Keef - would you mind sharing the size/model of Kampa awning and your van please?

I have a Eriba 1988 Familia and the awning is a Pop 290

As I am on a site about 12 miles north of the Automotive Leisure Showroom/Workshop I thought that I would pop along to the AL Social Event which was being held yesterday and today.....

At the event they had a representative from Kampa there to demonstrate the Pop Air Pro awnng...
I brought up with him the problems that I had experienced with the Keder beading strip curling away from the awning rail....

Kampa have already issued an Addendum - "Keder Beading Adjustment for Eriba"

This is what it says :-

The Pop Air awning is designed to be a universal fit fpr pre-2010 and post-2010 Eriba touring caravans.
The roof profile on Eriba caravans pre- 2010 is different to that on post-2010 models; the straight section of the awning rail/channel is shorter post-2010.

It is common for the slot in the awning rail/channel to become slightly wider where the rail curves around the front and rear shape of the Eriba. The widened slot may result in the keder beading being loose or pulled out at the ends where the awning rail/channel starts to curve away.

-THIS DOES NOT AFFECT THE SECURITY OF THE OVERALL FITMENT OF THE AWNING TO THE CARAVAN-.

If preferable the ends of the keder beading can easily be trimmed back. We recommend removing 8cm from both sides.

Please note that your warranty WILL NOT be affected if you choose to make this alteration as per these instrucions"


The Kampa representative confirmed a couple of times to me that the Keder Beading will not pull out even in gusts of say 45/50 miles an hour.... I hope he is right...However I am prepared to make this adjustment to my awning when I take it down at the end of our stay here......
I mentioned to him the idea of having a 6 inch lead in on a curved/triangular section of the awning at each end as I felt that it would make it easier when threading the beading through the rail as it would also follow the profile of the van better and he confirmed that it was something that Kampa might well consider on future uprgades to the awning. There might also be a zip out side at one end allowing for the option of fitting a small extension.....

Oh by the way, he also answered my query regarding my zip....That one was totally down to me not wanting to use too much force on the zip.

So I am feeling a lot better about the awning now than I did a couple of days ago.... Obviously if I encounter any more problems I will let you know.......
I hope that the above is useful for people who have purchased one of these awnings or are indeed thinking about doing so........

I had heard about the Kampa fix of cutting 8 cms from each end of the keder. OK but what supports the two rear corners where the back arch meets the left and right side tubes. They will be left floating. Also if you look and the current keder ends of your awning they are stitched back and forth for additional strength.
So is it unessesary for keder end reinforcement because that's what will happen when if we cut 8 cm from each end . Yes it will give a straight line attachment but I think this fix will introduce 2 areas of weakness.
I have had 3 or 4 awnings over the years and they all had some stitching at the keder ends.
Is the kampa suggested fix sustainable, is it the science of expedience over the science of engineering

I wish that I had known about the Kampa fix before today as I would have felt a little bit better about the £849mI spent on the awning....
.I searched everywhere on this forum and things just seemd to come to an end after the initial problems were raised with no apparent solutions even slightly suspect ones such as this 'Kampa Fix'
Not ideal I will grant you but it is some recognition of the problem...

A lot of my working life was involved with mountain/backpacking tent design and not with awnings but my thoughts on the points you have made are....
The stitching on the Keder Beading ends are to stop the beading sliding out of the awning material so I figured that I would be able to stitch that again myself....
I have just checked where the arch and side tubes meet and approx 1/3rd will be left unsupported...which is exactly as it is now with the Keder beading curved out. Is it sustainable??? Well only time will tell. The only real fix is a redisign as per my original observation....

Quote: Argie wrote in post #48

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As I am on a site about 12 miles north of the Automotive Leisure Showroom/Workshop I thought that I would pop along to the AL Social Event which was being held yesterday and today.....

At the event they had a representative from Kampa there to demonstrate the Pop Air Pro awnng...
I brought up with him the problems that I had experienced with the Keder beading strip curling away from the awning rail....

Kampa have already issued an Addendum - "Keder Beading Adjustment for Eriba"

This is what it says :-

The Pop Air awning is designed to be a universal fit fpr pre-2010 and post-2010 Eriba touring caravans.
The roof profile on Eriba caravans pre- 2010 is different to that on post-2010 models; the straight section of the awning rail/channel is shorter post-2010.

