How To Protect Your Awning
Many people leave their caravan nicely set up, only to come back after a walk to find their awning in a twisted or mangled mess. The wind having rushed in and flipped the awning over itself. This is frustrating, costly and can ruin an entire holiday. Carac's Bernard prepared the below tips and tools to protect your awning from the elements.
Whilst mother nature can be mischievous, in some instances damage can be mitigated or even avoided depending on site selection and or orientation of the caravan itself.
You may want to view the beautiful sunset over the water, but facing an onshore wind is not an ideal scenario for the life of your awning. Similarly having a gust of wind barrel down the cliffs of a river on to an open sand bar where you have parked your van to view the river.
A preventative measure would be to offset the van slightly, to put an edge or corner of the van into the wind. This would make a deflector for the wind to blow down instead of catching the full force of it side on.
How To Secure Your Awning
In addition to Bernard's above tip on camp location, you will still want to secure your awning down wherever you have set up your camp site. This can be achieved in a few different ways depending on the type of awning and the ground where you are camped.
For example, if you have a barrel awning such as a DOMETIC, CAREFREE, or AUSSIE TRAVELLER, you may wish to secure it using Supex Awning Rope Clips or the Tiegear Sail Track Loops using the 6MM toggle. To this attachment point you can connect a traditional Guy Line And Spring or use the Tiegear Tidy Line And Bungy Combination.
Cassette or Box Style Awning?
If you have a Cassette or Box style such a FIAMMA or THULE, these can also be secured using the above Tiegear Sail Track Loops, Navigator Awning Buddy or Companion Deluxe Awning Tie Down Kit. All have a 4mm toggle that fits into the front housing of the cassette.
Favourite Kits
Remember to choose the appropriate style of peg for the soil type you are camped on, as this is also a determining factor for securing your awning. The below Ground Dog & Tiegear tie down kits are our bestsellers.
Better Safe Than Sorry
Sometimes no matter what you do, mother nature will have her own design on your holiday. The best advice is that if you look at the weather and wonder if you should put your awning away, then you probably should. Two minutes of labour is better than $2000.