It
still amazes me that on a certain Eriba based internet forum the subject
heading ‘Awnings’ has attracted the fifth highest number of posts.
Can
you believe it, fifth place?
And
I suspect quite a few awning posts have berthed themselves in some of the other
sections over the years, so in reality the subject may actually have crept up
into fourth place.
Never
has so much been hot air been expended on so much hot air.
Now
I have to declare an interest here and you may have detected a slight hint
already, but awnings don’t interest me, in fact I find the whole subject a bore.
It’s
true however that generally if Eriba owners at a rally aren’t erecting or
demolishing an awning, then they’re standing round in a circle with a glass in
hand talking about ………… awnings. I’m not sure what it is about them that
involves and attracts so much discussion but I have to accept the will of the
people here and acknowledge that I’m in the minority.
Types of awning
In
a way we do have an awning, although to be truthful it’s technically a sun
canopy (Omnistor 2000), which retracts into a cassette box that’s secured to
the awning rail and looks like the wind-out awnings fitted to motorhomes and
campers. We’ve even acquired sidewalls to clip in place but we’ve not used them
so far.
 |
| A peaceful scene with two beardies en couchant (almost), the knitting bee in full operation and Poppy showing off her Omnistor 2000 drag-out awning. |
I’m
not sure I’d recommend the Omnistor overall as its pull-out mechanism can be a
bit fierce and make it a handful if you’re erecting or dismantling it on your
own. However with two people it’s much easier to manage.
The
varieties of awnings available to an Eriba owner are seemingly endless. There
are full awnings and porch awnings, curved awnings and bow awnings, cheap
awnings and mega-expensive ones. The best advice I can give you if you
absolutely must have one is log onto eribaforum.co.uk, type ‘awning’ into the
search box and settle down for several nights reading.
Awning useage
As
to the uses that are made of awnings there seems to be three distinctly
different camps of opinion.
One
regards them as a place to store gear that would otherwise clutter up the van.
The
second consider them to be places to live in, cook in, sleep in and generally
entertain visitor and friends in, almost ignoring the van alongside, except as
somewhere to bung anything that clutters the awning.
The
third treat them as an airlock, drying room and pets boudoir and are probably
somewhere in the middle between the other two extremes.
As
we’ve already considered Eriba aren’t the biggest caravans and using an awning
does give you an opportunity for additional enclosed space if that’s what you
feel you need. Although as one dealer said to me they often find that people
with small Eribas come to them to buy an awning to gain space and shortly
afterwards return and buy a bigger Eriba because the awning hasn’t satisfied
their requirement.
Travels with an awning
Carrying
an awning/sunshade around fixed to your awning rail is probably the neatest and
easiest way to indulge, however if you decide to add sides and a front then you
start to gain clutter and need the space inside your van or car to store it. If
you decide to go the whole hog and opt for a full awning then you’re most
likely into a pair of quite substantial bags containing the frame, clips, pegs
etc and the canvas roof and wall bits. Not only are these quite large, they can
also be quite heavy and weight distribution and securing the load need to be
considered seriously, especially if you’re going to travel with the awning in
the Eriba. A lot of awnings come with a choice between glass fibre poles and
steel poles. There is a trade-off here. Glass fibre is lighter but more
flexible and potentially not so strong in nasty weather, whereas steel is more
rigid and will stand up to terrible storms but weighs a lot more. So as in many
things you pays your money etc.
Purchasing your awning
Two
of the main brands you’ll hear of with regard to Eribas are the French Soplaire
range and the UK-made NR range for Eribas that are sold exclusively by
Automotive Leisure. Both are made to fit Eribas and this is important as the
awning rail is much lower on an Eriba than on a standard (white box) caravan.
The Soplaires have a reputation for sturdiness but require study and practice
to erect quickly and effectively. The AL/NR has the advantage of being able to
act as a stand-alone ‘tent’ which is ‘zipped’ to the awning rail once built.
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| A NR made awning exclusively supplied by Automotive Leisure of Poole |
Used
awnings of all shapes and sizes are often posted on the For Sale board of
eribaforum.co.uk and Ebay can be a useful source of supply as well.
Divorce rate
Before
venturing into awning use it might be as well to think about your relationships
and maybe reserve a session at Marriage Guidance for just after you return from
your first trip. This might seem odd advice for a book about caravans, but
believe me although it doesn’t feature in the official list of reasons for
divorce I suspect initial awning erection must figure somewhere. So just
consider whether your relationship with your nearest and dearest are up to it
before going further with awning purchase.
Erecting
an awning with its myriad poles, clips and pieces of cloth, all of which can be
used in at least two, if not more, different ways tests the ingenuity, spacial
awareness, determination and temper of even the most angelic and placid of
caravanners and Eriba owners are not immune. Getting it all wrong after a lot
of physical fixing and dragging can lead to total apoplexy and your poor
partner is probably the only nearby person to whom you can make your feelings
known. Drop kicking the dog also helps but is not recommended on legal grounds.
Not
all the relationship effects of an awning are negative however as it can
provide an excellent place for a partner afflicted with the results of a
surfeit beer and/or curry to spend the night without upsetting the delicate
olfactory senses of their other half.
Spectator sport
One
of the favourite occupations on any campsite is to sit inside your van with tea
and biscuits (or cake if you’re that way inclined) and watch new arrivals
moving their van into place, getting it set up and watching the erection of the
awning. With any luck it’ll be raining cats and dogs, with a Force 10 gale
blowing. With even more luck it’ll be a newbie with an untried awning and
erection instructions in French that are turned to papier-mâché by the
downpour. Hours of entertainment can follow which makes the pitch fee seem totally
worthwhile.
Awning Men
There
are probably more, but we’ve come across three interesting sub-species in our
awning observations on camp-sites throughout the country.
The
first is Tap-Tap Man
We
first detected him at a site on the Roseland
Peninsula in Cornwall. He was invisible but setting up his
awning a hundred yards or so away from us late one lunchtime. And early
afternoon. And mid-afternoon, and teatime and early evening and on and on. You
get the picture. He started banging in tent pegs at about 1pm and was still at
it at about 8 in the evening. We couldn’t figure out whether he was pitched on
very, very hard ground and just wouldn’t give up or whether he had a very, very
lightweight hammer/mallet or had fallen out with his Mrs and just kept on peg
banging so he wouldn’t have to go inside and face her. If I listen hard I can
still hear his insistent ‘tap tap’, tap tap’, ‘tap tappy’ in my head.
The
second is Bunker Man
Every
early morning as I was dragged to the dog exercise area I’d spot him with the
top half of the front of his awning rolled down. His pitch was on a
strategically sited knoll from where he commanded a panoramic view across the
tops of the assembled vans towards the soft, green hillside beyond. He’d spend
from cock crow ‘til evening light sat inside looking out over this vista for
all the world as if he was in a pill-box waiting for an invading enemy to cross
the ridge line. All he needed was a tin hat, a cigar and a pair of binoculars.
I can’t recall whether his towcar was a Jeep and I still wonder if his surname
was ‘Patten’?
The
third is Sporty Man
He
turned up and proceeded to fill his awning with clothing rails straight out of
the rag trade. He then started hanging an inordinate number of wet suits from
the rails, plus lots of flippers and bits of underwater swimming gear and for
all I know his lovely little spaniel was hung up there as well. The awning
resembled an Aladdins cave of scubaism (if that’s a word). Whether any of it
actually got wet we never did find out.
