Awning care

[Macca_75]

Morning all,

Does anyone know the best way to keep your awning looking in A1 condition?

I picked up the van yesterday to give it a clean.

Despite me cleaning (and allowing to dry fully) to awning before it went into storage a few months ago, when I bought it home it appears to have some mould.

I did my best scrubbing it with a broom and the bucket if soapy water I wash the van with (carwash). And then a gernie to get as much off as I can.

I came up better, but it's still marked.

Is there anything else I can do to keep it in better condition? I haven't used a cover to date (it's in the garage - must put it on next time). Likewise is there anything I can use to clean it better before I head off this time?

Some of the marks are tree sap and alike - it will get dirty with use - but the marks I am trying to avoid are mould, especially on the bottom of the awning once it's rolled out.

Thanks in advance.

 

[1DayIll]

saw this on another site. Have not done it but am going to try myself

The sure fire mould and mildew killer for all applications is 1 litre water to 1 litre white vinegar to 1 teaspoon oil of cloves. Spray on, leave a few minutes then rinse off. For a residual effect spray again and leave on. For really bad mould a little elbow grease may be necessary.... cheap and cheerful...........Cheers.

Source: https://caravanersforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=73783&p=1083520&hilit=awning#p1083520

May help

 

[Eddii]

I used mould remover (woolies brand) on my old van. I wet the awning first then spray on, leave for a few miniutes and then wash off. No scrubbing required, if there are some spots left then I repeat the process again. Seems to work well.

 

[Bushman]

My only piece of advice is do not use a pressure cleaner on the awning you run the risk of damaging the vinyl.
Awning also sweat when rolled up in the heat so hard to keep them total dry

 

[Macca_75]

My only piece of advice is do not use a pressure cleaner on the awning you run the risk of damaging the vinyl.
Awning also sweat when rolled up in the heat so hard to keep them total dry

Cheers. When I say I used the Gerni - it was to "wash" the soap off and not pressure clean the mould. Will keep it in mind. Thx

 

[Crusty181]

My brothers van awning was almost black, so disgusting and toxic I refused to walk under it. He purchased a retail Caravan Awning Cleaner from an accessory seller at one of the van shows and the result was nothing short of astounding. I purchased a (likely different) Awning Cleaner from the local Jayco dealer and the results were likewise pretty impressive. Mixed with water in a bucket like car wash, broomed on and hosed off. I washed it off with the Karcher

Cant offer the brands of either right now, but I suspect any caravan accessory shop would stock similar products. It wasn't expensive

 

[Drover]

I have found that cleaning the awning in the early morning so it can get a soak before before the sun cooks it, wash in truck wash and roll up dry hours later. Mine is out in the open so whole rig gets a tubs and polish every couple of months, but as mentioned they will sweat and be carefull of leaving a solution over it then rolling up as even the mildest solution will rot stitchings over time or stain. When on the road I give the inside a scrub when wet with early morning condensation, no chemicals needed.

 

[Bellbirdweb]

My brothers van awning was almost black, so disgusting and toxic I refused to walk under it. He purchased a retail Caravan Awning Cleaner from an accessory seller at one of the van shows and the result was nothing short of astounding. I purchased a (likely different) Awning Cleaner from the local Jayco dealer and the results were likewise pretty impressive. Mixed with water in a bucket like car wash, broomed on and hosed off. I washed it off with the Karcher

Cant offer the brands of either right now, but I suspect any caravan accessory shop would stock similar products. It wasn't expensive

I have a bottle of awning cleaner in the shed.

I’ve never used it, but I might need to give it a try based on this experience.

 

[Crusty181]

I read somewhere many years ago about coating the awning material stitching in a light film of UV clear stable silicone, which would invisibly protect the stitching from degradation from UV and weather exposure.

Sort of made sense and I thought it couldn't hurt so smeared a film of clear UV silicone along the stitching at the edge of the sail track. Some years time later I noticed the first 5 or so inches of the stitching along each of the front and rear edges of the awning had completely disintegrated; the first section of the awning which is exposed to the sun and weather when the awning is rolled up (along with the long sail track stitching)

The easy fix was to roll the awning out a metre or so, coat inside the folded material edge with silicon and roll the awning back up where the silicone it would dry, glueing the folded material together and fixing that issue.

I thought id better check the stitching along the edge of the sail track because that area is subject to exactly the same exposure and the stitching should be, to a major extent, rotted away as per the 2 ends. To my surprise the entire length of awning stitching was completely intact, clearly due to the coating of UV silicone. When I coated the long edge along the sail track in UV silicone way back when, I didn't do the side edge stitching which is the only area of stitching that ended up disintegrating.