New products

Well! Just came back Germany, having been invited to the European product launch of Dometics' new motorhome awning. (written March 2011)

It was a fantastic demonstration! They had arranged two Hollywood style wind generators, which really were massive, and a full on fire engine, complete with extending ladder and hoses.

With a film crew present, it felt like the set of an epic disaster movie, which frankly we all thought that it would be at the end of the performance.

They had fitted two, fully self supporting Dometic awnings. On an “A” class Adria, they had fitted a four metre awning and on a low profile Adria they had fitted the three and a half metre version.

Both were electric operation and both had automatic wind sensors to close electronically in the even of the awning being left put in strong winds!

So there we were, people from Brownhills, Autosleepers, Marquis, Southdown Motorhomes, Dometic UK, ourselves from Van Bitz and many others from similar organisations from France, Germany, Slovenia, Italy. Frankly? we were all waiting to see the awning destroyed and potentially the brand new motorhome severely damaged. In short trashed and thrashed!

The presentation started and we were told that we are going to witness the replication of a force nine storm courtesy of the huge fans, whilst a monsoon style amount of water was going to be rained down on the awning and motorhome!

First the wind machines would be used, then the fire brigade would lash the set up using their high pressure pumps and then the wind and the water would be applied.

Now, I have to be a bit honest here! We had had a presentation before hand, and we had been briefed as to what we were going to see.

All the big guns were there, which gave an indication of just how serious Dometic take this product. Dometic top boss, head of RV sales, World Wide, Thomas Bählkow gave us a polished performance explaining why there was a gap in the European market for a new concept awning.

Frankly he persuaded me, that if nothing else, this tall, charismatic company boss would do what ever it took to make Dometic awnings the number one choice for European motorhome owners.

They then wheeled out their American awning “guru” who explained that Dometic in the USA had been huge in awnings in the States since the Eighties and in fact had launched the worlds first electric awning in the Nintieties and had the biggest market share in the states.

This then explained why Dometic would suddenly think they knew a lot about awnings: They obviously did.

A quick break for coffee allowed us all to “swap notes” As often the case, small local rivals, become allies in bigger, stranger lands. So in that little corner of Germany, Motorhome “Team GB” became as one.

“It will rip off” said one, “it will break and the bits will thrash the Adria to bits” said another! In short a hundred different doomsday scenarios were cheerfully predicted, all ending with the demise of the awning and massive damage to the Adira’s

“Ladies and Gentlemen! would you please collect a complimentary umbrella a proceed to the demonstration area”

As I said there was a professional film crew there to video the whole thing, and a promotional video will be available and on You Tube in a couple of weeks time, and I assure you that everything that you will see on the video was real and was not staged.

The awning extends near horizontal. And is its operation is smooth and quiet, extending an impressive three metres. Once fully out the demonstration started.

The fans were started and these two huge behemoth’s started to roar, almost immediately the awning started to rise and fall, but there was no movement between the case and the motorhome.

This proved what we had been told about the new design of knuckle/ shock absorber. As the wind speed increased the unit simply started to retract and, with little drama parked itself. This test was circa 30Kph

The same happened at 60 and 90 Kph

Then the Emsdetten fire brigade had a go at wrecking the awning, and again the awning simply coped with everything the best of the firemen could throw at it. It was explained that because it is self supporting, there are no legs, so the rain, in any quantity will simply run off the sides, there was no bowing in the middle to collect water and cause damage or potentially rip the awning fabric because the fabric is taught.

A combination of wind machines and the fire engines produced the same affects but simultaneously (other than we the observers got wet!)

Immediately afterwards, we and hand picked journalists that had been invited were allowed to crawl over the motorhomes. I being naturally cynic was the first in the door expected to see evidence of cheating! Nope, a standard installation, on a standard motorhome, had just withstood the combined force of two massive wind generators and a fire engine with no drama and more importantly no damage!

A very impressive demonstration and well worth travelling to Germany to witness!