We got a lot of rain and I had my awning out. When I saw the water depressing the fabric I tried to lower one corner. Big mistake. There was too much weight for me to handle it and my awning tube bent and one of the mounting brakets broke. It's a Dometic 8500 on an '06 Keystone Rapter.Any suggestions on how to get a new one, and replacing it myself?Any advice appreciated, thank you.Doug Graham

Best thing to do is to bite the bullet and purchase a new electric awning. They automatically lower one end when rain water builds up. No more rain damaged awnings. Fairly easy to remove your current one and install a new one.

Automaric awning= more things to go wrong.But I do agree, get a complete new awning. Their not hard to install, but you will need help and a couple of sturdy ladders.

I had the same thing happen here. Mine broke the 18' awning tube in half and snapped both of the mounting brackets. A month earlier, we replaced the fabric with one from Tough Top Awnings and it wasn't damaged. Carefully, I bent the sharp aluminum edges back and pulled the fabric out, got a used 20' tube that was bent on one end for $25, cut it and put everything back together. No problems since.[img][/img]

duggram wrote:There was too much weight for me to handle it and my awning tube bent and one of the mounting brakets broke. It's a Dometic 8500 on an '06 Keystone Rapter.Any suggestions on how to get a new one, and replacing it myself?Personally I wouldn't replace the entire awning as the hardware kit is expensive in itself. Replacement fabric for Dometic awnings can be purchased alone OR already mounted on a new roller tube - in this case choose the latter. Replacement upper and lower brackets are also sold separately so there's really no need to replace the arms if they're not bent.Re: manual vs power - I replaced the awful Carefree of Colorado power awning that came stock on my K-Z Spree with a Dometic 8500 manual awning and the only downside was the manual awning required new holes to be drilled into the trailer frame at different locations than the power awning so the dealer tech had to seal those unused holes - worked fine though. :)

OMG! I can't believe the number of Debbie Downers when it comes to power awnings! Anyone that wastes a dime on fixing up the old manual model is just penny foolish. A new roller, plus new arms, plus new material is way more expensive than a new A&E power awning.

Replacing an 8X20 awning | Good Sam Community

sgip2000
Explorer
Sep 02, 2018
RLS7201 wrote:
IB853347201 wrote:
OMG! I can't believe the number of Debbie Downers when it comes to power awnings! Anyone that wastes a dime on fixing up the old manual model is just penny foolish.
A new roller, plus new arms, plus new material is way more expensive than a new A&E power awning.

But when the sun goes down on the awning side of your RV, you can't lower your awning like us manual awning users can. I can get my manual awning down to 3.5' off the ground. To each his/her own.

Richard

I have a Carefree Travl'r electric awning and it has multiple pitch adjustments.
Lynnmor
Explorer
Sep 02, 2018
IB853347201 wrote:
Lynnmor wrote:
I don't use my power awning a lot because of the flimsy construction and my traveling style. If I ever buy another one, it will not be a useless power awning that needs to be attended to like a newborn baby.

Really? You do know that the vast majority of trailers and MH's have come with power awnings over the last 10 years? All with little or no issues.

Actually I know next to nothing. I've only been using an RV for just 41 years which is the reason for my lack of knowledge.

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