Thisvweekend is the first chance we've h to erect our new Kampa Pop-air awning. Had no real issues erecting the awning but the gutter strip is a totally different issue. I just can't fit it at all. Tried it out of the box initially with no success. Then someone on Facebook suggested immersing it in boiling water to soften it and then trying. Tried it but it hardly softened and once again I couldn't fit it.
I'm totally and utterly peed off with it now. As the awning is likely to leak without fitting the gutter I'm tempted to send the whole lot back to Kampa as being unfit for purpose.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how best to fit the damn gutter.

Kevin

Sorry to be blunt but the only remedy is patience. The strip is plastic with a slot, the rail is metal so it stands to reason that with the application of downward pressure on the strip that the slot will give and the strip will click into place. It has to be a tight fit otherwise it won't fulfill the function of forming a rain barrier. Perhaps you are attempting to clip on too much of a length in one go. Try no more than a few centimetres at a time and once you've got half a metre on the rest will be easier.

I always find it easier with a slight rotation from the van roof side outwards while pushing down.

Only ever managed to get about 5cm on. Any attempt to get any more on just results in the first bit jumping off. And this is on a step ladder, of which I've no intention of carrying. I realise that I'll need patience to get it on but trying to put it up on site could be a nightmare.
I might even revert to the original awning which takes a couple of hours to erect. Might be quicker overall :-)

Are you attempting this on your own? It's definitely a 2 person exercise in my view with the second taking the weight of the strip that is still to be slotted on.

No. Had the missus holding one end whilst I tried pushing it down onto the rail. However after about 5 minutes I was in a foul temper and she walked away :-)

Thankfully, Troll is parked next to house so I can continue to practice. Need to have mastered it by the time we go away at Easter.

You can see it in this image

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can you leave in place when initially fitted. or fit every time you set up.

No - not at all advised. Although it's a tight fit it's not secured/fixed in any way so with any flexing of the van could fly off like a spring.

make sure your gutter is clean and spray some furniture polish on the rail..

These two images may be of some help to anyone wondering what the strip looks like, where it fits and it's intended function.

From the picture of the awning it can be seen that with the ridge poles in place (especially the vetical pole closest to the caravan) a very deep channel is formed between the awning and the caravan.

The Walker awning comes with extra canvas (seen in the picture of the strip) which is sufficient by itself to slip over the caravans awning rail. However, in the case of very heavy rainfall - where the caravan's rain gutter is swamped - excessive rainwater will flow over the rail and then into the channel created between this extra awning canvas and the caravan's rain gutter.

This in itself is no big problem but does put a lot of reliance upon the stitching of the awning around where the channel is formed. By clipping on the plastic strip one is in effect extending the height of the caravans rain gutter and in the instance where the caravan's rain gutter is overwhelmed, the rain will - hopefully - be directed more to the front and rear of the caravan. In practice, I always have the caravan leaning slightly forward so that (a) rain water will be directed to the forward gutter output and (b) so that the caravan door when open stays open and doesn't keep closing due to the slope of the van.

Since fitting the plastic strip we have been 100% dry in the awning with no slight dribbles as was previously the case. That said, there is another potential area that is susceptible to leaking and that is the deep valley that is formed directly behind the vertical section of awning closest to the caravan. To picture this more clearly, imagine standing in the caravan facing outwards. If you were to look out through the ventilation net in the pop-top you's look directly onto the vertical section of awning and the very deep channel formed (not the caravan's rain gutter) and we found it necessary to spray the awning stitching around this area using some awning re-proofer as we were getting the odd small leaks down the inside face of the caravan which at first we believed was the plastic strip not doing it's job.

Strip.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)Walker_4.jpg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)