Hi we have a vw transporter van and this summer we are hoping to use it more than usual. With the addition of a dog to the family we think it would be easier to have an awning which the dog can sleep in and also be a living area in the evening when my son is in bed and also during bad weather. What we want is an awning we can attach to the van but leave standing when we drive away. Does anyone have any recommendations?

T5 Forum is the place to go. There are number of option for how you attach it to the van too.

FWIW, there’s a strong train of thought that a seperate pop-up tent placed next to the van is as good, cheaper and less hassle…

Outwell coastal road drive away awning fits T5s as my mate has one easy to put up!
[url=https://flic.kr/p/ehssuf]happy Campers![/url] by Richard Munro, on Flickr

Bought one of these a month ago, absolutley brilliant 😀

http://www.khyam.co.uk/detail.asp?p=791&product=Motordome%20Sleeper

Bought one of these a month ago, absolutley brilliant

How much?!

It’s quality and will last, buy cheap replace after a year or so with a decent amount of use which will cost the same as buying that one inthe first place 😉
Also how many nights rent of a holiday cottage would that be, based on the familys one in St Ives about 3 in peak season.

I’m with Nettles.

We’ had a drive away awning tent once – it was hateful.

Much happier with a simple awning sheet – takes second to install, slips into the Reimo multirail. And a Quechua pop up tent to use as a base camp for sleeping/eating in etc.
Money shot:

grubby washing shot:

I’m with Nettles

I wish *heartsaflutter*

Yeah but it takes about 10 seconds to pull the kador strip out a discounnect from the van and you have a nice little porchy bit to put dirty kit in.
For races/events we have the marquee that’s separte which also works quite well, but a different application.

If you really want an exspensive one look at the inflatable beam driveaways 😯 which take longer to put up that my one ?! also sure I’d manage to puncture it fairly quickly 😉

bought me a Kyham Drivaway Sleeper the other day cheaper, version of the one above, to replace my old awning. Not put it up yet, job for the weekend

http://www.khyam.co.uk/detail.asp?p=744

Drive away awnings are ideal, stops you losing your pitch and you don’t have to pack everything up all the time.

We got a Vango Inflatable Airbeam. We tried the cheap drive away tent route but it was a two man job to put up, takes longer made more difficult with two kids under the age of 3 to look after. Now its just peg the corners out and inflate two beams in seconds and it erects itself.

we’ve got one like the kyham single room pop up things, quite old but fine for £70 odd quid we paid of it locally off gumtree. only really use it for family camping weekends/race weekends where we’ll be staying in the same spot for a few days (we tend to get around by bikes/walking when we’re there so haven’t even used the drive away function yet!) but the pop up mechanism is great and makes it much quicker to put up than the pole systems. rest of the time when we’re just out and about or travelling around we use a tarp fixed to the van with poles/clamp method and some steel poles/guys to put it up to keep the rain off (like Stoners pic) – really simple, takes up no space in the van (awnings are massive) and you can put a tent up next/under it too if need more space or mates camping too