Exterior Anti Flap Kits (AFK) - which model and what should I look for?
- Thread starter Macca_75
- Start date
The anti flap kit bars have built in sail track for shade and annex walls
I went with Aussie Traveller and haven't regretted it. Also, as my van is black/silver with a [mostly] black awning, for an extra $70 thhey powder coated thhem black...they look great!
The Aussie Traveller AFK come with quite good instructions. Ive fitted them and it an easy job once you come to emotional terms with drilling holes in stuff. But if its not you driling the holes carefully, it will only be someone else not so carefully.
If you have any doubts at any point just stop, grab a few pics and posted it up here.
Im SE suburbs, your welcome to come and have a look at mine
Thanks @Crusty181 - might take you up on that offer. Did you fit them yourself?
Bevel the holes you drill, the professionals just rip the hole in the barrel so in time you end up with little holes in awning, I have little gaffa tape pads over mine to stop any catching, don't lose any bits of your bars either, other than the plastic bits they don't sell parts.
Prefer shade walls for ends with velcro then you don't need to put up the AFK for short times.
Prefer shade walls for ends with velcro then you don't need to put up the AFK for short times.
Ok so I got the brackets fitted OK once I got over the nerves. I did have to unscrew one of the main screws holding the annexe track on and reuse it for the bracket.
Anyway I am confused on the hole in drum. Do I extend it and then wind it back in 90 degrees (so the pull cord is now facing the van)? The pic is taken from the rear of the van looking forward. Is this the correct location where I should drill?
Anyway I am confused on the hole in drum. Do I extend it and then wind it back in 90 degrees (so the pull cord is now facing the van)? The pic is taken from the rear of the van looking forward. Is this the correct location where I should drill?
From your picture the drum position looks about right, you want the slot below strip light at 3 o'clock position. Biggest mistake is rolling awning all the way out and it forms a bit of a gutter to trap water, you need to wind it in a few clicks. I just installed a set on mine and where your spigot is looks to be about where I drilled my hole, also make sure you drill at same angle spigot is at
when you have it fully extended - the awning
bring it out until the flappy bit (bottom of your pic) is at say 11.50/11.55 (on a clock................... dyaunnastand??) that way the seam is not at 12.00 and water can flow off the top of the awning
It looks about right in the photo, my is setup so the sail track is at 9am or 3pm depending which end you look from
Hi @Drover ,
There are two schools of thought on that paradigm.
1: extend the awning all the way
2: leave it slightly rolled up (as shown in your pic)
Awning manufacturers recommend extending the awning all the way. One of the reasons being that if you retract the awning slightly, all the load is placed upon the ratchet mechanism.
There are many people who recommend leaving it slightly retracted - for various reasons such as water runoff, debris (eg leaves) runoff.
Personally - I extend the awning all the way. I've never had an issue with water runoff (leave one side slightly lower than the other).
There are two schools of thought on that paradigm.
1: extend the awning all the way
2: leave it slightly rolled up (as shown in your pic)
Awning manufacturers recommend extending the awning all the way. One of the reasons being that if you retract the awning slightly, all the load is placed upon the ratchet mechanism.
There are many people who recommend leaving it slightly retracted - for various reasons such as water runoff, debris (eg leaves) runoff.
Personally - I extend the awning all the way. I've never had an issue with water runoff (leave one side slightly lower than the other).
I recall the instructions were pretty good with measurements etc, but in the absence of that the sail track in the drum faces the van dead flat with the slot central, pretty much as you have it, bit hard to be precise in your pic but you may have to roll the slot up a little bit, to centralise it You shouldn't roll any further out because annex walls need to line up in that corner and rolling it out further pushing the full annex wall away from the side wall that slides into the AFK arm
The short answer to your question is yes, mark the correct position for the hole and roll out the awning to give your drill access to the mark. As you can see in your pic the AFK slides into the drum on an angle so its best to drill the hole on an angle, a little bit shallower, to help the AFK side in and out easily and stop the AFK binding in the hole. To do that start with a small drill bit drilling straight in and working your up with larger bits. The last 2 drill bits angling them the bit to tamper the hole toward the AFK's insertion angle. The angle of your hole (that just sounds wrong) doesn't have to match the AFK insertion angle, just a bit to help stop it binding
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First up @Doc not my pic it's macca's, but have seen a few variations, having used mine a lot it actually has 2 lots of holes, one set for the fully extended which I find I don't care for that much as the dust and dirt collects, the other is as G Daddy described is at 3.00 o clock, this position seems to put less strain on the awning at the clamp end, no dust and leaf collection and in a good gully raker the water gets away quickly........if you have led awning lights on the barrell I suppose they would define the position as well.
Oh and make sure you pull the awning into the clamp before you lock it down so you have it in the right position when you mark the holes and brackets position, have seen the odd one which had sloppy awning as the holes/brackets were wrong.
Jayco dealer did ours and then the Annex people drilled new holes as the Jayco ones where not right 
I noticed when I first put up the AFK it was setup different to my previous Jayco they used the hole where the cable goes in for the LED light as one
They also put on our Bike rack after build and only secured it with screws so it fell off almost. I assume they had the new guy do our van
You will see a few vans out there with two sets of holes
I noticed when I first put up the AFK it was setup different to my previous Jayco they used the hole where the cable goes in for the LED light as one
They also put on our Bike rack after build and only secured it with screws so it fell off almost. I assume they had the new guy do our van
You will see a few vans out there with two sets of holes