Omnistor awning

On my previous camper a T5 I had a dedicated awning rail for attaching a drive away awning to. Despite this being fastened with screws and sikaflex in strong wind the awning rail was pulled off the side of the van. When I bought my current Peugeot van conversion it was explained to me that I could thread a drive away awning into the front of the omnistor sun blind, which I get and understand, however does anyone do this, I am debating this but am reluctant due to previous experience, I resolved the problem on the T5 by running storm straps over the windscreen and across the rear corner of the roof  so that the straps took the load not the awning rail in high winds, that was easily done on a van 2mtrs tall, but not so simple on a 2.5 Mtrs high van. I'm considering putting up the awning but not attaching it, but wondered if anyone had experience of this method in high wind.
Thanks

Hi,

Not sure what awning you have but I used a Vango Kela Tall Drive away awning on my previous van, a Rimor Superbrig, and use to thread it and attach to the Omnistor using a figure of eight attachment. It certainly took some severe weather punishment last season in some very high winds and we never had a problem or felt it was likely to detach or damage the Omnistor. The Kela is fitted with additional storm straps and brace bars which I use to deploy if the weather looked a bit suspect and they did the job nicely.

I use a Khyam Motordome Tourer which is attached to the slot in the leading edge of the Fiamma awning. This is the intended purpose of the awning slot.

You need a Kardor tape to thread into the awning slot. This is a webbing strip with a beaded edge on both sides, one of which goes into the awning slot  You now have two beaded edges to join with a double C --)(-- plastic strip, one on the Kardor and the other built into the edge of the (drive away) awning.

The system is secure, quick to attach and detach and widely used.
High winds are a matter of judgement.
Keith

We purchased Thule Rain Blocker side and front panels. The side panels suspend from spring loaded bars appropriate to the Omnistore wind out awning. The front panels (chioce of widths) slide into the slot. We found the side panels leave no gaps between the van sides such that any movement rubs against the habitation window causing fine abrasion of the plastic. We used fine paste to remove the scratches and applied adhesive film (what you use to protect books etc). Problem being with this front attachment to the awning is any gusting high winds creates a lot of turbulence so much so we have too take it all down to to prevent any likely damage. Also the noise will prevent any sleep.