Driveaway awning advice please……

[GeoffAnd]

Hello all. We’ve had our 2024 Cali Ocean for nearly 9mths now and loving it so far. Having tested it out a number of times, we’re now looking at going down that rabbit hole known as the driveaway awning! By way of background, there’s only 2 of us so we’re not looking for extra space for sleeping, merely for a bit of extra space to leave a bit of stuff in during the day if we need to head out in the van (yes..so far we have always stayed on CAMC sites and no, we wouldn’t leave stuff in it if we weren’t on a ‘proper’ site!), plus a bit of shelter if we wanted to sit outside/cook. We don’t need anything with multiple rooms; we probably only need one living area and a porch.

So, the questions I have are…

What awnings do you currently have/recommend?
What do you like/dislike about them?
Have you found any issues/pitfalls with having the sliding door on the ‘wrong’ (right!) side?

Any feedback/info would be greatly received!! Thanks.

 

[The Little Red Cali]

I know it’s not a driveway awning but have you considered the awning room. Takes up a lot less space than a driveway awning and it’s easy and quick to put up and take down. We use a pop up utility tent to store bits when we go out for the day.

 

[Up10]

We too, have just gone down the awning room route but of course, you cannot leave anything in it when you drive away.
We own a vango tolga air which we used on our converted VW Transporter with great success. We just marked the position on the other side of the van using a length of rope with tent pegs marking the centre of the wheels. We put this about 50mm from the wheels so we could see it as we reversed in. It also helps to loosen the guy ropes when relocating the kador strip, then retentioning after connection.
Our driveway is currently for sale if you are interested or if you want to have a look at the style. We are not far from you.

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[Up10]

Oops, try again! Vango Tolga air driveway awning.

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[Hawthorn37]

I’d use the search function on the forum “advanced search” and “drive away awning” as the subject. There are dozens of threads on this.

Here’s one ..

New Cali & Awning Query

Hi, We will be getting our new Cali Ocean soon, which fingers crossed, will be built at the end of August this year. This is our second Cali, our first being a 2012 model, which we very much regret selling. We still have our old awning, purchased from Nick at Comfortz Leisure, which are...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

 

[sticky1]

I’m really pleased with the Dometic Hub
It’s a super flexible system we purchased the specific VW connector which can fit on either side of the van.
Because you can choose where you have doors or windows you can set it up to take advantage of the spot you are in.
The other thing we like is that is has a removable floor, we sometimes leave our bikes inside with a screw in ground anchor that you can chain a lock to that won’t unscrew once you put a lock on it.

 

[Sad]

Our experience has been that, unless you're on a site for more than 5 days, the extra packing volume a driveaway takes up in the van is not worth it. If you're leaving 'just a bit of stuff', I'd consider just a little pop up tent instead.

 

[Hawthorn37]

Hello all. We’ve had our 2024 Cali Ocean for nearly 9mths now and loving it so far. Having tested it out a number of times, we’re now looking at going down that rabbit hole known as the driveaway awning! By way of background, there’s only 2 of us so we’re not looking for extra space for sleeping, merely for a bit of extra space to leave a bit of stuff in during the day if we need to head out in the van (yes..so far we have always stayed on CAMC sites and no, we wouldn’t leave stuff in it if we weren’t on a ‘proper’ site!), plus a bit of shelter if we wanted to sit outside/cook. We don’t need anything with multiple rooms; we probably only need one living area and a porch.

So, the questions I have are…

What awnings do you currently have/recommend?
What do you like/dislike about them?
Have you found any issues/pitfalls with having the sliding door on the ‘wrong’ (right!) side?

Any feedback/info would be greatly received!! Thanks.

I understand your goals, and they match with ours exactly as we purchased our first drive away.

First, don’t worry about the handing of the awning. Having the entrance of the awning alongside the rear of the van can be handy as this is where camping gear tends to be stored.

A porch area is handy, but most of the time you’ll access the awning from the side door of the van via the covered area between van and tent. A porch area takes off the living room.

We opted for an air beam type as we used to camp with tents, and poles drove me crazy. Our small awning is a Vango Kela V in the TC fabric. I can get this up, fully pegged, hook up done (see below), seat out and beer in hand in an hour. With my wife helping it takes about 40 minutes. As a standard tent set up it works fine, and easy to detach/ reattach. There is an option to open up the front if you buy king poles.

We’ve also got a larger Vango Galli 3 awning, used when we have family members staying with us, and it’s got loads of space plus a porch.

We take the Kela when staying in one spot for 4 nights or more, and not touring from site to site. It’s a good base for our stuff, and less to set up each evening.

When using an awning we use a tent electric hook up, and cable from this to the van using a short cable. That means you have 240v in the awning for your kettle, etc.

To lug the awning around we lash it to the bike rack (in the down position) in a bag. So when packing away in the wet you don’t have a soggy tent in the van. It works for us.

Hope this helps.

 

[Restival]

We've got a. Comfortz awning room and a small Vango air drive away, the awning room is especially good when I'm away on my own as you can put it up and take it down on your own. Very handy for festivals. Haven't tried doing the drive away on my own yet, but with two of it's 20 -30 mins tops to put up, most of the time goes on banging the pegs in. They travel inside the van for convenience but only take one at once. Either give you a good space to cook in and put the loo in and extra storage for bits and bobs. The drive away is probably the better one for bad weather as you don't have to remember to tilt the awning down in case of downpour. If wet when packing up, we have some massive bin bags for temporary storage instead of packing back into the carry bag.
Our and my experience has been they are really useful additions to the California

 

[BeeBee]

We considered the Comfortz awning room, but were concerned re ‘high wind issues’ with the wind out awning aspect and felt a drive away more secure in high winds and in addition ‘drive away capability.
We’ve had our Vango Palm Air beam 5years now and the Vango Kela Pro is the updated version, looks very good upgrade.
Two of us and dog and more than enough just living area space.
The new version Kela is a sewn in groundsheet, whereas ours is separate and some sites ( more small Indy ones) may say “no groundsheet” that would be our only consideration if we were replacing ours with the Kela.

 

[Califan61]

I have tried a thule mini room and a Outwell santa monica air. The mini room ( Thule sides and front panels) take up less space in the van and give you more usable space due to the additional sectional poles but the ability to move the van is more important to us. It does have the advantage that you can just use a single side as a windbreak with the awning out. The Outwell takes up less than 5m including the Cali and gives 3 doors, it lives on top of the parcel shelf across the boot. As its air it is heavy in the bag. Like most drive away awnings they don't clearly state the space needed for the tunnel and this can push it over campsite pitch widths. It gives us enough space for cali table and chairs and portaloo without feeling too small. The main door has a flyscreen and canopy but as others have said we are more likely to use either door nearest the van. Both are good quality and will last.