Well, there goes the awning! (1 Viewer)

Teasy2007

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The wind in La Manga has destroyed our Kampa 390XL awning!

Estimated at 115km the wind finally won at 1.00 this morning. Michael was trying to get it down, I was holding on to the awning for dear life - in my nighty, but we eventually realised there was no saving it and we had to cut it off in order to protect the motorhome. Luckily there were others trying to protect their awnings and we had help getting it off and thankfully no damage has been done to the Hobby.

Michael has just taken the 1st half to the bins. Many awnings have been damaged here, we have had three Kampa owners taking our bent poles etc etc in order to try to repair their awnings.

Other awning are destroyed and one 'lucky' camper had a large tree branch fall between his motorhome and his stand alone awning, with no significant damage.

People who have been coming here for years have never known weather like it. Some are even planning to go home early, though I think that's extreme, given the state of the weather at home!

We have been told that 4 people have been killed in Benidorm with roofs collapsing and there is damage in Madrid.

What on earth is happening!

Ginny
 

Wyaye wires

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Sorry to hear of your travails. :Sad:
What is happening is that the jet stream is a lot lower down than usual for this time of year resulting in the kind of weather that is usual for the far north at this time of year being much further South.
The upside is that we may get a cracking Summer. It might help to dry us out. :Blush:
 

Spottycatz

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Still making mistakes! But they're not as costly.
Don't think my awning would have survived today though Graham:whatthe:
 

Brisey

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Had a couple of gusts on Villasol in Benidorm this morning but nothing like the OP experienced.

Hi Ginny and Mike, sorry to hear about your awning. As Grasscutter has said in his post it was a bit blustery here in Benidorm this morning but nothing like that which you have experienced. In fact as we were walking home at about 1:30 am this morning all was calm and still. Walking around the campsite here at Villasol this morning all seems to be well with no apparent damage.

Brisey.
 

Jim

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Sorry to hear that Ginny, check your insurance policy, sometimes awnings are covered:thumb:

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pappajohn

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a few members on RVOC are in the same situation....and they are dotted all around Spain.
One or two others have lost their awnings as well.
 
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Teasy2007

Teasy2007

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Hi Ginny and Mike, sorry to hear about your awning. As Grasscutter has said in his post it was a bit blustery here in Benidorm this morning but nothing like that which you have experienced. In fact as we were walking home at about 1:30 am this morning all was calm and still. Walking around the campsite here at Villasol this morning all seems to be well with no apparent damage.

Brisey.

I think we are in the wrong place again! the weather in La Manga has been VERY changeable, not a lot of rain, but windy nearly every day and lots of cloudy days. Not exactly what we hoped for, or expected.

We were in the middle of trying to sort everything out when the rally marshal came round to check on us, I might have misheard him say Benidorm instead of Barcelona, we were very busy at that moment. If it is bad here I wonder what it is like in Marjal?

The wind has started gusting very strongly again, the motorhome is bouncing all over the place, it is very similar to trying to sleep on the Santander Ferry!!!

Thanks for all your comments.

Ginny
 
Feb 22, 2008
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We are at Catral Marjal and I got up at three this morning to put my awning up , it's still blowing a hooly here :Eeek:

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bobandjanie

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Sorry to hear about the awning Ginny, and glad the new van survived, we have a isabella porch awning on the caravan and it seems fairly good. :Smile:

It may not be as windy here, :winky: as the washing is still on the line. :ROFLMAO: Bob.
 

Rayb182

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We had the winds that shook the van with sidewards rain, we also had a thunderstorm in the early hours of this morning, but it was quite warm with it all, now we have wall to wall sunshine, :thumb::thumb:
 

Ambilkate

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Sorry to hear about you loosing the awning. Hope you and Mike ok. Love from us three:thumb::thumb::thumb:

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Apr 27, 2009
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We had serious wind & rain at Cabopino, nr Marbella on Xmas Eve & many vans/caravans lost their awnings. (see piccie) Lots of big branches blown down.

Since then it been fine & warm, until yesterday when rain & wind up to 40mph struck. But no significant damage.

