Air sun canopies
hi everyone out there.
we are considering purchasing a air sun canopy for our caravan and wonder if anyone can give advice on how they perform under rain conditions?
we mainly caravan in Spain and have been very lucky with weather conditions,however we always had a roof mounted Thule awning with storm straps on a motorhome (have now changed to caravan) this never gave us any problems.
with the caravan we are weight conscious and also age related and want to keep everything as light as possible and as simple as possible.
Our on concern is do we need to demount a air canopy every time rain is forecast?
All comments will be greatly appreciated.
Comments
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We had a Caravanstore roll out canopy, loved it. Really quick to put up or take down. But in Northern Spain it can get windy and we were worried about damage to the caravan. Also, the caravanstire was getting a bit heavy for me.
We bought a 4m Kampa Sunshine Pro Air canopy, we also bought the side panels.
I am 72 and I can easily put it up myself in 5 minutes.
No problems with the rain. Occasionally when it was VERY windy in Spain, i removed the awning, only took a couple of minutes.
In “normal” weather it will be fine but in L’Estartit in May or October it can be really windy and when there is a wind warning many people wind in/ remove awnings.
I really like our Air Canopy, ideal for touring and weighs only 8kg.
John
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Isn't the air beam idea just over complicating what should be a simple shade?
My favourite is the Caravanstore. I can no longer use this door side on our Eriba as the bag fouls the door so keep it on the opposite side all the time, great for covering bikes and clothes airer etc.
Door side we now use an Isabella Shadow and have been impressed with performance in the rain. We either pull the centre down to produc a V run off in the centre or add a pole to give the roof a pitch from centre to ends. We do not have a front or ends so wind blows through and is not a problem.
Colin
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An "air" canopy is not compatible with the expressed wish of, "want to keep everything as light as possible ", and typically the manhandling of putting it through the awning rail involves the additional weight of the beams as well as fabric.
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We have two Isabella Shadows, a 360 cm & 400 cm, initially buying the smaller back in 2002.
These are inherently light and the sheet can be entered in the rail and the poles added afterwards. Both these sizes use a three pole system, smaller ones save weight in only using two poles, though their short length offsets their usefulness. The poles are carbon fibre, again light in weight.
They can easily be set to shed rain and reset if being higher is more suited in use.
I advise each post is fitted with two rather than a single guy, doing that, they withstand quite significant winds, but by design can be taken down in seconds anyway.
I can honestly say these are far the best awning investments we have ever made and see a lot of use being always to hand as light and small, they live under a bed locker.
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I must confess our Shadow lives permanently in the van as we have a high payload and it is so light. It is now paired with a similarly lightweight Sunncamp Swift which is an open ended tunnel thing that hovers about 150mm above the ground. When away for short breaks if it's sunny we use the Isabella, if rainy we use the Sunncamp. I remember using this early 2019 on an exposed hillside in Devon. A storm struck and the van rocked. Others took full awnings down but the wind just blew through this due to the open nature of its design. The pair make an excellent touring combination with a full awning kept for longer stays.
You can see the Isabella set up with the V for shedding rain
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