I thought it might be useful to other caravanners and campers to write this guide to my routine for setting up and packing away a caravan awning using the * SCREW AWNING PEGS *
First question is: how many screw in pegs should I buy? The answer will not be the same for everyone, obviously. However, for our personal use, I need 14 pegs for my small porch awning, 16 pegs for my sun canopy awning, 24 pegs for my full awning and 30 pegs for my full awning with annex. I also useanother 6 pegs for pegging down our Satellite Dish Tripod. Obviously, the larger the awning, the more pegs you will need.
Second question is: which drill will I need? You will need a good quality battery drill with a powerful battery and preferably with a spare battery and mains charger. For our personal use, I bought a good quality, fully charged and reliable battery drill with a 24 volt battery and I always carry a spare battery and mains fast charger, just in case I run out of power before I'm finished pegging out. This can happen, specially in the winter time when putting up a large awning, asmost batteries run down quicker in the cold weather. However, for most winter use, I only use a porch awning, so one battery is usually enough.
If on a campsite pitch with an electric hook up, it is possible to use a mains powered drill, via a RCD for safety.
All drill typesshould only be used on drill mode only and NOT hammer mode as hammer mode will damage the self drilling point of the peg.
I usually find it best to set the drill to *Low* speed for pegging out,as the peg threads seem to bite into the ground easier, prevents over drilling whichmeans the pegs are held infirmer. For removing the pegs from the ground, I set the drill to high speed for no other reason that it is a bit quicker.
Into the drill chuck, I fit the 13mm hexagon socket mounted on a driver shaft and tighten the chuck.
I insert the peg's hexagonhead firmly into the driver socket (attached into the drill chuck) and put it through a washer, then through the rubber ladder strap, attached to the awning.
Holding the peg loosely by the washer between two fingers (allowing the peg to rotate freely in the washer) I then apply pressure to the peg through the drill, pressinginto the ground at an angle of /- 30 degrees, from top dead centre and start to drill the peg home, into the ground, until the peg is nearly home, (about two inches away from fullydrilled) and then stop drilling.
At this point, it is important to hold onto the rubber ladder strap (or guy rope), to stop it winding itself around the peg shaft, then finallydrill home the final couple of inches, until the peg head is as flush to the ground as possible.The above routine works for me on most ground conditions. Usually it takes me literally just a second to drill in each peg and about the same time to remove them again!
Sometimes, for very hard ground, I adjust my technique and do the following.
When pegging down into very hard ground, i.e., some hard standings, I drill the peg into the ground absolutelyvertically and straight down, as sometimes it is not possible to penetrate hard ground substrates at an angle. Also, I find I have to apply a bit more pressure to the drill, forthe peg to bite in and drill through some harder substrates.
I have used the same pegs now since 2004,they are even my original and very first set,and I have NEVER come across a grass or hard standing pitch that these pegs couldn't be effectively used on!
To remove the pegs from the ground, I do the following:
When taking the pegs back out again, by reversing drilling, I find it is best to apply a little pressure to the drill whilst pulling the rubber ladder strap slightly and then reverse drilling the pegs back out again.
Easy peasy! Job done!
Top Tip: Make sure your battery drill is charged and you actually remember to take it away with you! First time out with these pegs - I forgot to take the drill!
........and don't forget to take the battery charger.
Here's a recent picture of our awning, pegged down using drill in awning pegs. Very neat, flush to the groundand held in firm for the duration of our whole stay on site.
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