It is common for the slot in the awning rail/channel to become slightly wider where the rail curves around the front and rear shape of the Eriba. The widened slot may result in the keder beading being loose or pulled out at the ends where the awning rail/channel starts to curve away.

-THIS DOES NOT AFFECT THE SECURITY OF THE OVERALL FITMENT OF THE AWNING TO THE CARAVAN-.

If preferable the ends of the keder beading can easily be trimmed back. We recommend removing 8cm from both sides.

Please note that your warranty WILL NOT be affected if you choose to make this alteration as per these instrucions"

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Hello , it does beg the question, what the hell are we doing. Cutting keder, potentially sewing in gussets, lubricating awning rail each time, dropping the tubes out of thier pockets to facilitate fitting. Why are we even prepared to consider these possible solutions.
Because we so want the awning to fit, it's what we have been waiting for.
If this was a new £800 washing machine would we be prepared to take the back off and start reengineering with a suggested fix from the manufacturer who generously has said " It won't affect your warranty.
The answer may I suggest is no we would not. It's not our responsibility. The manufacturer needs to make responsibility to resolve the problem in real terms as apposed to DIY fixes.

As I said Keef the only real solution is a redesign of the awning ends so that it actually fits an eriba..!!
The problem with that is that Kampa would not then be able to market the Pop Air awning to owners of other types of Pop Top caravans and they are obviously not prepared to do that at the moment.....

We have two choices as I see it.... Modify ourselves to improve the fit... OR we all send our awnings back on the basis that the design is not fit for purpose which it obviously is not...!!!

Conversion kit model by model?
Goodwill compensation?
Garenteed trade in value when Version 2 is available.

I did mention goodwill compensation and the possibility of a trade in value when version 2 becomes available to the Kampa Representative during my discussion with him. However it would seem that those points are above his pay grade to answer although he did say he would pass those points on to his next in line for an answer....

As I am fulltiming in my Eriba currently it does make it difficult to pursue this problem - so over the next 23 days whilst I am at my current location I will make up my mind about whether to pick-up one of my normal poled awnings from my daughter's near by and return my Pop Air or make the alteration as I have already intimated and see what happens with time....

I don't see that any form of 'conversion kit' would actually be a practical possibility...But then what do I know :-)

I really like the look and the ease of the Kampa air awning, however I am going to hold off until the alterations have been made and the Mk2 comes out.
I remember the full size AL awnings had a design issue and were prone to pooling, I had one for my old Puck which could collect water each side of the ridge and it required some DIY mods to cure it. It was probably because they were just too big, they were 10 foot out from the van where most full size awnings are about 8 feet.

Moving forward the design issue could be easily solved if they use the same method that the AL porch awning use. The rail strip is separate from the awning and it zips on to the awning to fix it to the van, Kampa could make the next lot with a zip attachment and depending on the poptop make/model i.e Hymer or Triango they can just use a different rail attachment. it will also cure the other problem of trying to drag the full weight of the awning when inserting the bead through the rail which most are saying its heavy work.
pass that idea to Kampa, and tell them Eriba owners are holding off buying them until its fixed...

Lots of discussion about this awning lately 11 pages in two topics

I don't have one and will not be getting one so maybe an unbiased opinion

Air awnings are presumably a new technology I don't remember ever having seen one on any type of van. The makers acknowledged this when they gave some away for testing (for those newcomers Martin on here got a free one a short while back to test)

All new technology will have its teething troubles.

Presumably its greatest attraction is its lack of poles, which is also in my opinion its greatest drawback, plastic tubes full of air are never going to be anywhere near as rigid as a good set of poles.

It seems to me to be a fairly lightweight hollow bag of air fitted in the awning rail and held down by a few guy ropes and pegged down round the bottom.

If that's the case its always going to flex and move around even in light winds and I hate to think what it will do in a strong winds.

Just my personal opinion you understand . I also think they look awful too. so not for me.

Had to say pop top 320. Brilliant zip connection and model specific zip half for model and year.
Well done

Please see my post on the Awning Gutter Strip thread.