Air awning part covering window

Classicdcl1
Classicdcl1 Forum Participant Posts: 1
edited May 2018 in Caravans #1

Hi, we’re trying to decide on the best Air awning and have narrowed it down to a few Kampa ones. We’ve seen a few at various caravan dealers and had conflicting advice as to whether the awning wil fit properly if half covering a window. I know Kampa have  limpet fitting system and upright pole as options and we’d like to choose the biggest awning that will fit our rail (measured on the straight but also seen some on sites that edge around the curve a little so also interested in comments on fit from that perspective too please). Many thanks in advance. 

Comments

  • JVB66
    JVB66 Forum Participant Posts: 22,892
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    edited May 2018 #2

    It is not a good idea to have an awning that will cover part of a window as no matter how care full ,the window will sustain damage from awning "movemènt"

  • richardandros
    richardandros Club Member Posts: 2,685 ✭✭✭
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    edited May 2018 #3

    It's difficult to advise without knowing which van you have and the benefit of some measurements.  I totally agree with JVB and wouldn't have an awning half covering a window - and I certainly wouldn't advise using the rear poles in that situation because that's just asking for trouble.  I have a set and have never used them because I always manage to get a good seal against the van by pegging the bottom corners slightly under the van.

    Although I am a Kampa fan, there are many makes out there of similar quality and I would have thought that with a bit of research, it would be possible to find one that would fit without covering a window.

    As an aside - you mention wanting the biggest awning you can fit - we have just replaced our Air Pro 380 with the Air Pro 390 Grande - which although 'only' 3.9 metres long is a full 3 meters deep as opposed to the usual 2.5m and it makes a big difference in terms of available space.

  • Milothedog
    Milothedog Forum Participant Posts: 1,433
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    edited May 2018 #4

    To give you another point of view, we had (still have for sale) a Bradcot Air Aspire 260 which was perfect on our Coachman Amara. When we changed to our Elddis Avante the same awning covered half of one window without any issues and we used the back poles. Used it a few times and the window affected  was  fine? We have since bought a Bradcot Air Aspire 2,  3.9mtr which overcomes the issue of the different window position on our Elddis.

    Obviously having half a window covered is not Ideal but it wasn't an issue in our case.

  • jennyc
    jennyc Forum Participant Posts: 957
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    edited May 2018 #5

    I’ve read, more than a few times, that covering a window, especially when accompanied by auxiliary rear poles, will damage the window. And while it’s an understandable belief, it doesn’t seem to be a problem in practice. We have accumulated three awnings, all Kampa Pro fabric, one of which is an air. The smallest is Kampa’s smallest, and as such, crossing a window is almost inevitable. We use it for short breaks, often out of season, when packing a bulkier awning on wet ground and/ or ensuring that it’s dry isn’t altogether easy. Our first Kampa awning crossed a window when we replaced our van, hence the third purchase. Crossing windows isn’t particularly elegant, and isn’t ideal in summer, when open windows help to keep things cool. But window damage has never occurred, for us.

     

  • Settermum
    Settermum Forum Participant Posts: 127
    First Comment
    edited May 2018 #6

    We have a Kampa Rally Air Pro 330 which crosses the window of our Swift Challenger. In all honesty it causes no problems whatsoever. We also use the rear upright poles and have not seen any damage to the window. I do agree that it doesn't look the best, but we would otherwise have had to go for the 260 and we wanted the extra space.

  • Merve
    Merve Forum Participant Posts: 2,333
    1000 Comments
    edited May 2018 #7

    Like Settermum, I have an Isabella Magnum awning and it crosses the window where the side bed is. I have used it for four years and absolutely no damage! Bit of a bummer not being able to open that particular window but hey, there are others. 

  • DSB
    DSB Club Member Posts: 5,677 ✭✭✭
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    edited May 2018 #8

    We have had a number of different awnings that have crossed a window and we have never sustained damage.

    David