Caravan Awning walls – getting the most out of your awning.

Deploying your awning when you have set up camp is a great way to increase your caravan’s living space. It makes a great area for relaxing in the deck chairs, a kids’ play area, a dining room, a kitchen…… the list goes on and on.

But how can you make it even better?

After travelling for months at a time with young kids, we regularly use our awning walls to create a larger space. They’re much easier to set up than a full annex, yet still give you protection from the elements.

This guide explains everything you need to know about awning walls for your caravan.

Adding awning walls.

Adding awning walls to your existing awning can be very simple and effective. Most awnings have a built-in sail-track on the outer edge. Cassette-type awnings have it built into the outer edge frame, which is supported by the legs and roll-out type awnings have it built into the outer roll, which becomes visible once your awning is rolled out all the way.

Sail-track is a groove, either 6mm or 4mm wide, that your awning wall slides into. This system makes it very easy for your walls to be put up and taken down.

Pegging down your awning wall.

Make sure you peg down your awning wall. As you can imagine, your awning wall can make a great kite and fly away in the wind if not pegged down. You can either peg your awning wall down straight to the ground or at an angle. Straight down will give you more strength to your awning, but can tend to catch a bit more wind.

Pegging down at an angle can give you a bit more room under your awning and also deflect any wind a bit better. Securely pegging down your awning walls means that you could delete your guy-ropes, but I always keep the guy-ropes there just as a backup.

Grab your pegs and ropes here today for your next adventure

Getting the right size awning wall size.

There are 3 things to consider when choosing the right size awning. The width, height and sail-track size. Most times you would use the same width awning wall as the width of your awning. You can fit a shorter one if you don’t want the whole width covered, but a wall that is too long will have excess material flapping about, which cannot effectively be tied down.

The height of your awning wall will depend if you want to have a gap between the bottom of the awning wall and the ground, or have it flush with the ground. There is no right or wrong here, it is just what you prefer.

The last is the sail-track size. Sail-tracks usually come in 2 sizes – 6mm or 4mm. Some awning walls will come in either of these 2 sizes and some will have both. Always good to get your measurements before you buy.

Check out this long side wall for your awning here

Awning side walls

By adding end walls to your awning, you can create a protected area or effectively a room. By doing this, you can have a cosy area in winter and a shaded area in summer.

Awning end walls will have 2 types. Sail-track and Velcro loops. For a roll-out type awning, Velcro loops are attached to the support frame that runs between the caravan wall and the outer edge (roll) of the awning. Pegging down is the same as the outer edge wall.

For cassette-type awnings, you will need to add either a support rail or even better a sail-track support, or even better again, add an Anti-flap kit that has a sail-track built in. This way you will get the benefits of the Anti-flap kit with the convenience of the sail-track to fit an awning side wall. You can also fit an anti-flap kit to a roll out awning.

If flapping in the breeze is your main gripe with your awning, we’ve got a full rundown of fixes in Need to Stop Your Caravan Awning From Flapping?

If you always set your awning roof at an angle, you can get awning end walls that have the top edge cut at an angle, which makes the end wall neat and tight when it’s pegged down.

Grab your side wall here

Don’t forget to leave a doorway.

If you go with the 3 awning walls, you can create a lovely sheltered area under your awning, but it can make it difficult to walk in and out. One way around this is to have one of your awning walls a bit shorter so it creates a doorway. Some awning walls come with window and door cut-outs so you can zip them open and closed when you want to.

Check out this full wall kit

Full block-out or partial shade.

 You can also choose whether you want to let light and breeze through (think of shade-cloth) or a complete block-out that does not let light or breeze through. Partial shade will let the cool breeze through in warm weather but will let the cold air in during cold weather, while the full block-out may get a bit hot under the awning in the hot weather but will keep it warmer in the cold weather. It will depend on where you go camping to decide on which one will be better for you…… or get one of each.

Experiment with your awning and try different combinations to work out what works for you. By adding awning walls, you can create extra living space and possibly enjoy the great outdoors even more than you already are.

If you like staying on top of the little jobs before they become big ones, our caravan maintenance schedule covers your awning and everything else worth checking each season.