Club 80-90 Forums

sorry if this is a repeat thread. What are the best reasonably priced drive away awnings? Saw somewhere that the Outwell one's are not that great. These have been recomended, any thoughts please. http://www.khyam.co.uk/detail.asp?p=744 ... =Driveaway" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; Sleeper

Hi Jocko

Guess it depends what you need the awning to do, LHD or RHD, Bedrooms, Toilet, room for table, Free standing cupboards etc, etc....

If you not busy, get yourself over to the Busstopover this weekend, bound to be loads there to see.

Cheers
Tony

we have an outwell country road and it has been a great servant for the past 18mths, until the mad wind/weather in cornwall last week, 50mph, now have 3 bent poles. must be a joke in there,

Kyham is the only one if you want to avoid matrimonials......

Friends of ours had a Kyham.
After the 2nd or it may have been a 3rd time a pole snapped due to strong winds they changed it for a more sturdy and robust awning. May take a bit longer to put up but as yet no snappages

Have an Outwell one that came from World of Camping a few years ago for £150 including groundsheet and inner tent. Think the low price was because it was marketed for LHD vans only but I'm sure it would be fine for a RHD van too. It looks very similar to the Country Road ones on the market nowadays.

Anyway This awning has been brilliant and I would choose the same again if the time comes. No problems at all except a couple of the spring pole joiners have gone but are easily replaced. I can erect the thing single handed in 10-15mins or so in normal weather although if it is breezy another pair of hands helps. As it is so quick to put up and take down we tend to use it even if stopping overnight. If the weather is calm and the van is not moving I dont bother with most of the guy ropes and pegs. The best thing about it is we can remove the front panel altogether so it is quite open. Downside is it is a bit bulky (but I don't know how much to compare with others) Also in the rain the bit that connects the awning to the van can collect the water sometimes a bit like a huge gutter so best to make sure slider is closed before trying to empty it.

Cruz wrote:Friends of ours had a Kyham.
After the 2nd or it may have been a 3rd time a pole snapped due to strong winds they changed it for a more sturdy and robust awning. May take a bit longer to put up but as yet no snappages

ive had a few now.
i personally hate the tunnels with a passion.....they simply take too long to put up.

i think the Kyham is pricey..but its perfect for one nighters...and imo very strong and sturdy.
also...you can unzip 2 out of 4 sides to reveal insect mesh...or unzip the mesh to have a nice open structure.

for me...the idea of opening your sliding door and looking inside a tent is just wrong. BUT from time to time I think you need the extra bit of space / shelter.

before I had one peopke were quoting 10 mins tops single handed which i thought was optimistic...

but its true.

the way it works for us is...(if we are using the awning)

get there.
wife and little girl dissapear for half an hour ?
i open a beer...chuck up the awning on my own
wife gets back to a nice calm scene
as barclaycard say....priceless.

Cruz wrote:Friends of ours had a Kyham.
After the 2nd or it may have been a 3rd time a pole snapped due to strong winds

The ones like Kathy and a few others bought (Motordome Excelsior ?) were bigger and had thinner legs than the old Motordome Classic, Khyam sold them off cheap 'on offer' because they were intended for 'motorhomes' but they didn't sell. Having said that our's did break a knuckle in Cornwall but that's the first damage in 8+ years (oh and there was a free replacement in the spares kit) and it was probably more to do with plastic fatigue than the actual wind.

Ian