Fiamma Side wall and front for the original VW T5 awning

[bvddobb]

View attachment 24442

Love the tarp set up!

 

[Smiffy4bikes]

Re. the room under the awning: we use the awning from california-camping.de. The interesting thing about their set up is that you can have seperate triangle shaped extensions of your side panels (they 'bolt on' using velcro). With the extensions, the side and front panels do not go straight down, but at an angle, making for a much larger 'footprint' under your awning.

That looks really interesting! I love the clear bit on the side.

Have a look at this:



This is a ‘Calicave’ and can be bought from a german site (sorry I’m not sure which one!) Again, it has the corner triangles and I believe you can also choose colours.

So many options....

 

[Teejay]

10 days, how exciting!!

Well after much deliberation (faffing!) over it, I bought one Brandrup side panel and a separate tent.

The Brandrup panel is expensive at £150, but, you get what you pay for, its a great bit of kit and will most likely last as long as the van. It takes literally a couple of minutes to attach/remove, so if you want to go out for the day its do-able. I decided against purchasing a second one as personally I found the space by using two limited, due to them being attached to the outward struts as opposed to the exact sides of the roll-out factory awning.

The panel also has the added advantage of making the roll-out awning more secure in windy weather, as you are effectively pegging that side down.

So for a stay up to two nights I just use the side panel.

View attachment 24440

I really didn’t want to get an awning as they take up a lot of space when folded and, more to the point, I didn’t want anything rubbing on the paintwork. The separate tent was purchased from Decathlon and cost £99. Bargain. Takes up little space when folded and weighs about 11kg. It's that easy to put up I leave my 14yr old twins to do it on their own! So, any stays more than 3 nights, and we use the tent as well.

It has a central living area and a bedroom either side. I cook in the central bit with a camp kitchen an 2-burner stove, and use the bedrooms (usually just one) to store everything else, which again make going out for the day much easier as you don’t have to continually empty the van of all the ‘stuff’.

The pup tent that you can see in this pic was used by my daughter as after all that she didn’t want to sleep in the bigger tent! I put it under the awning at night to give her some protection from the rain, and just slide it out of the way in the morning.


View attachment 24441

And lastly, I also bought a ‘Fresh Tarp’ from Decathlon ( a mere £25!) and sewed a Kador strip along one edge. This fits into the channel on the roll-out awning and then can be used as you can see in the pic below. Its brilliant as it gives me loads more protected space, and again, folds up very small, so easy peasy to simply keep in the van.

View attachment 24442

Hopefully that will help you decide! Enjoy the new Cali, it will change your life forever

Carole x

We have two of the tarps but still planning on the best way to use them. One will certainly have a kador strip while the other may have more connection points added. Hoping they will be connected with magnets and clips so any high wind would remove them rather than the tarps removing pieces of JoJo.

..message ends..

 

[bvddobb]

These come from calicap.ch.

 

[PudnBob]

10 days, how exciting!!

Well after much deliberation (faffing!) over it, I bought one Brandrup side panel and a separate tent.

The Brandrup panel is expensive at £150, but, you get what you pay for, its a great bit of kit and will most likely last as long as the van. It takes literally a couple of minutes to attach/remove, so if you want to go out for the day its do-able. I decided against purchasing a second one as personally I found the space by using two limited, due to them being attached to the outward struts as opposed to the exact sides of the roll-out factory awning.

The panel also has the added advantage of making the roll-out awning more secure in windy weather, as you are effectively pegging that side down.

So for a stay up to two nights I just use the side panel.

View attachment 24440

I really didn’t want to get an awning as they take up a lot of space when folded and, more to the point, I didn’t want anything rubbing on the paintwork. The separate tent was purchased from Decathlon and cost £99. Bargain. Takes up little space when folded and weighs about 11kg. It's that easy to put up I leave my 14yr old twins to do it on their own! So, any stays more than 3 nights, and we use the tent as well.

It has a central living area and a bedroom either side. I cook in the central bit with a camp kitchen an 2-burner stove, and use the bedrooms (usually just one) to store everything else, which again make going out for the day much easier as you don’t have to continually empty the van of all the ‘stuff’.

The pup tent that you can see in this pic was used by my daughter as after all that she didn’t want to sleep in the bigger tent! I put it under the awning at night to give her some protection from the rain, and just slide it out of the way in the morning.


View attachment 24441

And lastly, I also bought a ‘Fresh Tarp’ from Decathlon ( a mere £25!) and sewed a Kador strip along one edge. This fits into the channel on the roll-out awning and then can be used as you can see in the pic below. Its brilliant as it gives me loads more protected space, and again, folds up very small, so easy peasy to simply keep in the van.

View attachment 24442

Hopefully that will help you decide! Enjoy the new Cali, it will change your life forever

Carole x

Fabuloso, reply. Thanks. I'm pretty handy with a sewing machine so this gives me extra options..thanks

 

[PudnBob]

These come from calicap.ch.

Thankyou