Annoying hab door and awning tube problem

[realgandy]

Morning

I have a conundrum that needs some lateral thinking to solve.

Air tube awning (Dometic Rally Air Pro) has an air tube right by the hab door, which catches the corner of the door as it opens. It’s easy enough for me to give the tube a little upward shove as the door opens/closes to get it past, but it’s very annoying. It’s also not quite so easy for the other, shorter, passenger.

I’ve been thinking about a way to resolve this - current thinking is something like an extending curtain pole, vertical, with something to spread the load on the air tube. I’m thinking a piece of guttering packed with some foam perhaps. Maybe the connection from guttering to downpipe that I could fill in the downpipe bit so the pole sits inside.

Also something on the floor to spread the load at the bottom of the pole too.

Looking to see if anyone else has any ideas of how this could be solved before I start to source bits and pieces, or ideas of things to use?

Finally, I need to know the approx diameter of the tube to get a large enough piece of guttering. Not really in a position to go and pump it up right now, so anyone have one pumped up or access to the dimensions of the tube? My Google-foo isn’t working for me today as I’m unable to find that piece of info anywhere.

Thanks for listening, all help appreciated.

 

[Bill-H]

I'd be concerened that the points where the ends of the guttering meet the air tube may cause chafing to the tube, especially if theres a bit of breeze.

 

[Jev88]

I used an extending line prop for something similar. Just added a ball of sponge on the end.

 

[Nigel P]

On ours we slide the awning along the bead rail until the airbeam misses the door. Our wind-out awning on the van is slightly longer than the air beam awning so we have some flexibility to avoid the door issue. If you have no leeway you will have to follow your creative route. We also found it possible to artificially create a bigger arch by bringing the beams in towards the van where they meet the floor, this slightly raises the ceiling height by the door.

 

[realgandy]

I'd be concerened that the points where the ends of the guttering meet the air tube may cause chafing to the tube, especially if theres a bit of breeze.

Good call, but making sure there’s some soft padding between gutter and tube should alleviate.