The Bus Shelter

The unfortunate delay with the supply of awnings 'in red' from one supplier has caused me to go elsewhere. So I've just put an order in with these guys as I like its flexibility and Lilyvdub's green version impressed me at last year's Sleepover.

http://www.the-bus-shelter.com/

£130 delivered for the 3 pole version using a figure-8 attachment.

Should be here in 14 days.

Looks good.

Canopy turned up today. It's proper RED!

Does that mean you are REaDy for your next adventure?!

Almost!

Just looked at their website and although I'd like one of these, especially after seeing it in the flesh at CJ, but disappointed to note they don't have anything remotely yellow. Now in a quandary as to what colour to get ....

Why not try the Sunflower version from the other suplier - just like Tallulah
(Both Kombis are virtually the same colour)

The sunflowers are now also out of stock.

Hi Tim when are you crossing the water.

Very soon .....

Here's hoping for some decent sunshine for you!

Would be interested in your opinion in the quality of the sun shade. Have been searching the web for suppliers as funkyleisure are out of stock and dont look to get any more this year. There is quite a difference in price, is yours much higher quality than the funky ones?

Not had a chance to erect it yet Matt, but I liked both lilyvdub's and Roobarb's, so bought on the basis of their recommendations.

We bought our Bus Shelter at Vanfest 2008, whilst Danbury were still giving birth to Roobarb. Since then it has been used numerous times both as a sun and rain shelter. Cloth quality is excellent, and the tube and clamp mounting system is quick and secure.

Sunny, the Royal Blue option would look good with yellow. It'd look good with orange too!

Hi Matt

We have the funky leisure canopy

While it is serviceable and we have used it for two years now it does have limitations

The eyelets are made from chromed steal so rust quite easily not a major problem obviously but does diminish from the look

Also the strengthening at the corners is only an extra layer of the same polyester so that also pulls under tension

The two biggest complaints though is that they are not totally squared which means that you always have some give on one side if pitching it pitched roof so to speak using only a single pole or one high two low poles this means that as we tend to camp a lot in quite windy parts of the basque and cantabrian coast as well as the Pyrenees this year iit has developed a definite twist this isn't helped by the design of the channel for the gutter pole which really needs to captive areas at each end for the canopy rather than depending on the tension built up by pressing the canopy against the gutter. The middle clamp has a captive area but one is not enough to stop the channel riding up the gutter pole even slightly if the wind hits it for a long period

But my biggest bug is possibly the easiest for funky to fix. There are only 4 eyelets on the canopy two on one edge and tŵo along the middle line this makes pitching it as a totally stand alone canopy a pain as you have to use the gutter pole as a guy anchor point which is not ideal just the addition of two eyelets would change this. We tend pitch it as a separate canopy quite a lot over our table area so that we can just head off into the blue yonder easily so I guess for us it is quite an issue

Waterproof wise it is like any 1500head polyester it is water proof as long as you do not touch the polyester

A good spraying of fabsil before using any polyester canopy would be a useful thing this would also improve the UV quality of the canopy which seems none existent

Next year I am probably going to make my own geodesic canopy ( five point fixing) using aluminium poles and stainless or carbon fibre eyelets

I got in contact with the bus shelter company last week to order a sun canopy ready for our great european trip. They are in the process of upgrading their website as they can now offer other colours, although they are more expensive than the older colours.