Caravan Shade Screens

15/07/2023

15/07/2023

Wind out awnings

There are generally 3 types of awnings. Wind out, bag and rollout. I. am not going to cover bag awnings just the other 2 at the moment.

Windout awnings are European where caravanning and motor homing are different. No kangaroos there. The sun is different there as are the flies etc. Australian caravans almost aways have a rollout awning, which suits Australian style of camping better. Rollout awnings are also much stronger.

There are (before covid) 2 main brands of wind out awning. Thule and Fiamma. Due to shortages of supply there and many more Chinese brands now. prices between these 2 brands seems similar but there are differences in back up support. remember I do not sell these and my interest is based upon the ability to fit screens to them as this is what I do.

Both have screen support kits that can be fitted but Thule is better. Thule and Aussie Traveller (makers of ATRV anti flap kits) are the same company so they make an adaptor kit to fit their anti flap kit. They do. not make one for Fiamma. These anti flap kits are the best and most expensive on the market at the moment. By best I mean, easy to fit, stronger, product support and price. ( remember I do not sell them). If you have a wind out awning these allow you the best way of fitting an annex.

Wind out awnings however are renown for being weak and breaking in strong winds. After all they are NOT designed for Australia. If you can fit a roll out awning, generally their are much better.

30/09/2019

Off side tow vehicle shade screens

a large shade screen on the opposite side of your caravan to the rollout awning can be a great idea. Besides giving shade to the caravan, reducing the strain on the fridge (which is usually positioned on this side) , it can side and protect your expensive towing vehicle from sun and storms.

There are basically 2 different designs for achieving this and which is best will be determined by where you stay in your caravan. If yo free camp most of the time, you will have lots of space and can use the design in the picture. This design allows you to mount a screen with just a pole at each end and gives you room to drive through. This however needs a shade cloth with a width of 3.8 meters and this is tapered to 3 meters in the middle of the screen.

The second design is for staying in a caravan park, where space is limited. This design used shade cloth 2.95 meters wide and needs 5 tent poles. It also gives you less space and required you to back the tow vehicle into position, after closing the caravan windows.

30/09/2019

Clear PVC walls on caravan

Clear PVC is the correct name for clear walls that you often see as part of a caravan annex. They can also be made into seperate walls as well. More popular several years ago , they are great in winter, as they allow in the winter sun but at the same time keep out the cold winter breeze. Most popular up here (Queensland) with grey nomads escaping the cold winter of the southern states.

There are some important things to be aware of with clear PVC.
Thickness: it comes in 4 thicknesses from 1/4 mm to 1 mm and with everything in caravanning, each size has some advantages and disadvantages. These being ability NOT to bubble in the heat and weight. So 1/4mm will bubble and 1 mm is far too heavy. I say this in a caravanning employment. So you end up with a real choice of 1/2 mm or 3/4mm. Both of these are about the name when taking this trade off into account. If you are doing some travelling and moving around go for 1/2 but if you are staying put for the winter go for 3/4mm.

Next is roll width. fabric comes in different widths on a roll and clear PVC is 1370mm wide. I have never found out why this is the case. Generally the height of an annex wall is 1900mm so you have a gap to make up. Hence the picture attached. Generally we will put this fill in part at the bottom.

Scratch resistance. Clear PVC scratches very easily and this can be combatted by not folding up the screens but rolling them with a layer of fabric (bed sheet) between each layer so it becomes a roll.

Dust attraction. It also attracts static dust like a magnet. So wipe them over before packing up and never let them drop onto the ground.

Cost to make. You will find they are generally very expensive to have made. They take a lot of time and care to make and this makes them a pain to make. As with everything that is a pain, we (caravan annex makers) do not like making them, hence the price. Best to look for a manufacturer away from the coast and in a large country town, then at a quiet time. Not right before school holidays for example. I for refuse to make them as does everyone I know in the Sunshine Coast for example. Remember this information is just to keep you better informed and not put you off them. I had them on my caravan (below) and loved them.

29/09/2019

Differences in Shade Cloth

The shade cloths from which the range and brands of Shade Screens are made varies quiet at bit. Not only in price, quality and characteristics. not to mention colors. So before you buy a shade screen here are some pointers you might like to consider.

As in almost every post I write," in caravaning you tend to get what you pay for". Something that is cheap, generally will not be top of the range but you might only want a shade screen for the odd occassion and this will meet your needs.

