Caravanners thinking of buying an awning will quickly become aware of the number of caravan awning manufacturers out there – and the number of products each brand offers. It can subsequently feel like a tricky decision to know which make to go with, which is where this guide comes in.
Buying the best caravan awning can provide you with a great way of enhancing the available room you have when you’re on tour. Whether you’re looking to achieve an additional living area or want extra sleeping space once you’re pitched up, an awning is the answer. In short, they can make a real difference to a touring experience, and there’s a reason many will have them down on their list of caravan essentials.
When you’re choosing an awning, it’s not just a case of deciding whether you want to go for a traditional poled model or one of the best caravan air awnings, and making your mind up about the kind of fabric you want. Knowing which make to go with plays a big part too. However, with the wide array of caravan awning manufacturers out there, it can be hard to know which brand to go with.
To help you through this maze, we’re taking a look at the major caravan awning manufacturers out there, ranging from Bradcot and Dorema to Isabella and Vango.
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Caravan awning manufacturers
Bradcot
Camp Tech
Dometic
Dorema
Isabella
Miriad Quest
Olpro
Outdoor Revolution
Sunncamp
Telta
Trigano
Vango
The best caravan awning brands:
Bradcot
Website: www.bradcot-awnings.co.uk
Bradcot has been making awnings since the early 1960s. So, while it was the first company to bring out an acrylic awning, and the first to offer glass fibre poles – at a time when poled awnings was all there was – it is also steeped in tradition. That is why it was very proud earlier this decade to bring all its manufacturing back to the UK from the Far East, to its home city in Bradford – a move it celebrated by adding a discreet union flag to its branding.
The company’s most recent popular models include the Modul-Air V2, an inflatable awning which can be adapted to be either a porch awning or a full model.
Camp Tech
Website: www.camptech.com
Manchester-based Camp Tech has been expanding rapidly in the past few years, and as a result has moved premises on the business park where it is located to somewhere three times the size. The company is unusual in the awnings industry for being owned by the factory where the awnings are made, rather than being effectively a design company which contacts out the manufacturing.
Positioned perhaps slightly more at the budget end of the market, the company aims to make awnings that are affordable and easy to assemble, without compromising on materials. Popular models include the Atlantis DL, a poled awning designed for seasonal pitches with the highest grade fabric the company produces, exterior blinds and optional storm guys.
Dometic
Website: www.dometic.com
The brand may be called Dometic, but to many people its the Kampa name that will be more easily associated with popular ranges like the Club and the Rally. The Swedish company, which currently produces all manner of things for caravans – everything from fridges to toilets – took over Kampa in December 2018 in a deal worth £50m.
That would have been a sweet reward for the two directors behind Kampa, who in around two decades grew the company to become a market leader, thanks largely to their faith in inflatable awnings. Back at the end of the last century the company it was Kampa that first introduced the new technology to the UK market.
The takeover by Dometic has meant the demise of the blue square logo that made Kampa awnings instantly recognisable, but the ranges remain largely unchanged.
Dorema
Website: www.dorema.co.uk
Dutch company Dorema was founded in 1987, and now has a strong presence in the UK market, making regular appearances at the NEC shows and elsewhere. Working with its partners in the Far East, the company produces ranges of both poled and inflatable awnings.
These include the Daytona (available both as a poled awning or an inflatable), the Luxor and Horizon (both air awnings) and the Garda, Emerald, Onyx, President and Royal (all poled awnings). All are made using Tencate fabrics for added protection from the elements.
Isabella
Website: www.isabella.net
Isabella is often viewed as being the Rolls Royce of the awnings industry. The Danish company is renowned for making top quality awnings, often at a top price too. Despite the cost, however, the brand has a high reputation: it won both the full and the porch awning category in the most recent Owners Satisfaction Awards 2024, run by the Camping and Caravanning Club in association with Practical Caravan.
Founded in 1957 by Soren Odgaard in the basement of his house, the company has now grown to the point where Isabella awnings are sold in 35 countries around the world. Popular models include the flagship Ambassador Dawn, a poled full awning, the Commodore – 50cm deeper than the Ambassador at 3m, so ideal for a seasonal pitch – and the even deeper Forum and Penta Etna models. Isabella was relatively late in moving into inflatable awnings, but it now produces them under its own name and under its Ventura sub-brand.
