Do You Drive Away from Your Driveaway Awning?

[Garratt]

We are considering buying an awning in order to give us more room when we take our grand daughter away with us. Drive away awnings occupy a bigger footprint when pitched, are heavier when compared like for like with a static awning, and look like they are fiddly to re-dock when you come back to the pitch in the van. So, those of you who have a drive away awning, do you actually drive away when pitched up? Would you choose a drive away again if you had the choice?

Thanks in advance.

 

[the1andonly]

When we had a bongo and i could reach without assistance so did upto 3 times a day. With a 3m C class not very often if i had a PVC and right ladder Would do more often. Would buy again yes.

 

[lorger]

Don’t have one with this van but have with two previous vans, we have occasionally drove away but we find they’re better as more adjustment in uneven ground. We also liked the tunnel part we had between van and awning, we used this area for storage and means you can leave or enter van without going through awning where folk may be sleeping.

 

[Puddleduck]

We have one and it is used quite a lot of we are on a site for a few nights.

If we drive away and leave it quite often we don't bother to reattach it again.

Yes, we would have another. Hope this helps!

 

[GMLS]

We have used Khyam quick erect Motordome Sleeper on our VW for about 10 years The poles stay connected and no faffing with pumps. Absolutely brilliant.Can be erected and dismantled by 1 person very quickly (great if it's raining) and it only woreout this year after loads of use.Immediately bought the smaller Motordome version hardly used on ebay which we will use with both vehicles.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[Guigsy]

Most of the time we use the van, we don't stay anywhere more than a couple of nights, so awnings aren't very useful. But we also go to Norfolk every year for 2 weeks... because the whole family do. For those 2 weeks, we rarely move. We've previously just wound out the canopy and put mesh sides on, but we take quite a lot of stuff like bikes and kayaks. And it's annoying to have to bring it all into the van every time it rains. Also, the site has finally got a dump point, yay! The Vango Kela is handy because every few days I just unclip it and dump and fill.

The bonus feature is because it's driveaway, it can be completely closed, so I can let the cats off the leashes in it without them disappearing under the van. Note that most awnings don't have a sewn in ground sheet and zips that go all the way around... Only an issue if you have pets.

 

[Ray-Vic]

We have 2 awnings, a drive away and a smaller fixed one. When we are staying for a longer period we use the drive away as the porch provides great additional space for outside kitchen and shoes etc. We don't actually use the drive away element, but it is easy to do (I have tried it) with just marking the wheels with some pegs, winding out the canopy and pulling out the keder strip. Reversal is the same, with parking on the pegs, wind out canopy and slide strip in.

If we are only staying a short while, or we know the pitch is small, then we take the smaller fixed awning.

For us the extra space that the drive away offers, and the convenience of having the porch area, is worth it all day long, so whether using as a drive away or not, if you have the space and weight allowance to carry one, then I'd recommend it for sure.

 

[Cush]

When we had a bongo and i could reach without assistance so did upto 3 times a day. With a 3m C class not very often if i had a PVC and right ladder Would do more often. Would buy again yes.

Plus 1