How To: Campervan Awnings in Different Weather Conditions

Are you thinking of buying an awning but you’re not sure how it might perform in different weather conditions, or you don’t know the right thing to do if bad weather occurs whilst you’re away? Don’t worry, we’ve written this blog to give you all the tips on how to take care of your awning whilst you’re away, no matter the weather.

Hot, Sunny Weather

Hot, sunny weather is usually not an issue when it comes to camping with an awning. However, some campers do experience some issues when they leave their awning up for the duration of extreme heatwaves, or the duration of the summer period.

Leaving your campervan awnings up constantly in extreme heat and direct sunlight can have quite an effect on the longevity of your awning. The UV rays from the sun can often cause:

• The fabric to fade on your awning
• The UV coating to disappear
• Damage to the fabric such as becoming brittle, flakey, or breaking away easily
• Less protection for the persons in the awning against UV rays which can cause sun burn

Now this does sound pretty extreme, but this is what happens if you leave your campervan awnings in direct sunlight during extreme heatwaves, or for a long period of time such as the whole summer season. Most campervan awnings can withstand extreme heatwaves, but this does affect the time period in which you will have to reproof your campervan awning with UV coating spray.

Usually, we’d recommend reproofing your campervan awning every 2-3 years. However, if your campervan awning has been exposed to extreme heatwaves or has been pitched for the duration of the summer season, we’d recommend reproofing your campervan awning a lot sooner. For example, if you have had your campervan awning pitched in extreme heatwaves for 1 month, we’d recommend reproofing it after 1 year. This is just to ensure that the awning is well protected for your next trip away and that the longevity of the awning is prolonged.

Wet Weather

Wet weather isn’t usually a massive problem for campervan awnings as all OLPRO awnings are waterproofed and tested during the manufacturing process. However, we do sometimes find that some customers do run into some issues with wet weather that are easy to fix.

If you find that your awning is leaking slightly from the seams, it can often be down to a couple of reasons:

• Pitched on an incline – If you’ve pitched your awning on a slight incline, this can cause rain to run directly into your seams or for water to pool in certain areas. We’d recommend ensuring that you are pitched on flat ground and to ensure you follow the pitching instructions to ensure that water doesn’t pool on your awning.
• Your awning might need reproofing - If you’ve had your campervan awning for a few years, it might be that you need to reproof your awning. As we said earlier, all OLPRO awnings are waterproofed so you shouldn’t have to reproof your awning for around 2 years after purchase. However, if you do have an older awning, you might want to reproof your awning more often to ensure the longevity of the awning.

Some of you may be thinking, how do I know when to reproof my Campervan Awning? Well, it is quite easy to recognise when your campervan awning needs to be reproofed. Here’s what to look out for:

• Water not beading that well on the campervan awning
• Water not rolling off the campervan awning as well as it used too

Once you start to recognise these signs; we’d recommend reproofing your campervan awning.

You can order reproofing solution over on our website here:

Stormy Weather

Stormy weather can often be unpredictable, and we’d always recommend making sure that you look out for the weather forecast on the morning when you go outdoors. We have some recommendations for you if you do happen to be camping when a storm occurs, or if you decide to go camping despite weather warnings.

• Take down your campervan awning – We’d recommend taking down your campervan awning if there are incredibly strong winds. Whether you have a poled or inflatable tent, strong winds can often break or disfigure your campervan awning. So, to ensure this doesn’t happen, take down your awning as quickly and as safely as possible.
• Reposition your campervan awning – Depending on the type of winds, we’d recommend repositioning your campervan awning. What we mean by this is moving your campervan to a different position where your van would face the winds direction and where your van can then protect your campervan awning. This will avoid the breakage of poles or disfigurement of poles and air beams.
• Relocate your pitch – With most storms you have a combination of strong wilds and torrential rain. If your pitch starts to flood, we’d recommend trying to relocate to a better pitch where there is no flooding or to take down your campervan awning completely. Your campervan awning might withstand flooding, but it may damage your awning and be harder to dry out or clean.

We hope this blog can help you understand the risks of different weather conditions and how to take care of your campervan awning so that it lasts you a long time for many happy camping adventures.