Miriad Quest
Website: www.miriadquest.com
Formerly known as Quest Leisure, this West Midlands-based company was for many years the UK importer for the German Westfield brand of high performance air awnings – models like the Pluto 2XL full awning. It also produces poled and inflatable awnings under its own name – premium models like the Westminster, Kensington and Windsor, and more lightweight models like the Falcon.
In 2021 the company was taken over by Miriad Products, another leisure industry supplier, so that it now sells other brands as well, including Dometic.
Olpro
Website: www.olproshop.com
Founded in the Malvern Hills in 2011 by a husband and wife team, from the outset Olpro wanted to focus on providing camping products, including awnings, designed with both quality and sustainability in mind.
Since then much of the focus in awnings has been on campervan awnings, many of them highly innovative. But a few years ago the company did branch out into caravan awnings with the View Lite, a poled porch awning. The company is also unusual in selling almost entirely via its own website.
Outdoor Revolution
Website: www.outdoor-revolution.com
Having initially started out in a different industry, West Yorkshire-based Outdoor Revolution has been making caravan and driveaway awnings for over two decades now. Its caravan awnings are all inflatable models, and mostly porch awnings. They come in four ranges: the Sportlite Air and the slightly larger Eclipse Pro both feature single point inflation and two-point deflation. More recently the company has introduced the Eden Air.
Designed for short weekend trips where you want to be able to put up your awning quickly, this lightweight range is also finished in a striking black. Last year also saw the launch of the new Esprit Pro, featuring a more conventional pitched roof but also with a new innovative connective air frame sections of which can be connected and isolated to make repairs easier.
Sunncamp
Website: www.sunncamp.co.uk
Sunncamp is one of the oldest caravan awning manufacturers in the business, having been making tourer and motorhome awnings for nearly four decades. Its current model range includes everything from the Swift Air range of porch awnings to the Icon Air full awning, designed for seasonal pitches with a separate “eyebrow” canopy over each front window.
Many of its models come with annexes and with other features such as verandah poles. Most of its awnings incorporate its Air Volution inflations system, designed to be easy to use, even by just one person.
Telta
Website: www.mytelta.co.uk
Telta is a relatively new company, founded by people who used to run Kampa before it was taken over by Dometic. The company has already sought to differentiate itself from the rest of the market by producing awnings that are made of nylon, rather than acrylic or polyethylene.
The company claims nylon has considerably better elasticity than other materials rival use, which means you pump the air beams in the awning up to much higher pressure. That in turn means that you can get stronger support with fewer beams, and are less likely to get creases which can encourage condensation.
The company also designs its awnings to work both on caravans and on motorhomes (as non-driveaway models.)
Trigano
Website: www.trigano-camping.com
Trigano is of course the name of a French multinational conglomerate that owns a wide selection of motorhome brands (including, in this country, Auto-Trail, Autosleepers and Marquis Leisure). But it’s only when it comes to awnings that the company uses its name actually on a brand.
Trigano awnings used to be called Eurovent. They come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, and include the poled models Ocean, Prima, Goa and Guerande, and inflatable models including the Lima, Lagoon and Aruba.
Vango
Website: www.vango.co.uk
Scottish company Vango (the name is a mash-up of the Govan district of Glasgow where it started) is known for producing a wide selection of outdoor products, including tents, sleeping bags, rucksacks – and awnings. Its caravan awnings include everything from small Balletto porch awnings to the full-size Tuscany Air, with a bowed front designed for seasonal pitches.
Many models are made with the company’s Elements Proshield Fabric, which is highly waterproof and made with a ColourLok technology designed to prevent ultraviolet light causing colours to fade. And thanks to the new Vango Viewar augmented reality system, you can view many of these in 3D on the company website to see how the awning you are looking at might fit with your caravan.
Some caravanners who are only embarking on shorter stays may prefer the lighter weight provided by the best sun canopy for a caravan – our guide features products from some of the awning manufacturers mentioned here.
Before you buy one, it’s important to know how to measure a caravan awning too, to ensure you get the right one for your tourer.
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