Awning on slide

502monte wrote:
Arcamper and Michelle.S do you have any pictures of your awning installed?

Lots of work but like I said it looks just like the factory awning.

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blofgren wrote:

Arcamper wrote:
Yes you can. Keystone, Dometic and my dealer said no way because I had slide toppers and the awning would be under 9 feet and Dometic did not make a 9200 that short. So I bought the 10 foot power awning that matches my big one, and a sewing machine. Cut down the awning tube and the awning itself to my spec then sewed the edge back up along with the spines for the tube. Mounted the track to the sidewall under the topper with 24 screws in epoxy. Put a nice color changing led strip under it and it looks like factory. This was 16 months and 5k miles ago and it is still perfect. I don't like to be told you can't do something when I know good and well it can be. We can send a rocket to the moon so I know we can put an awning on my slide. Go for it!

Wow, great job! How did you run 12V power to it? I've been thinking of adding an awning on our slide too and would like it to be a power unit like the main awning.

Inside that slide is the tv, fireplace and radio so I had 12 volt power already there. I put my switch on that wall by the tv.

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Arcamper wrote:

502monte wrote:
Arcamper and Michelle.S do you have any pictures of your awning installed?

Lots of work but like I said it looks just like the factory awning.
(pics snipped)

NICE job, there! No issues with anchoring it to the slide? Plenty of meat for the screws to bite into?

Lyle

laknox wrote:

Arcamper wrote:

502monte wrote:
Arcamper and Michelle.S do you have any pictures of your awning installed?

Lots of work but like I said it looks just like the factory awning.
(pics snipped)

NICE job, there! No issues with anchoring it to the slide? Plenty of meat for the screws to bite into?

Lyle

There is not much there except the fiberglass side of the slide. I did find a couple of aluminum studs with a stud finder and used them. What I did different was use a lot more small screws into the fiberglass by first drilling pilot holes and then dipping them in epoxy before screwing them into the awning rail. I believe it is stronger than the main awning rail that is twice as long with half as many screws. Like I said this was 18 months ago and I have checked it carefully and nothing has split, cracked, or come loose in 18 months so far.

Looks great.You should hire out to make custom size awnings.LOL:)

Arcamper looks good was wondering how strong the slide wall was to mount the awning. Have to check my slide for stud location.
Thanks for the pictures.

502monte wrote:
Arcamper looks good was wondering how strong the slide wall was to mount the awning. Have to check my slide for stud location.
Thanks for the pictures.

I only found a couple of studs to hit but like I said putting more screws into the fiberglass( with pre drilled holes so it does not crack ) and using the epoxy on the screws made the difference and weather sealed them. It is just as strong as mounting to the top plate on the slide. I could not do that due to the slide topper and that was the problem I had. A guy that does a lot of marine work with fiberglass boats told me how to do it. He has been mounting stuff in or on boats for years this way and has never had a problem. After the rail and arm mounts were on I pulled as hard as I could on all of it just to make sure it was secure and could not move anything. The hardest part of the entire project was sewing the hem back on the awning over the spines that slide in the awning tube after I cut it down. I used a heavy duty needle and outdoor UV protected thread.

I also had to buy a rivet gun to put the motor end cap back on the tube after I cut it to size.