When we were looking to buy our caravan, we knew that most of our regular trips would be two night weekend outings. We therefore carefully considered the living space within the caravan, so that we didn’t have to rely on an awning for short breaks. Hence the side dinette with full rear washroom layout of the Clubman ES. The side dinette gives us another working area of the caravan besides the front lounge. The full rear washroom gives us plenty of space to get dressed and changed, along with good storage for clothes and the like. Therefore we were happy that the weekend breaks were not going to include the requirements of an awning. And from reading many stories about the time and arguments taken to erecting them, this is somewhat a relief!
However, some of our holidays are going to be for longer, including that of the main summer holiday. For these holidays we can see that an awning would indeed become useful. Something, it seems we will have to consider and once again, make an informed choice as to which one to purchase, depending upon our requirements and lifestyle.
There are a few different styles of awnings, namely: canopy, porch & full awning. Let’s examine each in turn to weigh up the pros and cons.
Canopy:
A simple piece of material which covers a section of the caravan, held in place by two vertical poles. Simple to erect, lightweight. Great for southern France, but probably not much use in the UK! We see the awning as being an extra space for eating, storing equipment and clothes. So a canopy is not for us.
Porch Awning:
A smaller awning which literally just covers the caravan door plus a little more, depending upon the model in question of course. This is more like it as the porch awning is fully enclosed, so can be used for our requirements. However, the size of the porch awning is of concern along with the issue of securing it against the caravan. Will it interfere with the windows, will it be wind/water tight?. Maybe useful for storing extra items, but depending upon the size, we’d still have the weight and bulk to carry, erection times similar to that of a full awning, but not gaining the space or snug fit against the caravan? Would we find more uses for the awning once we had one, such as setting a table and chairs out in order to create more living space, which we couldn’t have with a smaller porch type awning?
Full Awning:
As big as it gets. The full length of your caravan. No possible window interference, snug fit all the way along the awning channel, this must be the way to go. But wait, we are surely now talking serious weight, a serious erect time, some serious arguments! Does the ample living/storage space and snug fit warrant these negatives! Well it seems that weight, as always, is a factor. But if we can legally store it either in the caravan or the car, it shouldn’t really matter. We were veterans with the 8-man poly-cotton tent, so this may not be an issue at all. Erecting the awning apparently seems to cause issues. As we’ve never done this, I can’t really comment. I’m thinking that other than threading the awning into the channel (the correct way up!), the rest must be fairly similar to erecting a tent? You need your poles, the correct ones for the job. You join them together, put into place in the awning, tension, peg down etc. Now each awning will have its own procedure, but surely once done, it’s a lot easier the second time, and the third… So maybe erecting the awning is not much of an issue in the grand scheme of things to come? The serious arguments, well that’s down to individuals. We take a relaxed view when we’re in the caravan, take your time, make sure each other knows what has to be done and if all else fails, laugh and try again! So maybe the arguments won’t be that bad?
I think taking all of this into account, we’re steering towards a full awning. We’re still pondering on it at this stage, but I’ll update this page when progress has been made!
Update:
We have made our purchase now, see the following post for further details: