Even to experienced caravanners, accidents happen, but boy they damage the ego as much as the van. We had a little incident a couple of months ago but it has taken until now to be completely fixed so we can laugh about it now…I think.
Everyone has their method for getting their vans onto caravan park sites and when the sites take a bit of precision to make sure you’re looking out for immovable posts, other vans, other cars, trees, walls etc…it can sometimes feel like you need an air traffic controller to look for all the obstacles. Reversing cameras are wonderful things but there are so many other directions to keep an eye on too.
It was while reversing onto a site (and a usual one for us at that) that a little accident happened which saw our caravan come into contact with a tree branch and bump the arm of the awning from its housing and also rip the awning in the process. Sometimes that ‘I’ll have one more go to straighten up’ idea, is not a good one. A dislodged and bent awning arm and lots of swearing later, saw us headed off straight away to get some temporary repairs done so that we could continue with the holiday. (Not a good start to day one of 27!) Without the temporary repair we wouldn’t have been able to roll out the awning or set up our annexe.
A phone call to our insurers and photos taken to show the damage, and we were able to get a temporary fix of a second hand awning arm attached and awning patched by a (luckily) close by friend, and we were able to continue enjoying ourselves worry free for the rest of the holiday. Apart from the ribbing and dented ego, ouch!
On returning home we had the van in, for the damage to be assessed by the insurer, new parts and products ordered and repairs made. Now we have a brand new awning, arms etc…and a lesson learnt for what not to do in future.
A big thank you to our friends at Canvas Concepts at Kadina for the temporary repairs on the spot, RAA insurance and South Coast Caravan Centre at Port Elliot for the repairs and fitting of the new awning.
Happy (accident free) travels
Glenys
Caravan Correspondent 
These things are sent to test our patience aren’t they, it would have been so much easier on day 27 😂
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For sure! Luckily we had a friend who could get us out of a fix. 💩 😂
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I can imagine the ego damage.. certainly not looking forward to ‘being watched’ parking our van when we get it end of year/early next year. We will certainly be doing a towing course prior to getting out on the road but nothing beats practice and that takes time. I have had a bit of a break from blogging but now starting to get back into it so will be reading backwards on your entries to Dec (where I left off!). and taking notes on your SA adventures 🙂
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No worries! Probably a good idea to do a towing course for all the tips from the experts. You are never short of people to tell you how to reverse and set up in a caravan park though. 🙂
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Yea that’s what worries me 🙂
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Yep, accidents happen Glenys! On our very first trip in our new Journey one of the brackets on the awning broke. We fixed it, then it broke again six months later. The alignment on it is an ongoing issue so it’s booked in for a warranty fix! Frustrating to say the least. Glad you got yours sorted. 🙃
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Good thing that warranty will take care of it, we found waiting times and access to parts was a bit slow too, many more caravanners now 😁
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Oh yes, I know, even under warranty there’s a wait for repairs. But thankfully we can still use it in the meantime. 😌
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👍
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Yes, we’ve had one incident which involved a low stone fence and the side of our van. It was easily repaired but like you say the ego was dented too. If there is one thing I don’t enjoy about caravanning it’s being the air traffic controller. I hate giving the directions.
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I don’t think anyone will survive years of caravanning without at least one incident. As long as the givers and receivers of directions are on the same wavelength all is ok! 😉
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At least nobody was hurt. When I recounted to a friend how we had wrapped an awning around a school fence, she laughed. She told me that we’re not really caravanners until we wreck 3 awnings!
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😂 I’ll have to break that information gently to my husband.
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Now to get him really edgy…mates of our took newbies away to show them what fun caravanning is. They setup then went for a drive to see the sights. Then the park manager rang to say that a freak wind gust had deposited their awning on the roof! And I might add that our mate is the fussiest when it comes to tying his awning down.
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😬ouch that’s always a call you don’t want to get. At a regular holiday spot we go to the wind from a certain direction can be so damaging, that on those days and with an annexe set up, we don’t leave the van. On holidays if we’re in doubt at all we wind the annexe back in before leaving the van, for peace of mind but there’s not much you can do about those freak winds.
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