Over the past nine days since my last post the wet weather has continued.....
Luckily for us the area we are in has not suffered any flooding unlike some places in the north of the country......
We heard that one of the camping sites that we know well in the Lake District has suffered badly with flooding. We saw some images of the site following the floods and it was staggering to see the damage caused by the flood water.....frightening to see how easy a caravan can break up with the force of the water.......
What we have had though have been some strong winds.....
The pitch we are on is quite well protected from most normal winds but a few nights ago we had quite a major storm with some huge gusts of winds that caused Eva to do a lot of rocking and rolling.....
Tucked up in our beds it was a scary experience..... You could hear a gust coming before it hit us..... It sounded like a locomotive as it roared over the moor towards us and we held our breath as a few seconds later the gust would hit the caravan with a bang......
No damage was done to either us or Eva but it was an uncomfortable few hours.....
We still have the awning erected as it is a four season model and we do have it pretty firmly anchored to the ground.
We have two sets of sprung storm straps across the entire roof, three porch tie down storm straps and also wall ties with bungee cords as well as all the normal pegged down fittings ......
So far we have not even had a peg pull out.....
Where the sprung webbing storm straps go over the awning poles at each side as well as the centre ridge I have used plumbers pipe insulation as a protective measure.
The idea is that as the straps have springs at one end so that there is a bit of give in the wind, they will move within the tube and therefore avoid any abrasion damage being caused to the awning material....
One other tip that is worth remembering when using storm straps such as these is to put a couple of twists into the webbing before pulling it tight.... this stops the webbing vibrating in the wind and causing a noise like a machine gun in strong winds.......
When we were staying at the site in Verwood, a motorhome on a pitch near to us had his awning out and held down with some webbing straps, but because he hadn't put any twists in the webbing the noise the straps were making in even a light wind became very annoying and we were about fifty feet away from him... the noise inside the motorhome caused by those straps must have given him a few sleepless nights....
Today we had a wind and rain free day and the mild weather we are experiencing is pretty amazing for this time of year so we are enjoying it for as long as it lasts....
Luckily for us the area we are in has not suffered any flooding unlike some places in the north of the country......
We heard that one of the camping sites that we know well in the Lake District has suffered badly with flooding. We saw some images of the site following the floods and it was staggering to see the damage caused by the flood water.....frightening to see how easy a caravan can break up with the force of the water.......
What we have had though have been some strong winds.....
The pitch we are on is quite well protected from most normal winds but a few nights ago we had quite a major storm with some huge gusts of winds that caused Eva to do a lot of rocking and rolling.....
Tucked up in our beds it was a scary experience..... You could hear a gust coming before it hit us..... It sounded like a locomotive as it roared over the moor towards us and we held our breath as a few seconds later the gust would hit the caravan with a bang......
No damage was done to either us or Eva but it was an uncomfortable few hours.....
We still have the awning erected as it is a four season model and we do have it pretty firmly anchored to the ground.
We have two sets of sprung storm straps across the entire roof, three porch tie down storm straps and also wall ties with bungee cords as well as all the normal pegged down fittings ......
So far we have not even had a peg pull out.....
 |
| The Awning Fully Anchored Down... |
The idea is that as the straps have springs at one end so that there is a bit of give in the wind, they will move within the tube and therefore avoid any abrasion damage being caused to the awning material....
 |
| Another use for Pipe Insulation.... |
When we were staying at the site in Verwood, a motorhome on a pitch near to us had his awning out and held down with some webbing straps, but because he hadn't put any twists in the webbing the noise the straps were making in even a light wind became very annoying and we were about fifty feet away from him... the noise inside the motorhome caused by those straps must have given him a few sleepless nights....
Today we had a wind and rain free day and the mild weather we are experiencing is pretty amazing for this time of year so we are enjoying it for as long as it lasts....
Glad to see you back in action and it is great that you are not affected by the flooding.
ReplyDeletePipe insulation sure has a lot of uses, doesn't it?
Have a Beautiful Day, Trevor!
Peace :)
We used to use the trick of putting a twist in straps holding canoes down on roof bars to stop the noise.
ReplyDelete*GreenComotion*
ReplyDeleteCertainly does have lots of uses Chandra... I use it to protect my bikes in transit to name another of it's many uses.. :-)
*Bob Andrews*
Yes...It's a simple trick but it certainly works well Bob.....