Material type– the main options are polyester and Technical Cotton (TC) (also known as polycotton). In general we would recommend TC/polycotton as it breathes better and lasts longer, but is often around 30% more expensive than the same awning in polyester. If you have used this product please leave a review, or your comments for other visitors, many thanks! The drive away ability of this awning it really simple. Just slide the piping out of the fitting kit on the side of the vehicle and you are good to go. The age old controversy as to whether a caravan, campervan or motorhome is the ‘best option on wheels’ for camping trips rages on. To be honest, we’re still none the wiser as to which would win in a head to head scrap – they all have particular strengths and weaknesses. However, campervans and motorhomes have an ace up their sleeve – they can easily be expanded in size using a drive away awning. This means you can walk into the awning and then walk straight through it into your campervan without anyone seeing you. If it’s raining outside, you also don’t get wet! In effect, the drive-away awning creates an integrated extension to your campervan, and can drastically increase the available living space.

It can be used as a daily driver and car replacement at home (we only have one vehicle in the household). So what exactly is a drive away awning? Well it is simply a tent-like structure which differs from a tent in just one crucial area: it can be temporarily attached to your campervan or motorhome to create an entrance tunnel into or out of your vehicle.

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Awning Size – are you after maximum floor space or just a porch extension to your campervan? Equally, do you typically just go away for a weekend or camp for weeks at a time? The answer to these questions will determine what size of awning you should buy. A massive awning will take longer to put up and use up more storage space when travelling. Our camping is typically for a weekend with the occasional week thrown in during school holidays, and so we don’t need the biggest awning on the market. If you’re interested, we currently primarily use the Kampa Cross Air with additional sleeping pod and are very pleased with it. Our personal preference for UK camping is to use a campervan over a tent or caravan, but it’s clear that it is a very personal choice. For us, our Mercedes Marco Polo camper works really well due to it: The ground sheet on the older models uses elasticated toggles to fit nicely to the side walls of the awning creating a really nice water tight seal around the base of the awning. Even on saturated ground, the ground sheet creates a water tight lip roughly 2 inchs high. You would have to be pitching in a lake to leak over them! As part of the facelift however it is now sewn in (which I have not yet personally seen or tested but it sounds promising!) The Telstar 8 is a traditional tunnel tent with a large front porch area that can accommodate up to eight campers and comes with four breathable Nightfall bedrooms designed to keep the early morning sunshine at bay.

Protection from the weather is provided by the 6,000mm hydrostatic head flysheet and the 150 denier polyester fabric is reassuringly durable. The Berghaus Telstar Drive Airway Awning fits camper vans and motorhomes with a rail height between 180 and 210 cms. An extension sleeve is available as an extra to allow the awning to fit vans with rail heights up to 240 cm. It is a tall awning with most of the head height being 6'9". Two darkened bedrooms are provided and there is still lots of living space. Four large windows, ventilation points and mesh doors provide plenty of light and fresh air. The groundsheet is sewn in As you can see from the photos in this article, we’ve tested a wide range of drive away awnings for our camper van, from Vango to Kampa to Outdoor Revolution. So what are the best features to look for? They say big is beautiful and that’s certainly the case with this new addition to the Berghaus range.One way around the issues above is to augment the camper with a drive away awning. This can massively extend the flexibility of your campervan at the expense of some storage space when travelling. So what’s so good about the Cross Air? Well firstly the square shape with steep walls and high head height maximizes the internal volume, but it’s really the flexible, modular design which really impresses. We tested the 2019 model on a VW T4 and it worked extremely well. As with most drive away awnings, it works best on flat land although can be pitched on a slight slope with a bit of patience.

You really cannot go wrong with a Vango drive away awning, and the Vango Kela Air is a great compact product with that traditional quality feel which we’ve come to expect from the team. It’s available in a more budget-friendly ‘Sentinel Pro’ polyester version as well as a more expensive polycotton or technical cotton (TC) Kela Air which is longer lasting and cooler on scorching hot days. Design and Layout Comes with straps that can be used around the Transporter if you do not have a piping fitting kit to the side of your Transporter however this is best used when the wind is low as it does not give the best seal and wind can get under the join.. Time to put up can be fast – we put up an inflatable drive away awning in under 8 minutes, and we weren’t really trying. There is a single fiber glass pole included with the awning which is used to create a rain/sun canopy at the front of the awning. This means you get some protection when entering or exiting the inner sanctum.In a similar way to the modern world of inflatable airbeam tents, we would highly recommend taking the plunge with an airbeam drive away awning. They are simply much easier to put up, have less separate parts to break or lose and typically have a lifetime guarantee against problems with the air valves. We’ve thought long and hard about which product is the best drive away awning with a compact layout. In terms of the combination of price vs performance vs flexibility we really can’t see beyond the Kampa Dometic Cross Air awning. It uses excellent fabrics with clear window technology and can be very easily rearranged to adjust the layout to exactly how you want to use it. In our view, it’s close to perfection for short to medium length trips. Design and Layout Sold as a very cosy 4 person bolt on to your transporter. Definitely sleeps 3 easily, 4 people if you are small! The Berghaus Telstar Drive Airway Awning is a very large inflatable Motorhome extension. It adds 2 bedrooms and extra living space to your camping setup. This luxurious awning is built to the same high specification used on the Berghaus range of air tents. The flysheet is fully waterproof with taped seams and the fabric has been tested to a hydro static head of 6000 mm. The groundsheet is sewn in to keep water and draughts out. Can move many of your items out of the campervan into the awning – frees up space in the van for general living.