Very important job .....

Sorry it's been a while since the last update, I've been so busy, and although lots of things have been happening, finding the time to sit down and blog about all the different things, putting them into some sort of order, remembering them to start with, has just been all too much when I just want to sit down and watch some tv :P. I do apologise and I do need to catch up once and for all and keep it updated.

Not for you, the reader, but for me, my other blog "damoscamperblog" has been very useful to go back and get information from for this build, so I'm glad I was much better at writing the blog last time.

Anyway, back to this blog, and my important job.

Back in April, I turned 40, and Jen, knowing how much I wanted another camper project, decided a good 40th present, would be an awning for whatever camper I did in the future. I also think it was a ploy to push me into thinking about doing another one that much more that I actually did something about it !

Well, she found one on eBay, down by Gordano in Bristol, it was a 2.8 meter one WITH a safari room for £280. That was what we won it for. When we went down to get it, it was like new, had all the bits and more. The guy selling it was an ex builder, in his 60's, and couldn't have been more helpful, was a really nice buying experience. The safari rooms alone sell for around £300 new, so this was a bit of a bargain.

So the important job ? To fit the new awning :P. It's not a hard job, we bought an awning rail from a local caravan supplier, I think it was around £15, maybe slightly cheaper. Taped it to the roof of Nina, drilled where all the holes were into the roof, then screwed it down into place. That's it ! All I had to do was slide the awning (it's a Fiamma Caravanstore Bag Awning) into the rail channel, squeeze the ends together either side of the awning to stop it sliding back out, and job done.

I did have a problem initially when I unrolled it, it had obviously been taken apart for some reason at some stage, maybe to be cleaned or something, and the legs had been put back in wrong, after the initial panic and once I realised what had happened, it was a simple job to take it apart again and put it back together properly.

This is the photo just after I fitted it with Jen stood underneath to show how big Nina is and how high the awning stands when fitted.




As you can see it offers a great barbecue area right at the side of Nina now as well as a sun shade and rain shade if you had the door open in the rain.

This is the same type of awning fitted to my T4




I'm a big fan of these awnings because of the low profile to the van body. I'm not keen on the large profile of the cassette type awnings. The only thing with the bag awnings and the higher vans is trying to get it rolled back up and into the bag, it was easy with the low T4, but I am definitely going to need a step to roll Ninas awning back up !



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Location:Gloucester