Isn’t it funny how you have a certain list of essentials for going away with that you absolutely cannot do without. But each time you go away that list seems to be ever expanding!
Rosie and I have been away a fair bit in the van and have got the technique down of traveling light, last year we spent 2 weeks traveling from Southampton across the channel and then along the northern and western coast of France and then to the Pyrenees. This year we have not been away internationally but have been on various trips to Cornwall, Devon and a few festivals near to our house.
The one thing that you struggle with going away in a van is space and where to put things so we decided to put some time into researching drive away awnings, there are plenty out there to suit the T5 but we went for the Campershop Outlaw you can see it here. Its fairly big inside and comes with a groundsheet and an inner tent that can sleep 2 people, you could purchase another one to go on the opposite side but we are not fussed with that and prefer the space!
So around came my 25th birthday and my folks asked my what I wanted and the inevitable happened......I got my awning!!
This is a picture of when my dad and i set it up for the first time, (as you can see pictured my steels are back on as at the time my alloys were being sprayed!!)
I must say since having the awning, we enjoy camping so much more as it is very easy to just put everything in the awning like the chairs table and cooking stuff etc and then you have the van free to use, also when you want to nip out for the day your pitch is saved and you dont have to worry about someone nipping in there when you are out.
I looked at a few ways of fixing the awning to the van; The reimo rail I don like because it sticks out from the side of the van and you either have to glue it or drill holes in your van. The VW one is good and fits in the channel on the roof but this seemed to be very expensive and hard to get hold of. I used the funky leisure awning rail it is made of stainless steel and again fits in the channel on top of your roof and uses the roof rack bolts to fix down. See it Here. I also bought from then the figure of 8 channeling to fix the awning on to the van.
Cheers
Tom