Today sunny warm & calm.

And set fair for the next 2 weeks. :Cool:
 

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Jul 5, 2013
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Sorry to hear of your travails. :Sad:
What is happening is that the jet stream is a lot lower down than usual for this time of year resulting in the kind of weather that is usual for the far north at this time of year being much further South.

Not sure what you mean by lower down, but it is further north and faster than usual this year. That is why the UK is getting more low pressure systems, producing wetter but warmer weather.
 

keith

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We had the winds that shook the van with sidewards rain, we also had a thunderstorm in the early hours of this morning, but it was quite warm with it all, now we have wall to wall sunshine, :thumb::thumb:

A bit rough down your end of the site then Ray. At 1.30 I got up (for the regulation pee) and it was very clear with loads of stars and no wind at all, just 50 yards away from you. :Eeek:

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Tootles

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Really sorry to hear about the damage....:cry:

HOWEVER, there is always a bright side.......(If you will forgive me seeing it).

Michael was trying to get it down, I was holding on to the awning for dear life - in my nighty, but we eventually realised there was no saving it and we had to cut it off

:Smile::Smile::Smile::Smile:
 

MikeandCarolyn

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The wind in La Manga has destroyed our Kampa 390XL awning!

Estimated at 115km the wind finally won at 1.00 this morning. Michael was trying to get it down, I was holding on to the awning for dear life - in my nighty, but we eventually realised there was no saving it and we had to cut it off in order to protect the motorhome. Luckily there were others trying to protect their awnings and we had help getting it off and thankfully no damage has been done to the Hobby.

Ginny

Oh dear,last winter at Marjal we only had 90kph and our 2nd hand cheapo awning ended up in skip-but that was partially planned as we intended to buy a Kampa because they seemed to be standing up to the weather ::bigsmile:.

Glad to hear you're both ok and no damage to the van-hopefully see you later in year. After we've moved ::bigsmile:

Mike.
 

Ed Excel

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We were at Marjal last year during the strong winds. Our drive away awning survived two days of serious blowing, whilst it was stood on its own, but succumbed to the onslaught when we attached it to the van; the link ripped. I hadn't really expected that to happen, I was ready for it setting off down the site. Bought a tent this year, for storage, that's designed for use up mountains. It's been ok during the 55mph gusts we've had today in Pilar.

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Minxy

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I'm really sorry you've lost your awning, but what I don't understand is why you didn't take it down before? With all the bad weather that's happening all over the place I'd certainly be keeping an eye on the forecast to ensure that I would be prepared and hopefully be able to do something to reduce the chance of any damage.

Was this bad weather predicted or was it just something that happened totally unexpectedly? :Smile:
 
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Teasy2007

Teasy2007

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Sorry to hear about the awning Ginny, and glad the new van survived, we have a isabella porch awning on the caravan and it seems fairly good. :Smile:

It may not be as windy here, :winky: as the washing is still on the line. :ROFLMAO: Bob.

We have never known winds as strong all the time we have been away in the Motorhome. It came on so quickly we could not decide whether to take the awning down and risk it blowing all the poles etc onto the side of the motorhome, or to let it stand. In the end the poles snapped and it started whipping, the upright tore through the roof and we ended up cutting it off to save any damage to the Hobby.

Me in my nighty with Michael and a helpful, and tall, neighbour meant we got away with minor scratches to the motorhome, but no awning.

However, there has been so much damage nearly everything - except the canvas - has gone to a new home! We had people calling round from all over the campsite when the rumour mill reported it had been destroyed.

Ginny
 
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Teasy2007

Teasy2007

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Oh dear,last winter at Marjal we only had 90kph and our 2nd hand cheapo awning ended up in skip-but that was partially planned as we intended to buy a Kampa because they seemed to be standing up to the weather ::bigsmile:.

Glad to hear you're both ok and no damage to the van-hopefully see you later in year. After we've moved ::bigsmile:

Mike.

We found out, the following morning, that the winds were gusting to 115km at its worst.

