Limpet system for air awnings

Posted on 29/06/2017 20:35 by Corona

I have a new Kampa 330 air and bought the Limpets. They do the job very well. HOWEVER !! when I went to remove one of them which was over the graphic sticker, it had damaged the graphic leaving  a 40mm ring of the graphic removed. Not a pleasant sight on a 2 year old caravan. Before any comment, I did not over tighten it, just enough to take up the slack on the screw head + 1/4 of a turn.

I am trying now to have a repair to the graphic, but they come as a complete set for the caravan at £486.......That's no joke.

I am now looking at the Badge which fits on the Gas locker box door, to place over the damage. This is less than £20

I also notice that where the limpets were straight onto the caravan wall, they have left a witness ring which wont come out with a wax polish. I think it has removed the silver seal coating which I had put on from new.

My advice.....Leave well alone. Get the vertical poles snug around the buffer on the wall.

 

Posted on 25/04/2017 07:38 by Stewartwebr

Craig,

I had little choice in the measurements as the biggest awning Kampa make in the Motor Ace Pro range is the XXXL which fits up to a height of 310cm. The distance between the ground and the rail when measured was 305cm on my van on a fairly level pitch.

As you identify this would be on a level pitch. A number of pitches we have been on the self levelling has raised the front of the van considerably causing the distance to increase. The skirt along the awning is quite long and has never been raised to the point where it would be off the ground. The issue it did cause was the awning appeared twisted due to it being high at the van side and lower at the front and this made the zip hard to open and close.

My first solution was to manually level the van best I could without lifting the van too high which was a compromise as we were not always level and that was not acceptable. The solution I came up with was to have an extension made for where the awning attaches to the Thule wind out awning. It is basically a piece of canvas 12 inches wide with 4mm awning bead stitched on both sides. I use a figure of eight 4mm x 6mm to attach it to the awning and the other 4mm slides into the Thule rail. This gives me an additional 12 inches to play with. It took a lot of thought on how wide I should  make the extension, but opted to go to the max given I can always raise the van but cannot lower and it has worked very well.

If you are trying to decide the length to go for and you have the luxury of 2 sizes, I would suggest you measure the height from the ground to the rail with the van on the max height of your levelling blocks. Just like my extension, you can always add height but cannot make lower. So work on what you feel will be the maximum height you will have the van and ultimately the max distance between the ground and the awning rail. You always measure it on level ground with no blocks and with luck the both heights will fall into the min and max of a size they make. If it does not I suggest you go for the bigger size. As said you can always add height but cannot take it away.

With regard to the ground sheet, I bought the factory manufactured soft feel carpet. I have no idea about water ingress as we have only used it in Spain and so far have not had an issue as we have had no rain ( I should not have said that as the heavens open), but do see it being a bit of a problem when it does happen.

The one thing we did buy as an extra was the inner roof liner (can be seen in the photos) and we were amazed how much condensation it catches. Most mornings it is very wet, but soon dries out when the sun comes up.

Cannot fault the awning and it is very simple to install. Takes me around 10 minutes from taking out of the bag. The only issue or concern I have is the weight, I’m very conscious after sliding it onto the Thule rail how heavy it is and how much pressure it puts on the awning gear. My awning is electric and I worry how much strain it puts on the motor as it winds in, to the extent I have the other half support it with the cleaning brush to remove the weight and lessen the load as it winds in. It would be the same if you were winding in with extra strain on the gears.

Ebay have some great deals on Kampa 2016 models at the moment.