Kampa Pro 330 awning blows up
While sitting in our awning having lunch, our awning went bang. Not just the bladder, it ripped through the roof & left a hole about one & half foot long.
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Comments
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Over-inflated!
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Safer with poles? Plus they can sort your plumbing.
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I have the same Kampa Pro air 330 and find that I just need to inflate to 6 psi to get a very firm stable set up. This is less than the 9 - 11 psi suggested by Kamp but as it works well and provides a wider safety margin I am happy to stick with it. What PSI had you set Madwomen49?
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If you use the hand pump supplied with the awning, it can't over-inflate it. I use an electric one on our 390 Grande and, like Tirril, set it to 7 or 8 psi and it automatically cuts out at that pressure. That said, if it's really hot and I'm worried, I always let a bit of air out just to be on the safe side.
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I can see the attraction of air awnings due to the ease of getting them set up but blowing up??? That’s something that you never heard of. With the hot sun, I would do the same as Tirril had I got one- have the manufacturers missed something here?
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In their literature Kampa say their air poles are tested to be safe up to 22psi.
btw an increase of 10C leads to about a 1 psi increase
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when we bought our 390 some years ago, the dealer said it was tested to 22 psi. I would like to meet the person who could put 22psi in the awning with the provided hand pump. I have a Kampa pump which is pre-set to 10psi. For the record, we had a puncture quite recently whilst in Spain, Kampa got a new leg to us in 5 days, just as well because the awning is not as modular as Kampa like to make out, e.g. if you get a puncture in the main leg nothing goes up as there is only on inlet valve and that is in the main leg.
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I have the 390 model and unless some are different there is an inlet valve on each leg
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i should say that in the 4/5 years we have had the Kampa 390, i think i have now replaced all 4 legs, 3 were done under warranty and i sent the whole thing back to Kampa for them to fit, although it is a relatively easy operation. Mine stands for long periods in the hot sun, e.g. 6 weeks and i dont think this is ideal. The whole thing has faded very badly, i call it bleached, but would never go back to poles
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Seems to be a reoccurring issue with Kampa air awnings.
Glad I opted for the Bradcot Air Aspire model...............
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I have a picture on my phone taken a few days ago of a Bradcot Module air flapping in the wind, gone bang!
I bought a full awning a few months ago, went back to steel poles, no regrets.
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Perhaps the difference is I inflate mine with an electric pump which cuts off at the pre set pressure, which is somewhat lower than the Kampa recommended pressure.
Couldn't be doing with all that scaffolding erecting with the old fashioned ones
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I like our steel poled awning, bought it to add more weight to the car. Michelle and myself work well together, I also use a 3 step ladder and awning tensioner for final fix, and it has no guy ropes!
When we looked at awnings we did examine the Modul Air and Kampa's 390.
Bradcot all the bladders are connected with no valves, so if it has a puncture it all goes down. Kampa you can isolate a bladder.
The picture shows the main section all deflated, with the front add on still ok.
Adding this picture wasnt an easy task using a mobile phone!
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Sorry to tell you but I know of 2 Bradcot aspire air awnings that have gone with a bang. 1 on rally at Jervaulx Abbey and the other on a rally at Kirkby Stephen both were Aspire Air 390’s. I do believe that the Bradcots have a lifetime warranty for the bladder.
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Bradcot all the bladders are connected with no valves, so if it has a puncture it all goes down. Kampa you can isolate a bladder.
Correct, when I viewed both makes on display in our local dealer though the bradcot is far superior in terms of quality and what is supplied with it. All down to personal choice in the end I suppose, on my second one now after upgrading to the 390 from a 260. I really must get round to advertising the 260 as its just sitting in storage gathering dust .
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I have the Bradcot Residentia 50. I had every intention of buying the Bradcot Modul air, but changed my mind because no valves.
Material is very good, couple of springs in the poles have let go, easy fix, but the hooks the ladders fix to are very poor, broken several, and you cant buy replacements as they are sewn into fabric hoops, so a factory fix.
It's only 3 months old, Its guaranteed but I've used 6mm plastic rod as replacement, purely because I know the hooks will break again.
For the money a very good piece of kit. No guy ropes, a huge bonus for me. Takes just under an hour to erect, peg out, carpet down.
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I think Kampa were probably one of the early pioneers in the air awning market and i bought one of the early arrivals. Since then i think Kampa have acknowledged that there were some design flaws , e.g. i see they upgraded all the valves on the later models, not that i ever had a problem with the valves. I think the biggest issue was poor seams on the inner tube that protects the bladder, on all of my failures this inner tube had come apart at the seam allowing the bladder to force its way out and as a consequence it blew out. My replacement legs do seem to be a bit more robust in this area. As for being modular, again in my experience if just 1 of the four legs blows, then the awning becomes almost unuseable, especially if it is the main leg with the inlet valve, yes you can isolate all the horizontal poles but these play only a minor part of the overall awning unless it is windy when they do prevent horizontal movement. I have been on sites in the UK where my 390 has been perhaps one of the very few awnings left standing after storms, i also use it a lot abroad in temperatures 25 - 30 degs. I have to say i do think they are now very expensive, close to £1k, ouchhh!!! , but returning to poles , not really for me.
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We have a Vango air and all the bladders are separate and have to be inflated and deflated one at a time , the roof ones fit between the vertical ones and are held with velcro. Three years old with no problems.
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I am really surprised by all these air awning failures.
As cornersteady mentioned, depending on the starting point, a 10 degree C rise would not lead to a significant rise in pressure.
I stand to be corrected but going (way) back to school boy Physics
p1/t1 = p2/t2 (t in Kelvin)
Even if the awning was inflated in the cold (t1 = 0C) to 9psi and the temperature rose to (say) 60 degrees in the tube (due to the sun exposure on a dark fabric) the pressure would still only rise to 11psi.
Either they are being over inflated or the material is failing.
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I bought a Kampa Rally Air Pro 390 new for this season. On 3rd July after the awning had been up for 3 days we returned to the caravan after being away about 2 hours to find the awning deflated. Upon examination we saw a hole in the roof and the inner sleeve with the bladder hanging out with a rip of about a foot. This was only the fourth time we had put up the awning, each time putting 9psi in as per Kampa's recommendations using either the supplied hand pump or Kampa's own mechanical pump. The couple in the neighbouring van said that they heard a loud explosion and thought it was a bird scarer or similar going off. The awning is now totally unusable and we have lost confidence in air awnings and are looking at buying another pole awning
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