Drive away set up

[john eagle]

Hi does anyone have any ideas as to the easiest solution for setting up on a site with the best option to easily drive away for the day.
I have tried a drive away awning, but that still takes a bit of work to set up, and also to disconnect from the van for driving away.
I also have the Cali awning front and side attachments, but that is even more of a faff to dismantle and put away for a day out. I do need somewhere sheltered to leave my stuff if we take four people in the van. (Only two travel and sleep in our van but we often meet friends at the site and want to take turns driving)
My next idea is a pop up event dome complete with sides. (See attached photo) That would be completely separate from the van. Maybe I could wind out the van awning and have it over the entrance to the pop up tent and incorporate a windbreak of some kind for privacy.
Basically I want to be able to unload my van when I get to a site, have somewhere other than the van to sit and socialise in and also an easy get away solution for days out in the van without having to load everything back in.
Any suggestions how to achieve this will be gratefully received? (I know....buy a caravan, but that's not an option at this stage)

 

[Perfectos]

Have a look at this thread

Coleman Event Shelter

Does anyone use these as an alternative to a drive away awning? Like the idea of opening up all sides on a hot day. We're a family of 4 and will need to get a tent of sorts for our forthcoming Beach to store cooker / bbq etc and have a seating area. Budget is tight so these shelters...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

 

[SailSki]

Hi John, I understand your pain.....
We used an air beam drive away awning (Vango Kela IV) on a week-long trip last year and found it pretty straightforward to leave for the day and return. It was our first time using the awning and after a bit of trial and error, the two main things that we found made it pretty painless leaving and arriving back were:
- a piece of string on the ground parallel to the van and a few inches towards the driveaway awning. Held in place with a couple of tent pegs. If you start the string at the bottom of the front wheel you know how far forward to drive to when you return.
- connecting the end of the Cali awning to the end of the tunnel on the awning using a fabric Kador strip and plastic “8” strip, which allowed you to bring the Cali into position and connect the tunnel to Cali awning like doing up a zip.
You can then adjust the Cali awning to tension the tunnel to account for any variations in distance from the alignment string.
Hope I have explained it clearly and you find it helpful.
For shorter stays I picked up a 2nd hand Decathlon Base Seconds pop up tent which fits well up against the Cali awning

 

[Perfectos]

 

[Perfectos]

Have a look at this thread

Coleman Event Shelter

Does anyone use these as an alternative to a drive away awning? Like the idea of opening up all sides on a hot day. We're a family of 4 and will need to get a tent of sorts for our forthcoming Beach to store cooker / bbq etc and have a seating area. Budget is tight so these shelters...

vwcaliforniaclub.com

Page one post #5 is I believe what your looking for

 

[HB19]

I had a similar issue last year ... and following some research on this forum, I bought a small tent from Decathlon. It’s light, very quick to set up, doesn’t leak, comes in a very small bag and holds stuff and my camping spot very nicely. I already have a drive away awning, and it’s great if you are staying put for a while but a total paid if you want to nip about. It also come is a huge bag .. so I opted for the compact, highly mobile quick and easy option for my plan B more mobile trips. I looked at the Coleman event shelter (my brother has one) but decided it was just too big a bag .. and just too big generally for what I needed.

 

[An-j]

We have an outwell milestone pace air awning. It’s designed so you drive up to it, but don’t attach it to the van. It works well for us, it has a small canopy and we put a mat between awning and van. Could extend van awning out if really wet!

 

[Jontymo]

Hi John, I understand your pain.....
We used an air beam drive away awning (Vango Kela IV) on a week-long trip last year and found it pretty straightforward to leave for the day and return. It was our first time using the awning and after a bit of trial and error, the two main things that we found made it pretty painless leaving and arriving back were:
- a piece of string on the ground parallel to the van and a few inches towards the driveaway awning. Held in place with a couple of tent pegs. If you start the string at the bottom of the front wheel you know how far forward to drive to when you return.
- connecting the end of the Cali awning to the end of the tunnel on the awning using a fabric Kador strip and plastic “8” strip, which allowed you to bring the Cali into position and connect the tunnel to Cali awning like doing up a zip.
You can then adjust the Cali awning to tension the tunnel to account for any variations in distance from the alignment string.
Hope I have explained it clearly and you find it helpful.
For shorter stays I picked up a 2nd hand Decathlon Base Seconds pop up tent which fits well up against the Cali awning

Exactly what we do and works perfectly!!!!!

