Figure of 8 problems

Hi
I wonder if anyone can help.
I have a new ocean with factory fitted Thule awning, however when I attach my drive away the sliding door keeps catching the figure of 8 and separate the individual pieces.
Any suggestions?
Thanks in advance
Ray

Where do you connect the figure of 8? i put mine on the top edge of the wind out which makes reconnecting easy, it also raises it up slighly higher than putting it in the lower groove, i have no issue's opening and closing the door.

I poached this picture to try and illustrate.

Fish111111111. said:

Where do you connect the figure of 8? i put mine on the top edge of the wind out which makes reconnecting easy, it also raises it up slighly higher than putting it in the lower groove, i have no issue's opening and closing the door.

I use the rail just behind the leading edge of the wind ou

Click to expand...

Fish111111111. said:

Where do you connect the figure of 8? i put mine on the top edge of the wind out which makes reconnecting easy, it also raises it up slighly higher than putting it in the lower groove, i have no issue's opening and closing the door.

Click to expand...

Fish111111111. said:

I poached this picture to try and illustrate.

Click to expand...

This is how I attach mine, does clipping the figure of 8 to the top not scratch?

Fish111111111. said:

Where do you connect the figure of 8? i put mine on the top edge of the wind out which makes reconnecting easy, it also raises it up slighly higher than putting it in the lower groove, i have no issue's opening and closing the door.

Click to expand...

Hi I’m assuming you don’t keep this figure of 8 in situ all the time - do you keep strips in van then just put on and off the awning casing when you are on site?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Fish111111111. said:

I poached this picture to try and illustrate.

Click to expand...

Full thread in link below
one picture doesn’t tell the full story

the plastic Figure 8 strips don’t scratch , however I’ve got helicopter tape of the front casing of mine so won’t show any scratches

California Dreamer said:

Hi I’m assuming you don’t keep this figure of 8 in situ all the time - do you keep strips in van then just put on and off the awning casing when you are on site?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

I have tape on the top edge to prevent any issues and only use/ connect them whilst using the awning.

If you watch the video from "campervan time" title "The best campervan awning yet" on you tube you will see how to fit the awning and not have your issues.

Fish111111111. said:

If you watch the video from "campervan time" title "The best campervan awning yet" on you tube you will see how to fit the awning and not have your issues.

Click to expand...

Thanks

I use the strips on my awning casing - no scratches yet. You have to open it slightly to attach and wind in to make secure. Solves problem of awning catching the sliding door .

Not sure I quite understand the pics I've seen above. This is how I fit mine. First open the fixed van awning a few inches then fit the fabric and plastic profile strips as shown below.



Then close the awning. The 'tent' fabric profile will fit into the remaining plastic profile slot. and the sliding door should slide just underneath the tent fabric. It is close so its important to be careful opening the door.




The photo above is just for illustration, showing how the tent should clear the door. In practice one fits the fabric profile to the fixed van awning, as shown. Then, with the tent held roughly in place slide the plastic figure of 8 over the two fabric profiles, the one already attached to the fixed van awning and the one attached to the tent.


Hope this hasn't added further confusion

mountainman said:

Not sure I quite understand the pics I've seen above. This is how I fit mine. First open the fixed van awning a few inches then fit the fabric and plastic profile strips as shown below.

View attachment 114460

Then close the awning. The 'tent' fabric profile will fit into the remaining plastic profile slot. and the sliding door should slide just underneath the tent fabric. It is close so its important to be careful opening the door.

View attachment 114461


The photo above is just for illustration, showing how the tent should clear the door. In practice one fits the fabric profile to the fixed van awning, as shown. Then, with the tent held roughly in place slide the plastic figure of 8 over the two fabric profiles, the one already attached to the fixed van awning and the one attached to the tent.


Hope this hasn't added further confusion

Click to expand...

We attach the plastic figure of 8 to the top of the casing of the awning. It clips on. Reason we do this is to raise the awning above the sliding door.

I used to use the awning beading channel but attach it in such a way that the tent awning fabric is taut with about 5-10cm of the wind out awning still out. That lifts it above the door and the figure of 8 is away from it.
To be honest we mostly use a Quechua base seconds now and haven’t attached an awning for about 3 years which is another solution.

mountainman said:

Not sure I quite understand the pics I've seen above. This is how I fit mine. First open the fixed van awning a few inches then fit the fabric and plastic profile strips as shown below.

View attachment 114460

Then close the awning. The 'tent' fabric profile will fit into the remaining plastic profile slot. and the sliding door should slide just underneath the tent fabric. It is close so its important to be careful opening the door.

View attachment 114461


The photo above is just for illustration, showing how the tent should clear the door. In practice one fits the fabric profile to the fixed van awning, as shown. Then, with the tent held roughly in place slide the plastic figure of 8 over the two fabric profiles, the one already attached to the fixed van awning and the one attached to the tent.


Hope this hasn't added further confusion

Click to expand...

We did this originally, but found that our awning fouled the movement of the sliding door,in our experience

mountainman said:

Not sure I quite understand the pics I've seen above. This is how I fit mine. First open the fixed van awning a few inches then fit the fabric and plastic profile strips as shown below.

View attachment 114460

Then close the awning. The 'tent' fabric profile will fit into the remaining plastic profile slot. and the sliding door should slide just underneath the tent fabric. It is close so its important to be careful opening the door.

View attachment 114461


The photo above is just for illustration, showing how the tent should clear the door. In practice one fits the fabric profile to the fixed van awning, as shown. Then, with the tent held roughly in place slide the plastic figure of 8 over the two fabric profiles, the one already attached to the fixed van awning and the one attached to the tent.


Hope this hasn't added further confusion

Click to expand...

I think what you’re showing there is the normal / commonly used method, using the groove provided by Thule for the purpose. Like the OP’s experience we attached our drive away like this for a year, and often the side door fouled the plastic strips, depending on the how level the ground was. After a thread discussion we followed advice from @Perfectos . We do this for our drive away, and the Outwell side tarp.

I noticed that the awning housing was starting to show a tramline mark after clipping the strips onto the top a few times, so I’ve now added the helicopter tape and this seems to work fine.

Two further advantages we’ve found clipping on the top, water doesn’t drip through nearly as much (as the top connection is higher than the tunnel of the awning - not the other way round), and there’s almost no gap exposing the wind out awning canvas to the elements. There is one downside - because we’re not using a kador strip, when detaching the drive away you can’t just whip this out, you release the tension by winding out 150mm and then push off the plastic strips. Reverse needed to reattach. We did try and use a kador strip once, and a second set of fig of 8 strips, but it was a nightmare as the assembly wasn’t stable enough when setting it up.

Here’s a couple of photos. The final photo doesn’t show the connection, but does demonstrate the angle and the tunnel canvas falling away from the van connection.