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Recently bought a used Kampa XL from MattRS. It came with a figure of 8 fitting kit for attaching to Fiamma/Omnistore, which is what we've used.
No problem putting it up and I can see that we could driveaway, but I'm intrigued...what's the technique for actually driving back to it and "re-docking"? I can see how one could do it if we were using the "tied over the top of the van" approach, but (a) how would I position the van with precision to get it back into the figure of 8 and (b) how do you physically get it back into the figure of 8 when it's already erected/tied down? Or is it the case that if you want to driveaway/return, the figure of 8's a non-starter and you have to tether over the top?
Purely hypothethical questions for us...the driveaway aspect is more about it being tailored for motorhome use, when we're away for a weekend we tend to use the toad car to get out & about and leave the van in situ.
My experience is that the figure of 8 arrangement is OK for "lean-to" type awnings but a complete waste of time for drive-aways. Much simpler to just use the "tether over the top" technique.
______________________________________________________________ If you lend someone £20 and never see that person again, it was probably well worth it.
My method when I had veedubs was to assemble the awning and on the offside peg some hi vis tape parrallel to the wheels. At the front wheel fix a piece of timber with holes drilled through it and fixed to the ground by skewer peg. Then reverse off pitch and return by driving forward and keeping the tape alongside the offside wheels.
As I say, I doubt we'll use it if we're intending to driveaway - just got a driveaway type because the price was right and means it's definitely tall enough (we have a cheapie lean-to but find that if the land lies the wrong way, it's not tall enough).
"Tether over the top" would probably not work for us...motorhome's got Joddrell Bank, sorry satdish, on roof, so I'd be concerned with tangling up with that.
we just put 2 visible markers (yellow topped pegs) at the side of the tyres before driving off then its just an easy task to reverse into the same spot on your return, we have done this about 6 times and had no problems so far
I can drive away and reposition on return to within an inch or so.
When the awning is erected I run a string alongside the Driver side wheels to approx 2m in front of the van then alongside the front wheel centre I place a marker peg.
Upon our return from a trip out you simply align the wheels with the string whilst reversing to the marker peg. If used I also mark ramp positions. No problem about three minutes. Reconnect the tunnel to the awning rail and start cooking Dinner.
Whilst executing this manoeuvre in France I noticed the guy opposite watching closely. He came over congratulated me then said "tomorrow I will move the string and watch the results
Been using this method for about eight years on three different vans.
"Simples"
Appreciate what you're saying Steve & Cookies, but my question was less about how to position the motorhome, more about how you could refit to a figure of 8 connection (short of driving at a very slow snail's pace and having someone frantically threading into it). It's sounding like the answer is "you don't - if used in driveaway mode use the tether over the top approach".
I re-position the van then thread the figure of eight connection from each end of the tunnel top.
Our plastic female 8 sections are approx 1M long so I just feed them along the awning beading and male 8 section.
I have to stand on the stool to do this.
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France
