Khyam motordome classic - gutter fixing

[tigger]

I recently got a Khyam Motordome Classic awning which I'm pretty pleased with. Only used it once so far, and as the Bongo has gutters I chose to use the (supplied) plastic 'figure of eight' fixings. I didn't find that these fixed onto the Bongo's gutter particularly well though - it all went on and stayed on, but never looked or felt particularly secure. Not sure I'd have too much faith in them if the weather got even slightly rough.

So, my question is - how have other Bongo users got on with the Khyam figure eight connectors? Any tips? Good/bad experiences? And what of the alternative - the pole and clamp system? I'm actually thinking of getting a 16mm fibreglass 5-section pole from tentspares.co.uk (more flexi than the Khyam alloy pole I'd guess, so might follow the line of the gutter better), and using it with some sort of spring clamps (bulldog clips? plastic clamps?) rather than with the Khyam wing-nut clamps (which look like they're a bit naff and a bit of a fiddle). Again, anyone got any first hand experience of doing this or similar?

Thanks
Dom

[bigbear]

If you look at the fig of 8 profile one side is very slightly different. Experiment with each side for best fit on the gutter,then mark best end with marker pen. I found that the harder the pull on the gutter the tighter the fix. Hope this helps. Bigbear

[tigger]

will do - thanks bigbear!

[cavey]

We've used the Khyam supplied fig8 and it's always been fine.

[tigger]

my confidence in the fig 8 fixings is growing...

[karena]

not had a problem with it, it flexes up and down in a wind but has never pulled off,even when the tunnel has not been tight enough and rain has puddled in it. We did cut it down to size though as the pieces supplied were longer than the gutter.

[tigger]

Just to update - used the awning on the Normandy coast the day after the dregs of Hurricane Bertha passed through, and no problems at all. Pretty impressed actually.

When I started this thread I hadn't realised that you actually have to press the figure of 8s pretty hard onto the gutter, causing them to make a quite satisfying 'snap' noise when they lock onto it. Quite hard to get them off again in fact, even when you want to...

[roosmith]

Also worth checking, do you have the protective strip on your gutter rail? We had and couldn't work out why we were having so many issues with the figure of 8 strips. Took those strips off first and hey presto all is good.

[mikeonb4c]

I use a single 2.5m length of figure 8 that lives permanently on the gutter. Slip on, slip off. Works a treat with our Khyam Motordome.

[tigger]

Protective strips... don't think so, what did they look like? It did actually cross my mind that whacking the hard plastic fig 8 pieces onto the gutters probably wasn't really doing the paintwork any good...

Permanently attached fig 8 - now there's an idea. So tell me, when it comes to attaching the awning to your permanently-attached fig 8, do you have to have the awning pretty close to the van to give yourself enough slack to thread it on, and then move it away afterwards to tension the tunnel?

[mikeonb4c]

Protective strips... don't think so, what did they look like? It did actually cross my mind that whacking the hard plastic fig 8 pieces onto the gutters probably wasn't really doing the paintwork any good...

Permanently attached fig 8 - now there's an idea. So tell me, when it comes to attaching the awning to your permanently-attached fig 8, do you have to have the awning pretty close to the van to give yourself enough slack to thread it on, and then move it away afterwards to tension the tunnel?

With the Khyam we erect the upper two pile sections then walk the half erected dome together to slot it on. We then complete erection and move awning to minimise sag before pegging. Alternative (when windy) might be to erect and peg then drive Bongo onto fig 8 connection.

With my old awning the first thing I did was thread onto the fig 8 and the Bongo became my 2nd pair of hands while I put poles in and pegged. Worked a treat.