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. They say big is beautiful and that’s certainly the case with this new addition to the Berghaus range. 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 Sold as a very cosy 4 person bolt on to your transporter. Definitely sleeps 3 easily, 4 people if you are small! Sewn in ground sheet plus mosquito netting on the doors makes for a comfortable bug free night sleep.

The Telstar 8 is a traditional tunnel tent with a large front porch area that can accommodate up to eight campers and comes with four breathable Nightfall bedrooms designed to keep the early morning sunshine at bay. If you have used this product please leave a review, or your comments for other visitors, many thanks! In contrast to the Outdoor Revolution Cayman Air and the Kampa Cross Air, none of the side-walls or doors on the Kela Air will zip out, and this is the only reason we rate it slightly lower than those alternatives. The large front door on the Kela can be rolled away to give fantastic air circulation and there is also a fly mesh layer here to keep zipped in if you don’t want bugs getting in. It’s worth noting that there is always a lip at the bottom of the front door aperture and you can occasionally trip over that if you’re not observant (or if you’ve had too many single malt whiskies!). Conclusions

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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.

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. 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. We’ve thought long and hard about which product is the best drive away awning with a compact layout. In terms of the combination of price vs performance vs flexibility we really can’t see beyond the Kampa Dometic Cross Air awning. It uses excellent fabrics with clear window technology and can be very easily rearranged to adjust the layout to exactly how you want to use it. In our view, it’s close to perfection for short to medium length trips. Design and Layout So what’s so good about the Cross Air? Well firstly the square shape with steep walls and high head height maximizes the internal volume, but it’s really the flexible, modular design which really impresses.We love the windows and doors on the Galli Air – there are three large, clear windows on the main outer length of the awning and some smaller side windows either side of the main door at the front. There is also a useful hatch from the tunnel into the main living space to poke your electrical extension cable through.

The Berghaus Drive-Airway 300 Awning also features lantern hanging points, cable access, three windows and low levels vents. A fly mesh door keeps insects at bay and the groundsheet is sewn in place. The Drive Airway 300 weighs 3.65 kg and measures 3.9 x 3.0 metres with a height of 2.2 metres. The Berghaus Telstar Drive Airway Awning is a very large inflatable Motorhome extension. It adds 2 bedrooms and extra living space to your camping setup. This luxurious awning is built to the same high specification used on the Berghaus range of air tents. The flysheet is fully waterproof with taped seams and the fabric has been tested to a hydro static head of 6000 mm. The groundsheet is sewn in to keep water and draughts out.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. Our personal preference for UK camping is to use a campervan over a tent or caravan, but it’s clear that it is a very personal choice. For us, our Mercedes Marco Polo camper works really well due to it:

Time to put up can be fast – we put up an inflatable drive away awning in under 8 minutes, and we weren’t really trying.The Galli Air is a large drive away awning, available in both “ Low” and “ Tall” variants, for different heights of campervan – we’ll concentrate on the more popular “Low” version in this summary. 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 awning piping is suitable for a 4mm or 6mm drive away kit to create a strong water tight seal between the Transporter and awning.