richyb66

With the basic frame assembled, we could measure the overall sizes which will give a starting point for planning out the awning. The overall height at the awning rail is 1650mm which slopes down to 1600mm at the side frame. It’s only 50mm fall on the roof but hopefully this will be enough to shed any rain. If we make the fall bigger, it will reduce the internal height too much. The floor area is 1250mm x 2450mm, so pretty well doubles the footprint of the caravan body. We did a test fit of the current awning roof part to the awning rail. It didn’t prove much other than it fits the rail and it’s far too big. The grey material that’s visible is the existing roof, more than long enough to go the entire length of the awning rail. To make it a bit more manageable, we cut it down in the length and width but made sure we left a generous allowance of material just in case we needed it. This is one of the existing end panels laid out on the floor. It zips in to the main roof part all around the outside with a single zip. And here’s one of the two front panels. To give an idea of the size of the awning we’re making, it’s front panel will be a bit smaller than this. The plan is to use what we can from the original awning. We will be using the zips, windows and some of the red fabric, together with the grey vinyl skirt at the bottom that tucks inside the awning and goes under the groundsheet. We carefully unpicked the stitching from the zips. They will be too long but look like they can be shortened fairly easily. When we reuse the white fabric, we don’t want to use areas that have previously been sewn through as this will leave holes where water may get in. Instead we will cut out the panels close to the existing stitching to keep them as big as possible. With the white fabric removed, we decided to give it a run through the washing machine. Although the awning was very clean, there were a few marks on the white and it made sense to try and remove them now, rather than later when the whole thing was sewn together. Also, while the fabric was still damp from washing, we gave it a quick iron to remove the bigger creases which will make it easier to work with later. We will use new blue fabric as well on the awning, but the old red material won’t be wasted. We will carefully cut it out to usable pieces and keep it for possible use on other projects.

That's quality. Have you ever visited Portmeirion? Quick question, do fog lamps go on the RH side in the US? They go that side in the UK so I'd have thought the go on the LH side so the lamp is positioned closer to the centre of a single carriageway.

Updated - we're gonna need a bigger table!

If you're interested you need to give him a call. I asked for a price to be added 2 weeks ago but it's not been done so I'll be pulling the advert shortly. The rule for posting adverts are clear and easy to comply with and we were prepared to let the additional parts go without prices as long as the kit had one.

The tables are booked but it's not too late to join. Just let me know and I can adjust the booking to suit.

Me too.

Very nice and obviously a rarity - a British bike without a puddle of oil underneath it.

Of course.

I think we'd be up for this, it looks like a good chance to have a couple of nights away.

The front side window comes very close to the awning rail, so the support bracket needed to be positioned above the window top rail, some distance away from the curve in the awning rail. This may not be the ideal position for the awning and we may have to move it forwards and down, on to the more vertical part of the rail. The next thing is the end legs are too widely spaced relative to the side profile of the caravan and need to be more vertical in the bottom half. Luckily the end legs were just the right size for a piece of 22mm copper pipe to slide inside so we used a pipe bender to make a couple of joining pieces around 200mm long that were drilled and rivetted in to the legs. This make the basic frame look like this, a lot closer to what we wanted.

We decided to make the awning around 1500mm wide which would make it the same width as the caravan, effectively doubling the floor space. It could have been made wider, but we didn’t want it to be disproportionately large. In order to mock up the frame, we needed to fix the end bracket against the side panel without having the awning fitted. This was achieved by bending up some strips of aluminium that slid in to the awning rail and the brackets were clamped on the opposite end. After cutting down a few poles, we started to assemble a basic frame and noticed a problem almost immediately. The joining piece at the top of the central leg is designed so there’s a peak on the roof which means the frame ends up like this. The angle helps water drain off the roof but as headroom is at a bit of a premium, we need the roof as flat as possible and we will make it angle down from the side of the caravan. This is the joining piece which is a glass filled nylon material which can’t really be heated up and tweaked. The solution was to cut off the attachments either side and drill right through the plastic from one side to the other and insert a metal tube that the side poles could be slid on to. With that done, the frame was assembled like this.

Before the awning could be fitted, we needed to attach the awning rail to the side of the caravan. As with the corner extrusions, it was a case of carefully bending the extrusion by hand before attaching it to the side panels. At this stage we fixed it with small self-tapping screws that we will replace with rivets eventually. At the front, awning rail sits just inside the corner extrusion and then runs horizontally along the lower level of the roof and aver the door before following the corner extrusion again down the back of the side panel. The awning rail is a C channel section and the awning was a round beading sewn in to the edge of it so it can be slid into the rail from one end. The rail comes in 2.5-metre lengths so there’s a join in the horizontal area just above the outside light. We tried to butt the ends of the rail as close together as possible to minimise the chance of water leaks. This is a picture of the awning given to us by Graham and Annette. It’s big, so big in fact that the grey roof area is long enough to reach all the way around the awning rail and down to the floor each end – with some to spare so we’ve got plenty of material wo work with. The awning is supported by fibreglass poles which have interlocking ends and adjustable sections. The poles are too long, but we can cut them down to the lengths we need. For the attachment at the side of the caravan, there’s brackets that the poles hook in to. The flat area on the left has a rubber pad that sits against the side of the caravan and the channel at the top clamps around a tadpole plastic beading that is sewn in to the inside of the awning. This means that the frame is then extended in tension inside the awning and pulls it tight against the awning rail.

There will be other day trips and if people want one, I'll do something with an overnight stay on a Saturday.

Other options are available that weekend!!

Yes, the more the merrier.