The Berghaus Telstar Drive Airway Awning fits camper vans and motorhomes with a rail height between 180 and 210 cms. An extension sleeve is available as an extra to allow the awning to fit vans with rail heights up to 240 cm. It is a tall awning with most of the head height being 6'9". Two darkened bedrooms are provided and there is still lots of living space. Four large windows, ventilation points and mesh doors provide plenty of light and fresh air. The groundsheet is sewn in There is plenty of space inside the Galli Air, with usable internal floorspace dimensions of 320 x 385 cm with a generous head-height allowance of 210cm. On top of this, there’s a great front porch area which is covered and enables you to sit out with your cup of tea, even if it’s raining. The internal floorspace has a sewn in groundsheet, and it’s worth using an additional footprint or segment of tarpaulin to protect it on gravel pitches. Our friends Al and Geb use the Vango Kela Air with their Eriba caravan, and I’ve had many evenings sampling Al’s whisky collection in his Kela whilst looking at the stars overhead. They soften the interior by using the fitted carpet which really helps make the awning a nicer area to spend time in, and it feels lovely underfoot. The rear cowling has awning piping that is compatible with the Transporter fitting kit here which gives a really nice seal between the Transporter and Drive away awning. The ground sheet on the older models uses elasticated toggles to fit nicely to the side walls of the awning creating a really nice water tight seal around the base of the awning. Even on saturated ground, the ground sheet creates a water tight lip roughly 2 inchs high. You would have to be pitching in a lake to leak over them! As part of the facelift however it is now sewn in (which I have not yet personally seen or tested but it sounds promising!)

The drive away ability of this awning it really simple. Just slide the piping out of the fitting kit on the side of the vehicle and you are good to go. Awning Size – are you after maximum floor space or just a porch extension to your campervan? Equally, do you typically just go away for a weekend or camp for weeks at a time? The answer to these questions will determine what size of awning you should buy. A massive awning will take longer to put up and use up more storage space when travelling. Our camping is typically for a weekend with the occasional week thrown in during school holidays, and so we don’t need the biggest awning on the market. If you’re interested, we currently primarily use the Kampa Cross Air with additional sleeping pod and are very pleased with it. Comes with straps that can be used around the Transporter if you do not have a piping fitting kit to the side of your Transporter however this is best used when the wind is low as it does not give the best seal and wind can get under the join.. The Cayman Air is a classic design which offers 300cm x 300cm of usable floor space with doors/windows on all three of the outward facing sides and excellent head height. The ground sheet is sewn in and cannot be removed. You really cannot go wrong with a Vango drive away awning, and the Vango Kela Air is a great compact product with that traditional quality feel which we’ve come to expect from the team. It’s available in a more budget-friendly ‘Sentinel Pro’ polyester version as well as a more expensive polycotton or technical cotton (TC) Kela Air which is longer lasting and cooler on scorching hot days. Design and LayoutWe specifically went for this tent as it comes with a fully enclosed porch area but with the versatility to remove the doors. The porch has its own footprint and we used this area for our kitchen. The Galli has four airbeams to pump up, and this is a fairly simple process, which gets the blood pumping. It’s around two minute’s work per airbeam and so you can have a self supported structure up in around 8 minutes, and then it just needs connecting to your campervan and pegging out. The Galli comes with multiple ways of attaching to your campervan including straps, roofbar tabs and a kador strip – we used the latter on our Marco Polo. The Berghaus Drive-Airway 300 Campervan Awning has a fully waterproof flysheet tested to a hydro static head of 6000 mm. The PVC plus air tubes are really strong and an air pump and repair kit are included. Sold as a very cosy 4 person bolt on to your transporter. Definitely sleeps 3 easily, 4 people if you are small!

Look for as many doors and windows as possible to maximize access and let in light. Watch out for velcro on the doors as this can let in air and water – much better to have full 2-way zips on all doors. Mosquito netting on some or all windows and doors is also useful, as are curtains.

As you can see from the photos in this article, we’ve tested a wide range of drive away awnings for our camper van, from Vango to Kampa to Outdoor Revolution. So what are the best features to look for? It can be used as a daily driver and car replacement at home (we only have one vehicle in the household). We found that the Cayman is perfect for camping in the spring and summer months, but the material may be a little thin for 4 season usage unless you use a camping heater. A small negative we encoutnered is the use of velcro along the bottom of some of the doors instead of extending the zip around the whole perimeter. There was sometimes the risk of water getting in when raining because the velcro did leave some small air gaps.

Uses a two pole design making it fairly straight forward to put up. Can be a little awkward to feed the poles through but once installed the pegs/guide ropes just need installing which essentially holds the structure up. So what exactly is a drive away awning? Well it is simply a tent-like structure which differs from a tent in just one crucial area: it can be temporarily attached to your campervan or motorhome to create an entrance tunnel into or out of your vehicle. Wow! What a fantastic tent! We bought this air tent as an upgrade from a Coleman Mosedale 5 with front extension. We felt that the time was right to move onto an air tent as they have been around for a while now and we wanted the ease of being able to pitch a tent without the faff of poles getting snagged in sleeves or breaking. (And we're not getting any younger!)

Caravans

The age old controversy as to whether a caravan, campervan or motorhome is the ‘best option on wheels’ for camping trips rages on. To be honest, we’re still none the wiser as to which would win in a head to head scrap – they all have particular strengths and weaknesses. However, campervans and motorhomes have an ace up their sleeve – they can easily be expanded in size using a drive away awning. Awning Height – most models of drive away awning come in multiple heights, so be sure to choose the right height for your van, otherwise the tunnel section may not attach correctly to it. The smaller campervans such as the VW California/Transporter or Mercedes Marco Polo will use a “low” awning (perfect for vans in the 180 – 210cm range). Large motorhomes will require a “Tall” size which typically ranges in the 245 – 295cm range. Mid-height vans will use a “Standard” or “Midline” height in the 205 – 245cm range. They say big is beautiful and that’s certainly the case with this new addition to the Berghaus range.