I guess this one fits in the "projects we didn't even know we needed" list. We had an EZY awning from bus depot and loved it. Not the fastest setup as it required two people and 10 or more minutes to erect the frame and setup the cover, but it always kept us dry camping in the pacific northwest, which is no small task.
That said, a few weeks ago we were in Portland and met up with a few peeps in the local VW/westy club at the lucky lab (seriously, whats not to like about a bunch of VW aficionados hanging out at a portland icon, drinking beer and eating pizza in the parking lot). We get about 30 minutes into the meet and it starts raining- no surprise- so Jen and i start looking for a space to move the van with enough room to setup the awning.
Before we can even spot two empty spaces side by side one of the members unzips his ARB awning, rolls it out, extends the legs and has us all gathering under the canopy in under 2 minutes. From being perfectly content with our current awning to the top of our shopping list in 90 seconds flat... gotta be a new record!
Unlike the EZY, the ARB lives on the outside of the bus (in our case attached to the rack, but can also clamp onto the rain gutter), which in addition to quick setup also means we gained back real estate inside where the old awning used to live, which given our need for storage made it a no-brainer.
I can happily say we have put this awning through its paces. Obviously one should listen to the need attach guy ropes or stake it down in heavy weather (or a hurricane) but i thinks that true with most...unless of course you want to want it watch it flap over top of your vehicle (not that i would know).