An awning on your motorhome is a great asset both in terms of lifestyle and resale value. It gives you a place to relax outside the motorhome and extends the living area. Motorhomes or campers that have slide out kitchens or BBQ's will also find a awning a great advantage. The other great advantage is to give you coverage from the rain (but unfortunately not if it is windy as well). We had a large 19 foot awning on our bus and I loved the fact it was a one person operation to roll out and in so I did not have to rely on help to put it out when I wanted it.

You can even use your awning as a water collection system. From simple systems where you just empty the water collected into a bucket then pour the bucket full of water in your tank, o more sophisticated systems that funnel the water through a hose directly into the tank.

If you can not go the expense of an attached purpose built awning the sun shades available now are inexpensive, easy to put up and do not take up too much room in the motorhome. The advantage of a sun shade is that if is mobile and if you want to move it away from the motorhome - down by the water for example, you simply pick it up and move it.

Care of the awning is simple and will give it a longer life. Things to keep in mind are -
Ø Roll it up at night. You never know when a storm will blow up and it is not nice to be woken by an awning that is rattling in the wind and even worse to have to get out of bed to attend to it
Ø When rolled out keep one end lower than the other to ensure the rain will run off
Ø If water does collect remove it as soon as practical as the weight of the water may damage the awning
Ø Keep your awning clean - gentle soap and water with a soft broom will usually do the trick.