Drive Away Awning

[RockyRockstar]

Hello

My wife and I are looking at purchasing a drive away awning for our 1997 Bongo. I believe we just have the standard gutter rail at the moment.

Now I've read that a simple figure of 8 fixing strip (or strips) will attach directly onto that with no problems, but without the Kador Strip and awning rail it's not possible to just drive away leaving the tent in situ.

My question is, would a figure of 8 strip attached to the vans gutter strip, with a Kador in the middle, and another figure or 8 strip (strips) attached to the awning work the same way as having an awning rail?

Cheers
Anthony

[Tertiary]

Hi Anthony

That's exactly what we do and we find it works well for us. We have three pieces of figure 8 permantly on the gutter. We run the Kador through those then put the awning with the single piece of figure 8 onto that. Driving away is simple - just pull out the Kador then close up the awning but when we get back we found it much easier to refit if we slacken the guy ropes on the other end of the awning to give a little slack. Fit the Kador back into place and retention the guys. It sounds complicated but takes just a minute or two

[Simon Jones]

You don't generally need a kador strip as you can normally clip the figure of 8 strips over the gutter without needing to slide the bead in and out.

[Eratosthenes]

You don't generally need a kador strip as you can normally clip the figure of 8 strips over the gutter without needing to slide the bead in and out.

Simon

I was about to ask the same question.

Just so I have it right in my head - leave the figure 8 attached to awning and unclip from gutter. Is it best to try and get 1 long length or do 2 or 3 shorter pieces work just as well?

Rich

[Simon Jones]

A couple of shorter strips may be easier to sneck into place as well as store inside the van. I had to cut mine into 3 sections to fit round the pullout awning brackets fitted to the gutter and that worked fine with a Kyham Motordome awning.

[Eratosthenes]

OK thanks for that!

[JoeC]

The more parts you use may result in any rain water dripping between the joins. Longer the better - store it in the roof when not in use.

[sotal]

We have found the pole system to work much better.

Our driveaway awning has a pole in a sleeve, it goes in nicely behind the aft brackets. Presuming you have an AFT - I find it very quick and it lifts the height by a small amount too which stops my head rubbing on it!

[Parhelion]

I've just got an awning and thinking of using pole in sleeve. What sort of clamps are best? Do they have to be special awning ones or can you improvise? Thanks

[sotal]

You don't actually *need* clamps - for most weather it is sturdy enough just put between then awning hooks that are underneath the AFT.

If it is particularly windy then I just use some strong spring clamps.

This sort of thing...

[Parhelion]

Thanks - I've got a tin top but those clamps look fine. I've also just realised (doh!) how the figure of 8 strip works so could do that, although not sure where I can get a single strip the right length (as I've read that's better than 3 bits?) ? Are all fig of 8 strips the same size?

As always, this forum is so useful! Thank you