without the material, at home first. This can be done leaning against a wall or garage. I gives you a good idea of where all the poles will go and if any need to be marked up. Left, right, centre, etc.

steve: When feeding the awning through the rail rather than feeding it in from ground level start from the openings in the awning channel. It's easier to work from the opening just above eye level at the rear of the van.

Starting from this point, feed the awning through until the piping is a couple of centimeters in advance of the opening. The tail end of the awning will now be at eye level and fully located in the channel and the front end of the awning will be overhanging at the far end. To finish simply pull the whole awning in the rail back on itself down to the required ground level.

rikernumber1: We erected our awning against the garden fence at first, and then colour-coded the poles with tape. I've also bought some decent pegs.

catcher: As well as lubricating the awning rail with furniture polish and making sure there are no sections of awning rail that have got closed up a bit, here are a couple of my tips. Firstly, remove all panels then slide the roof of the awning into the awning rail. Next assemble the middle section of frame and attach to caravan with the awning draped over it. The awning will hold the middle section in place until you assemble the rest of the frame.

As others have said, there's always someone willing to help if you get stuck.

matt: Maybe we're lucky or maybe cos we have a new Isabella, but having only put the awning up about 3 times now, we've never had a problem. I sprayed the channel (not the awning) with silicone spray. Insert the awning from the front of the caravan at the bottom and just feed it in. It seems very important to use 2 people - one to feed it in at the bottom (gathering up the slack and lining it all up) and one to pull it through further up the rail. Once equally on the rail, we put the middle pole up first, then the 2 ends etc etc. Leave the zip in panels out and put them in at the end. Zipping these panels in is the only bit that gives me hassle. Everything else is totally idiot proof and dead easy. I'm chuffed that we seemed to have bought a well designed awning as others seem to have awful problems and I'm sure it's not all down to lack of skill.

steve: You could try feeding your awning from one of the entry points further along the rail, it eliminates the problems of snagging and lining up and can be easily carried out by one person on a average size caravan.

You can discuss erecting an awning on the Caravan Talk forum or if you wish to contribute to this article or provide feedback please email us.