Shade cloth comes in two main groups. 60 percent blockout and 90 percent blockout. That is they reduce the amount of light passing through by this amount. In simple terms, on a hot sunny day, if you sit in a chair under 60 percent, you will still feel hot. For this reason almost all screen are rated at 90 blockout.

There are 4 main brands of shade screen that you will see sold that are not custom made to a specific caravan. They are:

Coast to Coast. This is the most popular brand and my understand is owned by Jayco. They come in just one color call "Platium" It is a grey color when the sun is not shinning on it but a silver color in direct sinlight. It is the lowest in strength and prone to stretch. It is also the cheapest brand.

Camec and Cigear. They are two different brands but both use the same shade cloth. This being "Abshade" brand. They are different colors. Cigear is a charcoal color and Camec light grey. It is slight ly better than cost to coast but one characteristic of Abshade is the the edges curl and for this reason it does not like holding it's shape.

The 4th brand being "Sunbuster". These were made on the sunshine coast but are now manufactured in China, as are the three previous brands. They us a brand of shade cloth called "Comshade", which is a very high brand. It holds shape and has great strength. As you might imagine they are the post expensive.

My brand, "Caravan Shade Screens", I do not consider a main stream brand as they are all custom made to suit each caravan. Needless to Say, I believe they are better than the other brands, as they should be. They are totally custom made from the best materials, made in Maroochydore and are the most expensive. I still think these are value for money at $185 for a standard screen.

28/09/2019

Caravan Roll out awnings

There are many types and brands of awnings on caravans. By caravans, I mean full vans, pop top caravans and wind up caravans. Basically they are : bag awnings, wind out awnings and roll out awnings. In this post I want to deal with just wind out awnings. They can be fitted to all three types of caravans, but only Ezi Awn can be fitted to a wind up caravan/ camper. Roll out awnings can also be fitted to SOME motor homes. This covered in another post.

So in roll out awnings there are 5 brands. Each brand has some good and some bad qualities. So a person saying theirs is the best is generally not true. In caravanning, the best anything is what suits you best. They are Proster, Eziawn, carefree, Dometic and Aussie Traveller.

Carefree are generally fitted to jayco products with the exception of caravans named after a bird. They being Dove, Hawk, Eagle, Finch, Penguin and Swift. These are all wind up caravans and cannot use rollout awnings with the exception of Eziawn.

Dometic is generally the most popular brand and hence the one that you will see most often.

Proster is only fitted to Avans and I would seriously give them a miss as an awning.

The last brand is Aussie Traveller. From my experience only about 10 percent of caravans have this brand. Perhaps the best known is Kedrons. I have seen them in Royal Flair and Elite caravans as well. They are the strongest of all in the wind and easiest to fit a verandah to.

If you want to put the “legs down” on your caravan, the design of different awnings can give you some problems. Some will reduce the distance between the side of the caravan and the long annex wall. This is quite hard to explain.

There are also 2 bands of electric roll out awnings. Dometic and Carefree have electric models. The very newest Carefree have fixed a problem with fitting a long screen to a electric carefree but if you are buying a second hand one be aware of this.

On all roll out awnings the track diameter in the “barrel” (the long round aluminium tube) is 6mm but this varies between brands, Aussie traveller is greater than the others and this makes fitting long screens to this brand easier.

The picture below is of a caravan fitted with an electric awning. It is a matter of how you want to use your caravan. If you are going to be staying in one location for some t8me, I would not go with an electric awning. They are not as strong as a manual awning.

27/09/2019

Caravan skirts

there are two types of caravans skirts. The type that are mounted with press studs and a second type where the skirt is mounted by means of a sail track secured to the caravan. Each type has some good and bad points associated with them. There not being a perfect solution seems to go with almost everything associated with caravanning.

we mount them using a sail track that matches the chatting colour of your caravan. The advantage of this type is they are much quicker to put up and take down. You never have to worry about the skirt shrinking over time and then the press stud positions do not line up. The 3 rd reason is they also look good. The down side is the cost. They take much longer to make and fit, this translating into greater cost. A standard caravan being between $450 and $550.

26/09/2019

Caravan Shade Screens has been making high quality custom made caravan shade screen in Maroochydore sine 2005. We operate in Cotton Tree Caravan park, Maroochy Beach CP and Mudjimba CP. We can also visit home in the Maroochydore area to make screens on site. We do not make screens for solid structures however.

We make and fit caravan skirts to most caravans ( except British Caravans and wind up campers). We fit and supply Aussie Traveller anti Flap kit and Curved Roof Rafters.