PVC Awning cover

You can find forum topics where people have made them from plastic gutters. I'm not sure about traveling with them on - I wouldn't.

JMO but I don't see the need to cover a rolled up awning like this during the camping season and would find it a real PITA to have to remove it each time I wanted to deploy the awning, which I do after each time it rains in order to dry it out. During winter storage my awning is protected from snow and ice either with a breathable ADCO cover or as is the case this year by being stored indoors. Since just friction holds this contraption in place one would certainly want to remove it before towing the trailer.

He ones I have seen are a length of white PVC drain pipe with a slit cut down their length. I would think it would take a bit to get on and once on it would remain in place nicely. The awing would operate just fine with the tube in place.

My previous awning finally fell apart after 12 years, and the only area that fell apart was where the sun hit it while retracted. So I built my own cover for the new one, and I only use it while my 5er is stored in the driveway for more than a couple weeks.

I used white PVC drain gutter which fit over the rolled up awning just fine. However, it wasn't real tight and would slip off. So I cut some 4" dia. PVC Pipe into 3" long sections, cut them lengthwise and rounded off the sharp edges. I used these as "clips" to hold the gutter sections in place at the ends and the middle joint.

korbe wrote:
My previous awning finally fell apart after 12 years, and the only area that fell apart was where the sun hit it while retracted. So I built my own cover for the new one, and I only use it while my 5er is stored in the driveway for more than a couple weeks.

12 years service from any awning is pretty good ... guess you'll have to wait another 12 to see if this gutter cover helps extend that. :R

SoundGuy wrote:

korbe wrote:
My previous awning finally fell apart after 12 years, and the only area that fell apart was where the sun hit it while retracted. So I built my own cover for the new one, and I only use it while my 5er is stored in the driveway for more than a couple weeks.

12 years service from any awning is pretty good ... guess you'll have to wait another 12 to see if this gutter cover helps extend that. :R

My guess is that the original awning would still be working just fine if I would have covered it from the beginning.

korbe wrote:

SoundGuy wrote:

korbe wrote:
My previous awning finally fell apart after 12 years, and the only area that fell apart was where the sun hit it while retracted. So I built my own cover for the new one, and I only use it while my 5er is stored in the driveway for more than a couple weeks.

12 years service from any awning is pretty good ... guess you'll have to wait another 12 to see if this gutter cover helps extend that. :R

My guess is that the original awning would still be working just fine if I would have covered it from the beginning.

I had the same problem with mine and in addition the PO scraped that area on a tree limb and it leaked when extended. I tried several types of latex sealers over the years which worked for a while but eventually cracked. Last year my BIL gave me some fiber reinforced rubber about .030 thick and I cut a strip about 2 ft the length of the awning and bonded it to the awning, it stopped the leak from the holes and covered the area exposed to the sun. The rest of the awning is good and it is 20 years old.

My awning is 13 years old and still looks almost like new except for a place where a tree jumped out and hit it on the end. :o
Barney

Under the fierce SoCal and Baja sun my awning started falling apart after 2 years - while still rolled. The vinyl on the top exposed part was crumbling to dust.

Following nice pictures by somebody posted here, I put a cover made of 2 pieces of aluminum gutter, overlapping and sliding into each other in the middle. Plastic gutter shape didn't worked well for me. In heavy wind those 2 pieces have lifted up in the middle, separated from each other and fell down, hanging at the ends where they were attached to the awning mounts. Winds here throw lawn chairs and small items around like they are made of toilet paper, I rarely even unroll this awning, but it sucks watching it crumbling. So I riveted 2 pieces together in the middle.

The pics I've been talking about: Clicky.

Note the notches in the gutters ends. For highway speeds I would want more reliable attachment, definitely would glue the end-caps to the gutters. Better yet - would make it a 2-piece and remove it for travel.

I tied the gutter to the awning brackets with a piece of wire on both ends, since my attachment is of a more permanent nature.