Awning fail - Outdoor Revolution EX Combi

[matt brighton]

Hi

Sharing an experience

4 yrs ago I bought an Outdoor Revolution Navigator Kombi - Drive -Away awning £500...

Nice massive big one

Used for x3 annual camping holidays approx 10 days each use - mixed weather - what you expect in UK/France

Put it up last week in Cornwall - (yes - worse weather for months ) - and it leaked like a sieve. Not seams but thru the fabric.

Soaked it in the mountain warehouse sprays when it dried first time but to no avail

Never stored wet -

I ended up leaving it in the campsite skip - couldn't risk spoiling a (nother !!) family holiday on the chance that spraying or painting it with weatherproofing would work - mixed reviews on efficacy of those on UK Camping forums.

Did I do or not do anything wrong - or is it a case of buy cheap buy twice -

But is £500 cheap for a drive away for what amounts to a x3 use disposable awning ??

PS - I will cut n past this to the Outdoor Revolution customer services dept - and post what response I get here...

Matt - Brighton

[nevill3]

We had an outdoor revolution drive away awning too, it was replaced by a good old fashioned type awning ( Harrison drive away) because the seams leaked and the poles were too bendy for the windy British coastal campsites we use. I did replace the bendy poles with sturdy metal ones from on old tunnel tent we had (just using the fiberglass poles for the roof sections that needed to bend) but the leaking seams drove me bananas.

No amount of seam sealant would stop the leaking and having to keep everything away from the sides too meant that we vowed we would never have a fiberglass poled awning or the thin ripstop nylon type again.

[matt brighton]

Thanks for sharing that neville,

The fact that you can pay a heck of a lot more means I didn't expect it to be as good or durable as the best... but 3 holidays, stored indoors all year , never put away wet and its in a skip after 4th holiday borders on unfit for purpose.

I might get a decent cotton canvas airbeam stand alone outwell... and attach a tunnel with figure 8 to row van..

Matt

[HansT]

Hi Matt
Bit of a b*gg*r your drive away failing like that. Do you think it might perhaps be ultraviolet degradation, rather than rain damage? Also storing the thing in a warm or hot environment can play havoc- I stored one of our nylon/synthetic tents in the loft... It looked like a prune the next time I got it out.
"Modern " tent construction- carbon fibre poles and nylon type fabrics give us lightweight, low cost units which are also (mostly) easy to erect. But carbon poles can fail without warning and fabrics degrade , as many of us have found.
And in real terms they are amazingly cheap, up front, at least. £300 can buy a family four / five berth tent.
In comparison a steel framed cotton tent would probably cost an arm and a leg nowadays.
The Harrison drive away we mostly use cost over £300, back in May 92. It weighs a ton, especially when the canvas is wet and is not exactly quick and easy to put up. But, apart from a bit of fading it is still going strong twenty five years later.
I spose the ideal would be Kevlar or Spectra fabric (used for oceangoing racing yacht sails) with titanium poles...
H

[matt brighton]

I wouldn't mind if it were UV degradation - but we were never that lucky with the weather,

It was bought new, always stored dry in an interior room with good air circulation and insulation from extremes in our house so no extremes of hot or cold it would experience if in a loft space or eaves.

I will be interested to hear what Outdoor Revolution say - if anything - or if ts because of something I have, or have not done..... then its not made apparent in care and maintenance guidance supplied with the tent -

I know its not been stored wet - and had minimal use not to be rendered no longer fit for purpose...

Will look at the Harrison drive away -

I take care of what I own - cars - furniture etc so its galling to have to throw it away after just X4 camps of little and careful use

[matt brighton]

Here is the response from Outdoor Revolutions "customer service"..



"Hello Matthew

Thank you for your comments and they have been noted.

Unfortunately as you no longer have the awning we are unable to comment further.

Kind Regards

Mandy



Kind Regards
Customer Service""


is it me???? - (it rhymes with Lorry ..and is something you might say when your product fails and ruins a family holiday)

[R0B]

You should of kept hold of it matt..If you had kept it you would of had proof it was rubbish.They are not just going to take your word for it that it had failed.

[matt brighton]

Had it dried out..... I would have taken great pleasure it setting light to the bloody thing.

At least it would have provided some warmth for the inconvenience of lugging it to Cornwall - i wasn't in the mood to bring a wet awning home.

My review is.... - avoid Outdoor Revolution EX Combi unless you can afford a x3 use only £500 awning.

TBH I was just as, or even more angry at the attitude of the reply from Outdoor Revolution to my e mail.

They also haven't bothered to reply to my furthur question.... of what exactly they would do had the awning been available for inspection bt the Outdoor revolution science lab -

still - it took "customer service" x2 further e mails before they replied to my original e mail.

Grumpy - Matt .