AndyD2110

Thanks everyone for your advice. As you say, Celtwin, it seems as though there is no right or wrong answer here! We’ve just got back from two weeks in Cornwall, during which our OR air awning survived storm Francis. Was certainly grateful for lack of poles during the 50mph gusts!

We’re planning to upgrade to a new van in the next 6 months. I’ve just seen the exact van we want advertised on eBay, it’s one year old and reason for sale seems genuine (as far as one can tell). Van looks immaculate and price saving against brand new is significant. Does anyone know where we would stand with the balances of (a) the main warranty and (b) the Elddis 10yr water ingress warranty? From what I’ve read it doesn’t seem to work quite like a car warranty whereby the balance of the warranty stays with the vehicle, and is honoured by the whole dealer network? The van is for sale local to me, so it is fair to assume that the original supplying dealer is also local (but obviously would check this).

Thanks so much for the replies folks! We have the extra cross beams, but unfortunately they didn’t seem to help much. I’ve checked out the YouTube video on how to put up a poled Isabella... this is really useful, thanks for bringing this to my attention. Think I might keep my eye out for a suitably sized second hand full poled awning. I guess the worst that can happen is we don’t like it and we sell it on!

We've got an Outdoor Revolution air awning (Esprit Pro 420), which we have had for three years now (which is our whole caravan owning time... we're relative newbies). I've never really been happy with the awning. It's very heavy to feed through the awning rail, and it doesn't seem to "sit well" on the side of the caravan, if that makes sense. It is impossible to get the roof nice and taught, and it generally looks quite saggy and sorry for itself! Also, suffers terribly from pooling of water on the roof and from condensation. Judging by some of the posts on CT, these problems are not uncommon with air awnings. I've read a few threads on awning choice, and clearly this is an issue which divides opinion! Many people do seem happy with their air awnings, and there are many folk who say they have made the transition from traditional poled awning, to air, and would never go back. However I was wondering if there was anybody out there who had experience of making the change in the opposite direction (i.e. moved away from air, to full poled awning). Is the extra time and effort putting up a full awning worth it in terms of better fit / more space / improved weather-tight-ness? Do you regret the change, and would you return to an air awning, given the choice? Generally our priorities as a family are for plenty of space, and we would normally be going on holiday for a full week. My plan would be for good quality full awning (Isabella seems to be market leader) and then maybe have a cheap and cheerful poled porch awning for short breaks. I'm interested to hear the collective wisdom of the group on this one!