Are we attaching our drive away awning wrong?

[LemonDrop]

We've got a Khyam Dub Hub that we attach to the roll out awning using the kador strip and the figure of 8 thing. But we can't open the drivers door. Is this right?

If this is just how it is designed, is there any way to attach a drive away awning to the van (apart from attaching it to the wound out factory awning) that means we could open the drivers door? I know you can just walk through from the back but I find it annoying not being able to open the drivers door!

Or maybe we just have to live with it...

 

[Alan Andrews]

I do not know about the awning you have, but it is the same with our Vango awning.

We simply use the large side door to come and go.

At the end of the day, the awning has to seal against the van body.

The pillar between the front drivers door and the side door is very small indeed. So we achieve this seal by going over the drivers door.....I guess this is the compromise of using an awning!

 

[Drpps]

In short, no you aren’t doing anything wrong!

One option is to wind out the awning a full door width a la @Amarillo and attach the awning like that but you lose some weatherproofing!

Alternatively if you want it snug to the van, you can slide it further back to allow the drivers door to open but then the sliding door aperture isn’t fully covered so will get wet if raining.unfortunately there isn’t a pillar as such between the doors.
If you loosen and unpeg the side skirts you can Just about lift them to clear the drivers door if necessary.
The other thing that stops it opening when using the figure of 8 is if you pull it in fully tight/snug the plastic figure of 8 can drop towards vertical. Just a couple of cm’s looser allows it and the kador to lie horizontally and it gives a ‘kador- pocket’ that clears the sliding door and IIRC allows you to open the drivers door without catching if that is what is stopping it opening.

 

[HowieDog]

That’s one of the things we like about the Gybe awning as it goes from right at the back of the van and follows the front door down to the wheel giving full access.