Forum Discussion

goufgators's avatar
goufgators
Explorer
Sep 27, 2017

Automatic awning

Been wondering...regarding electric awnings, if the retract system refuses to work (bring the awning back in), is there a way to manually retract the awning? Same for slides. They're on a 2017 Thor Freedom Elite 29FE. Thanks!
  • It would depend on the brand awning you have and the brand slide you have. We had a Carefree electric awning on our previous Greyhawk Motorhome. It came with some electrical leads to connect to a 12v source to override the switch in case of failure. The slides could be manually retracted with a wrench if they failed.

    -Michael
  • Auto awnings I've seen all have a manual over-ride. usually a way to turn the shaft that deploys the awning, either and adapter and screw gun or one of those extendable rods that hooks into the system and you turn it manually. The slides I've had either use an auxiliary pump or a adapter to turn the drive screw. usually only works to close the unit so you can drive it to some place to the automatic system fixed.
  • Yes, there are ways to bring it in but you don't want to be figuring them out at the CG when it's time to leave! :)
    Check out Youtube for video's showing how it's done.