Awnings

First of all you do not have to have it come into contact with the ground... They do that just for the easy and the demonstration of doing it single handedly... Secondly, it comes down to the fact that the Sunburst or the Dometic Electrolux, or one of the other two wind out type of awnings are all pretty much the same in that they are a Devil to ever add walls or screen room to, and they also do not tolerate very high wind. You have to remember to wind them up all the time, at night in wind and rain storm weather, everytime you go away, tropics rainy afternoons, anytime the wind gets over about 18 knots they start to flap themselves to pieces... Yes the Coolibah awning takes a couple of minutes to put up, but it takes wall easily, comes ready made for walls, and takes much higher wind...

The ease of use, in the wind up type, is not so easy if you have to keep putting it up all the time... Or replace it on insurance when you don't. We at Bushtracker don't mind which you get, but our last measure of the time to add walls to a wind up awning was around 30 minutes. 45 minutes on the first couple of trys.. And, you still have the problem of it blowing itself to pieces in high wind when you are away for the afternoon...

One report recently was of all the awnings in one camp, all were destroyed in an afternoon quick hitting storm, but the one Bushtracker with the Coolibah. It might be a little hassle to learn how to use it, but long term it is still the best, and that is the type of gear we strive in use, the Best.... For the Best...

Regards, from the Ranger at Bushtracker, always scouting for a better way....

I can't really comment on the roll out type with support arms down the van, as we have never had one. They are probably easier to put up and I ofter see people using them for a lunch break etc, but I have noticed that they flap a lot when the wind gets up, and most people seem to close them up as soon as the winds start.

We have the Coolibah and after putting it up a few times it is very easy to do by one person, and I can do it without hit touching the ground.
So long as the awning is securely pegged down, it will stand most strong wind gusts, and we have had trees blown down beside the van with no damage to the awning.

Our van has a number a scratches along the windows and side panels from contact with trees and I believe having the canvas part of the awning scurely enclosed inside a metal enclosure is far better than having it exposed and easily ripped by a tree branch.

If I was getting another van, I would put another Coolibah awning on.

When ordering a Coolibah awning I would also Recommend that you pay the little extra and get a powder coated one, as this prevents anodising of the aluminium poles making them difficult to slide together, and they also mark the canvas.

Brian

Hi.
We have had several vans with the sunburst awning, they are simple and quick to erect, as far as wind causing a problem camec make anti flappers which attach to the awning each side in the centre and will handle a lot of storm activity.We lived in the west and other parts of australia with no problems.The wall attachment may be a problem but we do not require them.
regards terry bridges.

So far I have seen a couple of awnings being ripped off vans on our travels and they are all the sunburst ones, that said they always look so easy to put up and to put away. We have however got used to our awning although we did think Paul made it look so simple erecting the awning then putting it away when we picked up our caravan but after thinking about it a few rain storms would alter the canvas and it can take a bit of mucking around to get the canvas tightly wrapped up for travelling. We have mastered it very well though now and it can be done single handed ....in fact I did it all by myself the other day, so it doesn't take a burly man to do the job! ;o)

Anyway the one thing I would say is to think more carefully about where you are going to put doors and windows if you are ordering walls to your annex as we found later on the design we had didn't work so we had new walls made at extra cost to us. We also made extra shade areas which have been a huge bonus.

Sasha

I just had an annex fitted to my awning. I would like to know where Homeboy's doors in the annex were considered so wrong as to get replacements made. However that's not the main reason for my thread. I was tinkering around the B/T yesterady and thought I'd try the water-tight door. (Having a fantasy about fording a swollen slow running river.) To my surprise it wouldn't shut it. Two small details: The press studs for the annex skirt stopped it just short of squeesing the seal shut and the top hole for the bolt was a few mm off centre. Couldn't close it anyway. No big deal at home. Maybe on a river bank in Kimberleys would have been a nuisance?
Solution: I used a half inch drill to almost drill through in line with the press studs. This allowed the door to close onto the seal. The enlarging of the bolt hole was easy too. Now bring on those river crossings. cheers.

hi all
because taccks are wide at the ground than 3000 abve the ground ie branches over hang & vans sway at more at the top than the bottom the roll at the top is the most vunerable part so arms down the sides are less of an issue than people think
cheers

Back to the subject, Awnings.
In October last year we were camped on a beachfron National park campground a bit north from Coffs harbour NSW.
A very savage storm hit the area around midnight, destroying banana plantations, de-roofing houses, knocking down trees etc.
The van was jumping around like a boat in a storm.

Anyhow, there were about 9 or 10 other vans in the campground.
Ours was the only van that still had an intact awning when the sun came up.
All the roll out style awnings were badly damaged or destroyed.

The only extra precaution that I took was to put a rope from the outside front and rear corners of the awning back to the van chassis.
Sort of formed a triangle of tie downs.

Coolibah awnings rule!

Regards
Bob

Isn't there supposed to be a new version out very soon of the Coolabah?
Matt