Awnings Annexes and high winds

dazz49 · Senior Member

Hi out there everyone.
In an Adelaide Caravan Park at the moment with the awning out, and the full annexe up. to say the least it is blowing a gale. Would be interested to know the thoughts of others as to how much wind they have left their annexes and awnings erected in with out doing any damage. Cheers Daz

Cupie · Guru

Sorry, I can't give a precise answer re the strength of wind that I have endured. I have however survived some pretty strong blows.

My approach includes -

- Leave the awning arms attached to the van

- Double guy ropes on both ends of the awning rafter. Sprung & double pegged (on opposing angles), using my best pegs. One guy rope placed in line with the rafter & the other at 90 degrees .... at each end. The guy ropes are normally attached to the awning arm but if I am worried about the wind strength, I put one around the rafter itself.

- Peg down all walls of the annex including the windbreak. I use rubber bands made from old tire inner tubes, between the eyelets & pegs. Twist them to shorten if necessary.

- If it's really blowy I put a tie down strap lengthways across the middle of the awning

- Park the 4WD so that it acts as a bit of a wind break if possible.

- If I expect strong wind I park well away from high trees (falling branches et.al.) but close to hedges if possible. Also use other vans or buildings as windbreaks if I can.

Good luck.

Edit .. If expecting winds in a situation where I haven't attached the Annex walls (& taken the steps outlined above), I roll up the awning & fold the chairs & table & store under the van when not in use ... particularly overnight.

-- Edited by Cupie on Monday 6th of October 2014 05:05:16 PM

exa41 · Guru

At Bathurst one year we went to bed , then overnight had about 40mm of rain , woke up to find the awning wrapped around the car parked underneath , lesson learnt look at the weather report and act accordingly for your installation.

justcruisin01 · Guru

Better to be safe than sorry, if it becomes to strong then nothing will hold it down & also extremly hard to dismantle, once you remove the walls the awning can be ripped off before you can lower it & roll it up.

oldbobsbus · Guru

Very good question..

I have a Fiamma canister awning and now instead of tying it down using the supplied legs I prop it UP with tent poles and then double tie it down with 2 rope at 90degs to each other...

REASON..

sometimes the pressure on the top of the awning and side walls if erected can do more damage than wind getting under the awning..

Using this method it was left up last year at Mildura when there were 100klm/h winds and it stood the test..

I use 200mm long treated pine log screws and a home made angle bracket screwed fully into the ground with a battery drill..

Hope this helps..

Gerty Dancer · Guru

If you have annex walls that prevent the wind from getting under the awning its probably safer from what we've seen.
But we don't have any walls, and we wind the awning in if the forecast is for winds of 20kph... or if we are going to be away and the weather unpredictable. (As it often is on the coast)

We've seen where an awning flew over the top of a van, and it did dreadful damage along the side of the van, took out the air-con unit, plus one of the pegs on the guy ropes with which it was pegged down pierced the bonnet of their truck like a bullet hole. this scared us into being ultra conservative with our awning, and roll it in many times when others don't.

Radar · Guru

Hi All

Just this year in mid March while we were enjoying Wollongong we went out for the day to return to find our awning along where it connects to the van ripped.

Only minutes before we returned to the park it had been hit by 90 kilometer winds and a very heavy rainstorm and was all over in minutes, the other Tennant near by were pretty upset that they did not have time to save ours after putting theirs away, no one could believe that this storm hit so quick.

I did have it pegged down well just the awning out and I think what gave up was the material as along the edge which took the hiding was fail from age and the sun as that the edge which is exposed the most as this van has never been stored in a shed from new and is now 6 years old.

The good point is when we replaced it we had it made that little bit longer, so all good.

To answer your question if the gods out there tell you it's going to blow some what fold her in. Ralph.

Dougwe · Chief one feather

I am camped next to Bass Strait near Warrnambool VIC at the mo with gale force winds as we speak. No awning out at all. Might even have to fold the Avan down if it gets any stronger.

Shake Rattle and Roll.

