Berghaus Telstar Drive-Away Awning for Extending your Van or Motorhome Space, Inflatable Awning for Campervans and RVs, Part of the Berghaus Air Range, Grey, One Size

Product Information

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. Can move many of your items out of the campervan into the awning – frees up space in the van for general living.

The Galli has four airbeams to pump up, and this is a fairly simple process, which gets the blood pumping. It’s around two minute’s work per airbeam and so you can have a self supported structure up in around 8 minutes, and then it just needs connecting to your campervan and pegging out. The Galli comes with multiple ways of attaching to your campervan including straps, roofbar tabs and a kador strip – we used the latter on our Marco Polo. Can be ready to go off on a camping trip at the drop of a hat – gear can be stored inside at all times. Look for as many doors and windows as possible to maximize access and let in light. Watch out for velcro on the doors as this can let in air and water – much better to have full 2-way zips on all doors. Mosquito netting on some or all windows and doors is also useful, as are curtains. Our friends Al and Geb use the Vango Kela Air with their Eriba caravan, and I’ve had many evenings sampling Al’s whisky collection in his Kela whilst looking at the stars overhead. They soften the interior by using the fitted carpet which really helps make the awning a nicer area to spend time in, and it feels lovely underfoot.Wow! What a fantastic tent! We bought this air tent as an upgrade from a Coleman Mosedale 5 with front extension. We felt that the time was right to move onto an air tent as they have been around for a while now and we wanted the ease of being able to pitch a tent without the faff of poles getting snagged in sleeves or breaking. (And we're not getting any younger!)

It can be used as a daily driver and car replacement at home (we only have one vehicle in the household). 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 inWe’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 Uses a two pole design making it fairly straight forward to put up. Can be a little awkward to feed the poles through but once installed the pegs/guide ropes just need installing which essentially holds the structure up. The Berghaus Drive-Airway 300 Awning also features lantern hanging points, cable access, three windows and low levels vents. A fly mesh door keeps insects at bay and the groundsheet is sewn in place. The Drive Airway 300 weighs 3.65 kg and measures 3.9 x 3.0 metres with a height of 2.2 metres. 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.

The Cayman Air is a classic design which offers 300cm x 300cm of usable floor space with doors/windows on all three of the outward facing sides and excellent head height. The ground sheet is sewn in and cannot be removed. 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. 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.

Camping

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. We found that the Cayman is perfect for camping in the spring and summer months, but the material may be a little thin for 4 season usage unless you use a camping heater. A small negative we encoutnered is the use of velcro along the bottom of some of the doors instead of extending the zip around the whole perimeter. There was sometimes the risk of water getting in when raining because the velcro did leave some small air gaps. 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. The rear cowling has awning piping that is compatible with the Transporter fitting kit here which gives a really nice seal between the Transporter and Drive away awning.