Swiss disaster (1 Viewer)

[davieboy]

Storm blew through camping jungfrau in the lauterbrunnen valley. Pulled pegged awarning legs out of ground end bracket pulled through inner wall. Using tools from the campsite handy men managed to make temp fix. There's a dealer in Interlarken so hoping they can help. Outer wall looks ok, so hoping they can remove awarning straighten bracket and re seal until I get home next week. In mean time have made bigger bracket and put gaffer tape on awarning to bodywork to keep any rain out

 

[magicsurfbus]

Ouch.

A few hours before we arrived at an Interlaken campsite one summer they'd had a freak hailstorm that dented the roofs of cars. It's not a dull place weatherwise.

 

[Wildbill]

View attachment 177361 Storm blew through camping jungfrau in the lauterbrunnen valley. Pulled pegged awarning legs out of ground end bracket pulled through inner wall. Using tools from the campsite handy men managed to make temp fix. There's a dealer in Interlarken so hoping they can help. Outer wall looks ok, so hoping they can remove awarning straighten bracket and re seal until I get home next week. In mean time have made bigger bracket and put gaffer tape on awarning to bodywork to keep any rain outView attachment 177360

is the awning still in one or is it completely bent over the van?
bill

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[jessthedog]

Thats not good hopefully you can get it repaired ok.
Was in Annecy end of June, wind tore through site in middle of night. I was out in my pants, holding awning while missus wound it in! No damage.
Brand new van at front of lake had their awning arm snap off. Very expensive.

 

[Anthea M]

Hope it gets mended asap and no leaks.

 

[chaser]

Switzerland and Austria are getting further and further off our list of places to go

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[davieboy]

Wildbill, awarning is now wound back in so no damage but saw a few caravans with awarnings blown over and even one with an up rooted tree leaning against it but was told later they got lucky the tree came to rest against another tree. So as nothing I can do tonight going to have another beer and keep up the old stiff upper lip

 

[Ridgeway]

Davie if you need any help just let me know, our place isn't too far from you.

Pretty well equipped here and plenty of Sikafix available.

 

[Speve]

We were at St Goar,on the Rhine a few weeks back and a storm came up the valley suddenly there were six or seven vans had their awnings up and over the roofs luckily no one hurt but lots of damage.
We were lucky and just wound ours in in time. Made us think twice when using the awning about anchoring and also not leaving out over night.

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[hilldweller]

You can hardly blame the wind for that, they've put a bracket where there is no strength.

 

[davieboy]

Thanks Ridgeway see what local dealer can do. Looking where it pulled through you could be right hilldweller

 

[jessthedog]

You can hardly blame the wind for that, they've put a bracket where there is no strength.

Brian, where is the strength in a motorhome? Apart from the chassis.
They are wafer thin insulated sandwich panels.

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[hilldweller]

Brian, where is the strength in a motorhome? Apart from the chassis.
They are wafer thin insulated sandwich panels.

Ours has a wooden frame with insulation infill. Certain areas have heavier timber for load bearing, such as the awning and bike rack. Maybe not all do. Ours is far from wafer thin, maybe 40mm thick.

 

[treetops1]

 

[tonyidle]

If the positions can be hidden (in lockers for example) it's worth adding one or more additional brackets whilst the awning is off the van. There are commonly 3 or 4 depending on the length of the awning. They are readily available from awning suppliers and you can fit as many as you want (or can hide).

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[jessthedog]

Ours has a wooden frame with insulation infill. Certain areas have heavier timber for load bearing, such as the awning and bike rack. Maybe not all do. Ours is far from wafer thin, maybe 40mm thick.

I stand corrected.I bow to your knowledge and experience.
Maybe not wafer thin! Choc ice?

 

[SpeedyDux]

Ooer. Disaster indeed. I hope you can get the damage put right quickly.

Alpine weather is so unpredictable. It can start blowing from dead calm to gale force in under 10 minutes, even under a cloudless blue sky.

 

[mikebeaches]

The dealer in Interlaken was really helpful when our toilet cassette jammed and we couldn't remove it a couple of years ago. The flap also fell apart. Took two technicians 35 minutes to sort it out - we wouldn't have managed to do it. Bill was very reasonable and meant we could use the loo again.

Hope they are equally helpful and get your problem sorted. Good luck.

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[davieboy]

Girl at reception has spoken to dealership and I've been told come down at 1400 as he has a few mh's in with awarning problems so it seems I was not the only unlucky one

 

[Badknee]

A decent thickness aluminium or stainless steel plate big enough to cover all the damage should work ok. Glad you didn't suffer any more damage.

 

[hilldweller]

Thanks Ridgeway see what local dealer can do. Looking where it pulled through you could be right hilldweller

To honest I don't know the construction of your van, you need to see if there are frame timbers where you can make a bracket big enough to pick them up or of no timber frame then you need the biggest spreader you can fit.

Goodness knows what they do in the "new idea" all plastic sides so when it leaks it won't rot. Any firm doing a proper job would build in hard points for an awning.

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[davieboy]

Took it into dealers and they replaced all three brackets and no damage to outer wall thank God he made a new spreader plate for the rear one and re sealed Cost 375 Swiss francs

 

[DavidG58]

cant really work out where in your MH that fixing is, ours are all inside cupboards, but that makes such a better job than the original fixing

 

[davieboy]

That one is above the rear bunk the other two are hidden

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[Geo]

Its a simple minor job to remove existing brackets one at a time and make/fit superior spreader plates
a lesson we should all learn from.
it could have so easily been a pull right through job

 

[Larrynwin]

To honest I don't know the construction of your van, you need to see if there are frame timbers where you can make a bracket big enough to pick them up or of no timber frame then you need the biggest spreader you can fit.

Goodness knows what they do in the "new idea" all plastic sides so when it leaks it won't rot. [Any firm doing a proper job would build in hard points for an awning.

I understand that Hymer do