Guide to New York

If you're going to travel, you're going to want a way to live outdoors without being ravaged by the elements, and a caravan porch awning is a no brainer solution. Looking to protect your family from the weather on your next road trip? Follow these instructions.

Difficulty: Easy

Directions

Items You'll Be Using:

1. A canvas tarp

2. Tape Measure

3. Some Rope (nylon if you can)

4. Stakes for tents

5. Adjustable tent poles

6. Weatherproofing Scotchguard

Brainstorming Stage

This simple step is simply determining how big your caravan awning should be based on the space you have. Use your tape measure to figure out the caravan's length. Tarps made out of canvas can be obtained in many sizes, but most are around nine feet in depth.

Ordering Your Materials

Call up a verified canvas tarp seller and try to speak with someone who knows what they're doing. Let them know how big your caravan is and what you want to do with it, then order the tarp perfect for you.

Purchase Other Necessary Items

Any outdoors store will do -- simply purchase tent stakes and poles as well as that nylon rope. The best thing to do here is to get one hundred feet of the nylon rope and six tent poles. By using pre-made cuts, you can make the building process very simple. Assemble all your items together once your canvas tarp arrives, and get ready to put your caravan porch awning together. Give it a trial run at home before bringing it on the road.

Park In An Appropriate Area

Park your caravan in a large enough space that fit the awning you're desiring to build. The best thing to do is pick a spot with very soft earth. If you have to be somewhere not so soft, it's not the end of the world. For tar roadways, use tent stakes and metal nails to drive through the tar. For concrete, hammer a stake into a crack, which will also avoid unnecessary damage.

Getting Your Caravan Porch Awning Together

Flatten out your canvas tarp on the ground. Arrange it so that it is placed beside the caravan in the appropriate manner. Move one tent pole's tip into the grommet at a corner of the canvas tarp that is closest to the caravan, being careful to raise the corresponding awning's corner until that tent pole has become vertical. Keep this pole in the right position until a securing line is staked into the ground.

Installing Your Awning Line

This step is fairly simple, but extremely important. Designate fifteen feet of your rope for this task, knotting one end and making a loop of it so it will stay on the correct side of the canvas. Use this loop and carefully toss it over the high point of the vertical pole. This should allow you to fasten the other side with the stake, which will then be driven deep into the canvas tarp by the loop. Make sure the loose end rope is secured by a stake.

Finish The Tent Poles

Next, attach those last five tent poles into the caravan awning's grommets. There should be, at last, three awning poles for the rear and three for the front.

Keeping Your Awning Safe

Finally, spray that canvas tarp with some of the Scotchguard weatherproofing you purchased. Allow the caravan awning three hours to dry, then spray on a second coat. When dry, your caravan porch awning should be completely waterproof for years. When you're done with it for the time being, take apart your awning and keep it in a dry and cool place.