MaryJane · Senior Member

This happened to me in SA in strong November winds. The awning was rolled up and it happened at 3am. I had to force my way out of the caravan and my saving grace was that I had ropes inside the van, so on hand, to quickly rope it and secure it to my table leg and the bed struts. Now I secure it in strong winds even when rolled up!! Not that I'm overly cautious now, or anything like that biggrin biggrin

Phil C · Guru

We have two sets of heavy duty straps diagonally over the awning, they are tied down to the ground and attached to the side of the van. This is an old boy scout trick I learned many moons ago . We also have curved rafters inside the awning. between these things the amount of movement is limited during strong winds.

The awning roller is also tied down via "C" clips in the sail groove.

Both these work a treat as we have had high winds and survived.

Safe travels

Kendo · Senior Member

While in the Flinders a few weeks ago we experienced a weather front come through.

We had the roll up awning out with everything on except the annex walls. I had the anti flap bars, 2 bendy rafter thingys, and each end double guy roped down (We had a bit of a view and I figured if we got sick of it I'd finish putting the annex up).

Our pop top has a very low shoulder, and because of that it has a very tall "Pop Top".

Well the change came through and for about 5 minutes it was bedlam!

The winds, well they were "That Big !!!". The roll out awning was fine (initially), but the Pop Top collapsed at one end and as we were inside at the time I foolishly pushed it back up, only for the other end to now collapse!! All of this going on with the noise of the wind and someone else just as loudly asking "WTF are we going to do now!".

I got the pop top back up and ventured outside. Nothing damaged but all was awry.

First thing to happen was the banana rafter thingy coming adrift and hitting me on the head. The second (still as loud as before) "WTF are we going to do now!".

I went to the caravan boot (of course it was locked!), got keys and opened the boot and then I got my 4 Pop Top corner posts (that I had made in case it got windy ) and put them up under the pop top.

Apart from the "WTF are we going to do now!" still ringing in my ears all was relatively under control. I re adjusted the banana rafters, checked the still holding guy ropes and went and try and rescue the neighbours tent trailer that was doing a fair impression of that old classic movie "gone with the wind".

5 minutes later all had settled. The neighbours tent trailer now had another set of guy ropes bolting it down to mother earth, the ringing in my ears had finally abated, and all I had left to do was to de-construct my roll out awning before the wind really got strong!

The lesson I learned from all of this is. "If you go to the trouble of making something to help your setup. Use it!"

So now my checklist includes installing the pop top poles when setting up

Some good ideas mentioned here as well that I will certainly take a look at biggrin biggrin

Jeff

-- Edited by Kendo on Monday 6th of October 2014 08:48:58 PM

Bevandy2 · Senior Member

Strathalbyn caravan park at present, news reports said winds hit 111 kph here today.
Wiped out the Strath show, they all packed up after lunch.

We had the awning out, tied down and using two anti flappers, but the flappers ripped off and we got the awning all rolled back up just in time to save it.

Never dropped the pop top, it survived OK, but one side vinyl fly screen took off when the wind got under it.

Definitely pays to check the BOM web site before leaving awnings out over night or if leaving the van for the day.

Bevan

shekon · Guru

As soon as it gets a bit windy I pull my awning in, even if I have it anchored down, which I normally do. I am a little paranoid about it after seeing an awning swept over the top of a MH in a bit of a gusty wind on a calm day. Said awning had no ropes on it, it was a hire MH, but I seen the damage it caused so ever since having my own MH I take no chances.

It wasn't my M H but another one, I was in a hire one at the time also. Had no idea about guys ropes etc back then, so there by the Grace of god goes I.

dazz49 · Senior Member

Well the wind has eased off and we have remained intact. I did have the full annex up and the walls were well pegged down with short star pickets hammered in on an angle that would not pull out of the sand. Winds by the BOM reached gusts of 110 KM . The awning was also roped down from the roller to very secure star pickets. The draught skirt was attached to the van. With all this security the wind gusts give the walls and awning a fair hammering . My main concern was how much pressure the awning could take where it is attached to the van with the sail rope and track before the stitching gave way or the rope pulled out as the walls and roof bellowed in and out and up and down with the severe gusts
Thanks for the interest shown Daz