OLPRO DRIVE AWAY AWNING PRODUCT REVIEW

September 2020

WWW SCORE: 9/10

BRAND: Olpro Uno Breeze

PRICE: around £300

I BOUGHT FOR: £199 from NEC motorhome show

We chose this awning for a couple of reasons. The most important for us was that it has a sewn in groundsheet and full zip doors both sides – perfect for dog owners as you can unleash them and they can't go anywhere! (unless the dig/eat through it anyway which could be the case for some beagles 😂 🙈 ) but also our last pole awning got destroyed in some Scottish winds a while back so we wanted to try an air awning - and this was one of the only sewn in groundsheet, air drive-away we could find in our price budget at the time. You can read our thoughts on  pole vs air awning here

I was a little shocked at the size of it when it arrived in the post - especially compared to our old Decathlon gazebo tent thing, and it unfortunately will not fit under the bed like the old one used to... however having it 'attach' to the van, and that little bit bigger, sturdier and faster to put up definitely makes up for it. 

we bought ours for £299 from the caravan and motor home show held at the NEC in February 2020, as it was a pre order it took a while to turn up, and then covid hit so no one could go anywhere or do anything. As covid didn't seem to be going away anytime soon, we got the awning out in the back garden to just have a play -  and noticed it had a torn ground sheet due to the pegs being packed too tightly inside. Olpro were fantastic though, and even though it had been over a month since purchase, they exchanged it for us with no problem. 

For the second attempt we took a day trip out and  we were able to put it up properly in a field for a few hours - which sounds like a lot of effort but it really wasn't - as the name says it was a 'breeze'

Just lay it down, place it apx just under a metre from the van, peg in and start pumping - took 1min 32 seconds to inflate - I timed it - and apx 60 pumps of the pump. (The pump is quite a large and Cumbersome bit of kit to carry, and next time we go away were going to try it with a battery pump as they're a bit smaller to pack\store so we'll update the blog on how that goes!)  I'd also recommend that someone is inside guiding up the tubes while someone else pumps else the air can get trapped and the tubes get caught on each other. 

The awning has three ways of attaching the tunnel to the van: 

1) There is a built in strip for figure eight or attaching to a wind out awning (such as a Fiamma). You can buy magnetic awning adapters that attach to the top of your van to make the attached for figure 8. We have personally never used these, but have heard mixed reviews, especially when in use in high windy conditions, they can easily slip off the van. 

2) A sleeve for a pole and clamp, this is the way we attach to our van. The pole slides through the sleeve and drops into the guttering on the top of the van and uses three padded clamps to keep it in place. We find this to be a really secure way of attaching the awning, however most modern vans don't have external guttering, however you can buy rails to attach to a modern van for reasonable price for use of pole and clamp, and figure 8. They look stylish too and don't stick out like a sore thumb. 

3) Finally, the awning is provided with storms straps, 3 of which can be attached to the tunnel. The straps then go over the top of the van and are pegged into the ground on the other side. It works quite well, but it's not the most secure methods. It's also not a viable option if you have a full length pop top, as the straps can't go over the top, but work well with a 'tin-top' van. 

And un like our first time using a pop up toilet tent we had no one clapping us when we'd finally accomplished our task! 

A few months later camping restrictions were lifted and we were able to really try it out at our trip to Cannock chase for 3 nights. Where it rained none stop Friday night, and most of Saturday evening\night - perfect weather for testing an awning. 

Our only issues have been puddles/drips  where the strip/rail attaches to the van gutter - we think this is because our van is quite short so gravity is pulling the water down rather than flowing off the sides - same with the sides of the 'tunnel' because our vans small we have to have the sides tight which leaves a big over hang of material - which you need to make sure  folds outwards so that it doesn't catch the rain and  pour into your 'tunnel' area. I don't think this would be an issue for taller vans mind (our van is just under 2m tall)