 

[JDA]

We’ve bought a vango air cove which attaches to the van via a Kador strip & plastic 8 strips. To be honest we’ve only put it up in the garden twice and will be used for the first time on a 3 nighter on Mersey Island today. We bought it back in January pre COVID, as our son was going to join us in Annecy on a planned 3 month trip this June, which obviously never happened, and he would be sleeping in the awning as loads of room with a type of porch area where kitchen & gear can be placed/used during the day. It was a little pricey but was exactly what we wanted. Looks really easy as far as detaching from the motor and driving off.

 

[Maxx]

I recently purchased a magnetic driveway awning kit, which I hope (it hasn’t arrived yet) will make the process as easy as it can be.

 

[john eagle]

Hi John, I understand your pain.....
We used an air beam drive away awning (Vango Kela IV) on a week-long trip last year and found it pretty straightforward to leave for the day and return. It was our first time using the awning and after a bit of trial and error, the two main things that we found made it pretty painless leaving and arriving back were:
- a piece of string on the ground parallel to the van and a few inches towards the driveaway awning. Held in place with a couple of tent pegs. If you start the string at the bottom of the front wheel you know how far forward to drive to when you return.
- connecting the end of the Cali awning to the end of the tunnel on the awning using a fabric Kador strip and plastic “8” strip, which allowed you to bring the Cali into position and connect the tunnel to Cali awning like doing up a zip.
You can then adjust the Cali awning to tension the tunnel to account for any variations in distance from the alignment string.
Hope I have explained it clearly and you find it helpful.
For shorter stays I picked up a 2nd hand Decathlon Base Seconds pop up tent which fits well up against the Cali awning

Cheers that’s very helpful. When the drive away awning is up I am assuming the Cali awning is all the way in, is that correct?

 

[SailSki]

Hi John,
We used ours both with the awning right in and also with it fully extended - we have the Comfortz awning room and can use the van awning just as a sun shade or as an extra room before the driveaway awning just by adding the sides of the Comfortz awning.

 

[HB19]

I recently purchased a magnetic driveway awning kit, which I hope (it hasn’t arrived yet) will make the process as easy as it can be.

I’ll be really interested to hear how you get in with this. Can you post some pics and a summary after you have given it a go ..? Please.

 

[JDA]

Our first trip has been and gone and although we were a bit apprehensive about dipping our toe into the ‘Covid’ camping lark, we’ve had a good few nights away at Fen Farm, Mersey Isl. (Really clean &well organised). The drive away awning (Vango Cove air) we had was great, used the ‘string tied to pegs’ method and it worked a dream. The Kador strip with the 8 connectors were extremely easy to disconnect and reapply. i now feel more confident in going further afield when the times right and certain viruses have eased

 

[flying banana]

We have an outwell milestone pace air awning. It’s designed so you drive up to it, but don’t attach it to the van. It works well for us, it has a small canopy and we put a mat between awning and van. Could extend van awning out if really wet!
View attachment 62802

An awning that doesn't attach to the van? Isn't that called a tent?

 

[SteveMc]

Exactly what we do and works perfectly!!!!!

Ditto, did first trip last weekend with a Vango Galli 3 and it wasn’t until day 3 did we figure out that having a guy rope from the centre of front wheel to centre of back wheel works a treat. Just need to get quicker at putting the awning up!! Happy with the set up and the kador strip. Just a little large for shorter trips.

 

[Martin Keane]

We have the Vango hex which Is attached when we don’t really need the Cali as a vehicle and when on sites were it may be needed more frequently it becomes a stand alone! Works a treat for us!