Used caravan awnings can provide good value when looking for caravan awnings to enhance your travel experience with your caravan, motor home or rv vehicle.

The key factor with a used caravan awning is the saving that you can make from the original cost of a new one. This potential saving will vary from awning to awning depending on the age, condition and manufacturer of the awning originally.
When looking at used caravan awnings you will need to look out for the following:

1. Is the original manual still available? This can be very useful from the point of view of assembly(particularly if you are new to this) and to help you find replacement parts if the need should arise.

2. The manual can also provide you with a good check list to ensure that the used caravan awning that you are assessing actually has all the necessary parts to allow you to assemble it. Check that you are getting all the necessary frames, joints and parts to make a complete awning.

3. Have a good luck at the awning fabric and see that it is not torn, stretched or otherwise damaged. When you cover the frame of your awning it should be a good tight fit-otherwise you could be in for a rough time with draughts and the vagaries of the elements.The awning fabric will also play a role, if it is a good fit, in the structural integrity of your awning once assembled.

4. Awning fabric-the fabric of your used caravan awning will be an important consideration and you should look out for an awning fabric that is waterproof, perhaps coated in Teflon and UV stabilized to ensure that the sun does not fade your colors too dramatically over time. Plastic awnings are widely available on the market and work quite well but for the long term you are better looking at a better quality awning which may prove cheaper in the long run.

5. Look out for any signs of pole rust and discoloration caused by mildew and condensation during storage. You need to look also for signs of mildew which can occur when the awning is packed up without being dried out first. Mildew is a fungus that will attack your awning fabric.

These are just some of the things you need to look out for when considering used caravan awnings; in later articles we will look more closely at such issues as awning fabric, how to put up an awning and other awning related issues.