The Kampa has stood up to strong winds and we have been very pleased, but it finally gave up and in the end it was a case of the awning or the motorhome.

See you in the UK, hopefully we might have better weather in UK in the summer than we are having in Spain!

Ginny

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bobandjanie

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Hi Ginny, we have had strong winds most years, our first a couple of years ago at Vineros, Jane was taking photo's of this lovely bright red sky, :winky: it was not shepherds delight. :Doh:
The locals were saying its going to be a hell of a night, and they got it right we had to empty the awning and open all the doors and panels. :RollEyes: We could not believe it was still with us in the morning. ::bigsmile:

I think the weather has been worse down at La Manga than here, because our friends have moved on and they are normally there until May. :Sad:
We had rain yesterday and that's 13 days since we got here in November, but we have had more windy days this year.
Tomorrow is sunshine again. :thumb: Bob.
 
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Kampa 390 are lightweight awnings, no good for anything but summer occasional use, ours lasted just over a year permanently set up. The poles rust and bend and the fabric degrades quickly in the sun. Norwich camping who we bought it off, was surprised it lasted that long when we complained.

Ian
 

francour

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Hi Never leave awnings out over night also invest in tie down kit Thanks Bernie:RollEyes:

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daisy mae

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Have the Kampa 390 for the caravan, had it several years now in some horrendous weather in Southern Ireland and Scotland, it is still good, had to replace one pole only, canvas not a mark, lucky obviously. that is when you need awnings when the weather is bad, to keep the wet from doorway etc and to hang wet coats and dry dogs off in, have halogen heater to dry the dogs off before they go in the caravan.can understand the Fiamma awnings have to wind them in when it is windy.
 

sdc77

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Sorry.. Going a little off topic.. But can someone tell me if the caravan specific awnings will fit to a motorhome.. We're after a small porch type awning and a lot seem to be assumed at caravans
 

TheBig1

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some will fit, but many wont reach tall enough against the van. one solution some use is to fit an extra awning track lower on the motorhome wall

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Teasy2007

Teasy2007

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Sunncamp Air Awnings,

Sorry.. Going a little off topic.. But can someone tell me if the caravan specific awnings will fit to a motorhome.. We're after a small porch type awning and a lot seem to be assumed at caravans

After all the research we have done recently, if you can buy anything which is supposed to be for a caravan you will be paying about half the price of a similar product for a motorhome!

Our awning rain is 253, which is 3 cm over the height of a caravan awning rain. We are considering fitting a kit which will give us about 6 cm, and more importantly will allow us to take the awning down very quickly which will save damage to the motorhome.

The Sunncamp Air is good value, but we were wondering if it would stand up to being erected for a couple of months at a time, if anyone has any advice about Sunncamp we would appreciate your comments

Ginny
 

Mack100

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some will fit, but many wont reach tall enough against the van. one solution some use is to fit an extra awning track lower on the motorhome wall
That sounded like a really good idea to me as we have a fairly new Kampa Rally Pro awning from using our caravan and I was faced with selling that at some loss and buying a new awning for the motorhome.

I found a firm that did this but they quoted me £600 to fit a new rail :whatthe:.

I must admit I had absolutely no idea how much such a modification would cost but at that price we'll just carry on with the original plan.
 

Wickolad

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That sounded like a really good idea to me as we have a fairly new Kampa Rally Pro awning from using our caravan and I was faced with selling that at some loss and buying a new awning for the motorhome.

I found a firm that did this but they quoted me £600 to fit a new rail :whatthe:.

I must admit I had absolutely no idea how much such a modification would cost but at that price we'll just carry on with the original plan.

Hi Mack100, before you revert to plan A, it may be worth trying your Kampa Rallye Pro. I too have that model from my caravan. It is a 'just' fit with my Autotrail Apache high line, as there is some forgiveness with the ladder pegging points and the double mud walls. Would probably be difficult if levelling ramps were in use on awning side, but on level ground or slightly ascending, it is fine.
Well worth checking before you sell as they are a great awning. Mine is the 330 and fits the 4mtr omnistore rail perfectly for length. :thumb:

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