Where Have You Been In Your Van Today?

Ayjay said:
@EAN.
Footprints - Like a lot on here, we were tenters for decades before getting the van and awning(s) and have always used a medium weight woven plastic tarp as a footprint (sorry can't remember the actual GSM). I've found them generally tougher, more waterproof and cheaper than your average OEM footprint. It tends to be a bit bulkier and heavier than the OEM versions but that doesn't matter much to me. Indeed, we were given a Vango Kela footprint FOC when we bought our Kela (obvs!) but I don't think we've ever use it as I already had a suitable tarp which was easy to cut to shape.
Fly Mesh - I might have misunderstood but we've owned loads of tents in our time as well as the current Vango awning and two modern Vango tents and I don't remember any of them ever having the insect mesh on the outside!
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@Ayjay
Yes, on the Agora there are three doors. The main door opposite the tunnel has a full fly mesh door screen on the inside (makes sense), but the two other doors (front/rear of van) have an internal ”blind”, then the clear plastic window and then on the outside is the fly mesh screen; so when it rains it literally sticks to the plastic window and messes up the visibility through it.

This video shows it and it does seem odd to me.

 
EAN said:
Long weekend at Lancing, between Shoreham and Worthing at The Barn Caravan Park.
Walked into Shoreham on Friday and Worthing on Sunday whilst it was dry.
It rained non stop on the Saturday, so was a good test of my Vango Agora awning:
I found that:
1) Water tended to run down the porch tunnel, collect and then periodically dump itself right over the front tunnel door, which just happened to be the one we were using. Every time we had to open it, we got a free shower!!
2) The awning, IMHO, needs more pegging points around each of the larger doors when the weather is bad. I used these tarpaulin clips to peg down better.


3) I’ve decided I’m not a fan of being able to flatten the entry thresholds of the main doors. They end up being too floppy when toggled up, which is a weak point when it’s p***ing it down and your trying to keep the outer door flaps secured underneath the integral groundsheet.

4) Very pleased we purchased the “footprint” which kept the main awning pretty clean. We were on a grass pitch and the “footprint” was absolutely caked in mud when we packed away. The ground underneath the awning was absolutely saturated.

5) The fly mesh being on the outside of the clear windows meant as soon as they got wet it stuck to the windows and reduced visibility. I would have thought that the mesh being on the inside would have been a better idea but there must be a reason they do it the other way????

6) My wife only tripped up over the high visibility guide ropes once!! And I missed it!!!

I also split the EHU for the first time: Fed it into the awning, used a splitter, then fed a short lead out to the van EHU point and used a mobile power unit in the awning:



Worked well for us, and better than trailing a mains extension reel out from the van; safer too.
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Now you know you can cope in foul weather and what mods you’d like to make to your awning. Sounds to me that it was a worthwhile weekend and that you made the best of it
 
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JOG said:
Now you know you can cope in foul weather and what mods you’d like to make to your awning. Sounds to me that it was a worthwhile weekend and that you made the best of it
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@JOG We are fairly new to this; but every day is a learning day. We always write down a list of things that we liked and things that we didn’t, what works for us and what doesn’t etc.. so we can look to make the next trip away better.
 
Robert said:
I will be crossing the Channel in the middle of June :whistle:.
Who knows, I might choose Eurotunnel.
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If you do, make sure you play with the booking system as depending on how your vehicle is registered the price changes. For example my Shuttle is more expensive than the same Caravelle. You can manually select the vehicle instead of using registration search and THEN add the reg at the end of the process. It doesnt cross validate :)
 
archersam said:
If you do, make sure you play with the booking system as depending on how your vehicle is registered the price changes. For example my Shuttle is more expensive than the same Caravelle. You can manually select the vehicle instead of using registration search and THEN add the reg at the end of the process. It doesnt cross validate :)
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I'll have to investigate this as the price between a shuttle and caravelle in the quote we just did had no difference... Perhaps I need to play more with the settings.
 
DaveCrampton said:
I'll have to investigate this as the price between a shuttle and caravelle in the quote we just did had no difference... Perhaps I need to play more with the settings.
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possibly, you cannot select Shuttle from the options when you go manual, or at least I dont get that option. From memory playing around with California and all the other variables a Caravelle came out the cheapest.
 
archersam said:
If you do, make sure you play with the booking system as depending on how your vehicle is registered the price changes. For example my Shuttle is more expensive than the same Caravelle. You can manually select the vehicle instead of using registration search and THEN add the reg at the end of the process. It doesnt cross validate :)
Click to expand...


I am looking at booking my trip in August. Using my VRM, telling it it is a campervan (and then lying and entering that it is not a camper), then showing its length as requested is no difference in price to manually selecting it is a Transporter or telling it is a Caravelle (which it isn't). All exactly the same price.
 
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@Bav I didn't want to be the first to say that but as someone who would struggle to point out a turbo (or a sump) I totally agree. OK, maybe I'm not that bad but you get my drift!
 
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