One person awning setup

[berniebgf Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close berniebgf]

Seems like a silly question.....however!!

I have purchase and installed a Tigerz 11 awning on the caravan and have had a chance to set it up by myself only once.
I find myself struggling to manage the setup with polls swinging everywhere.....

So does anyone have any tips or tricks to setting these things up without looking like a D!ck?

Currently I do the following..

1. unzip and roll out awning
2. look suprised as awning end polls drop down hitting you in the face....
3. juggle awning end on head while trying to set polls heights
3.1 awning falls off head and hits caravan
3.2 polls drop to ground with awning...
4. Pick up and try again.
5. Drape awning over head like a ghost and extend / lock height for both end polls.
6. Stretch out in a "Saturday Night Fever" move and reach for the awning horizontal polls in the awning mounting on caravan while still holding the awning end.
7. pull out horizontal poll and let it swing hitting you in the face (again)
8. stretch awning back out and place horizontal poll into awning end.
9. try to get back for remaining horizontal poll and let awning swing down hitting you in the back.
10. put back into position and use step 6 to reach other awning mount point poll.
11. connect final horizontal poll together to awning end.
12. Hold as many pieces as possible and say a prayer to St Anthony for this thing to stay up
12. Let go to pieces and run away!!
13. Watch in amazement as it stays up
14. Done!
15. now move onto wall setup....

Does that sound right?

Bernie

[Heath74 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Heath74]

lol mate that paints a pretty good picture.

I put th pegs in first, then hook the guy ropes on, that helps a bit. that way you never need to take one hand off the horizontal bar.

[JPH Advanced Member Find all posts View Profile Close JPH]

Bernie, have a look at this clip from Rhino, this is pretty much how I do mine when by myself.

http://youtu.be/OQzxMhYk-JM

Cheers

JPH

[kav Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close kav]

Personally I think it's much easier to set it up by myself and takes less time and swearing than it does if I ask the missus to help .particularly in a howling gale .

[Guest Close Guest]

You're not alone. The first time I set up the awning, I put a dent in the rear quarter panel.

In that Rhino video, notice the part where the video was edited. That's the hardest part and it got edited out. I wonder why....

[foxclan Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close foxclan]

Hi Bernie
Thanks for the laugh mate, I think Tigger11 should print your description as their official assembly instructions. Lol.
Mate a little tip after completing steps 1-13 would be to take a red colour pencil and put a small mark on the poles so you can preset the pole height before you start next time.
Cheers
Troy

[berniebgf Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close berniebgf]

Thanks for the idea's and support, its going to be a difficult few setups!

Thanks for the video JPH, I agree with amts with the video edit @ ~39sec. Critical part of the setup.
Good idea foxclan marking the height, will do.
Heath, was hoping not to bother with the peg / ropes unless windy but will have to assess if it helps with the setup!

I guess the main change will be to extend out the Horizontal polls as I extend the awning,
I did not want to do this without supporting them as I didn't want to put stress on the brackets.

Maybe I can extend the awning out while holding one horizontal poll, then put that poll into the awning end and drop / extend the two vertical polls....
then go back from the last horizontal and see what happens.

Some more practice with no one watching maybe....

Maybe I can video it and put it on "Australia's funniest home videos"?? Might pay for some more accessories!

Thanks again.

Bernie.

[baggs71 Inactive member. Find all posts View Profile Close baggs71]

Haahahaahh
Shits and giggles...nice...i can now face another day

[Dupes68 Member Find all posts View Profile Close Dupes68]

Sounds very similar to my first experience, and to add insult to injury I had a friend watching my demonstration, who then asked whether I needed to put the guy ropes out to hold it down. To which I replied that there was no need unless it is windy.... And as if right on cue I watched the awning get lifted upwards by a puff of wind, bend over the roof rack, snap off its mounting and land 5 metres the other side of the car in a heap.....! It's funny now, but not so at the time...

[berniebgf Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close berniebgf]

Sounds very similar to my first experience, and to add insult to injury I had a friend watching my demonstration, who then asked whether I needed to put the guy ropes out to hold it down. To which I replied that there was no need unless it is windy.... And as if right on cue I watched the awning get lifted upwards by a puff of wind, bend over the roof rack, snap off its mounting and land 5 metres the other side of the car in a heap.....! It's funny now, but not so at the time...

Classic! :lol:

I suppose you can look back and laugh now, but at the time its $$ going down the drain!

Bernie.

[talk2tiny Moderated member Find all posts View Profile Close talk2tiny]

I have the tigerz11 one and I use the rhino rack instructions. Couple of points though. You can set it up if there's no breeze without guy ropes but if someone sneezes in the wrong direction, it'll flip up and over the car and snap the plastic hinges. On the plus side, ARB sells replacements for theirs for under $2 each and they fit the tigerz11 ones. I ordered a couple of spares and changed my broken one over in about 10 mins.

Also, there's enough room in mine to leave the poles extended when you pack it up. I leave the upright ones extended and just shorten the horizontal ones by enough to get them apart. Seems to work for me.