Thread: Van refurb

Our van annex has lived in a cupboard since we got the van. I still have the roll out awning attached. An annex is probably OK for permanents or something more than a month's stay.

A waste of space and time otherwise, I reckon.

Have you attached the awning to the van wall and not the roof? Easier to reach, ay.

Originally Posted by Saitch

Our van annex has lived in a cupboard since we got the van. I still have the roll out awning attached. An annex is probably OK for permanents or something more than a month's stay.

A waste of space and time otherwise, I reckon.

Have you attached the awning to the van wall and not the roof? Easier to reach, ay.

Yep attached to the wall, It would be too high hooked up to the pop up roof .
It is at the same height as the original annex

Horses for courses I suppose. We use my grandfathers van with his original full annexe. Once the van is chocked and leveled, it takes us about 20 minutes to put the full annexe up. Getting it down doesn't take much longer except if it's wet, then a bit of extra wiping required.

It's whatever you're used to I suppose.

Nice job with the awning. Got a pic of it out?

Originally Posted by BradC

Horses for courses I suppose. We use my grandfathers van with his original full annexe. Once the van is chocked and leveled, it takes us about 20 minutes to put the full annexe up. Getting it down doesn't take much longer except if it's wet, then a bit of extra wiping required.

It's whatever you're used to I suppose.

Nice job with the awning. Got a pic of it out?

Our first van an antiquated Jaco dove had a full awning and it was an absolute nightmare to errect, The one with this van is verry simmilar.
I had a full annex on the last van and Never used it in the 6 years that we had it, We did however always use the roll out awning.
I have had awnings on the last 4x 4WD's and they usually take 3-5 min to errect and peg down, The one on the van will be no different
I also still have a couple of awning extensions if I feel the need to close in or extend the awning which are fast and easy to add as well

When I fitted the awning to the van I screwed and glued (Sikoflex 252) a backing plate of 10mm PVC to the van and then screwed the awning to that and as I only did it this morning I want to let the sikoflex cure properly before deploying the awning, I will post images in a couple of days of it set up

By using this type of awning I have shaved off better than 50kg in poles and tarps and emptied out the front hatch which is quite a bit of a saving on a piddly little 14f van.

Our recently acquired van has a roll out awning and full annex, leaps ahead of the old style sail track annex of my parents van.
I set it up in the front yard and it takes hardly any time.

The awning on our Jaco expanda was electric Push a switch and it depolyed, I Do miss it as it was effortless to use.

The solar panels have finally arrived and I will install and wire them up this afternoon or tomorrow and I will be able to do a real time test running the 140l 240v fridge via the inverter.
I ran it for a couple of days with a charger hooked up to the batteries set at 6A and it maintained the batteries at 100% SOC So hopefully the 2x 250w panels will add enough power during the day to run this 24/7 without depleating the batteries too much overnight.

I finished sanding back the floor of the van, painted it and used those vinyl woodgrain tiles to replace the crappy lino flooring.

Still a fair bit of work to do yet as it is a 1978 vintage van and it is showing its age a bit But it is coming along nicely so far

Our 23' van came with 6 separate bags of canvas/annex.. we've tried to put it up once.. ( as did the original owners by the look of the canvas) but it was all too hard.. I'd probably save 100kgs by selling it and recoup 75% of the front tunnel bin...

Our 18' van only has a roll out awning and no annexe. We've never felt the need for anything more. Even the awning is rarely deployed.