You said your unit is relatively small. Will you be pulling along a toad or using RV to get around while on trips? Reason I ask is we used the awning on our 5'er almost every trip - even if just to hold the string of lights my wife liked. With the MH, we don't have a toad so we use it to do any running around in. That has significantly reduced how much we use the awning. And, we never use the stringed lights because of hassle to remove if we need to take MH out. I've thought about one of the EZ Up type shelters to use instead and would leave it up if we had to drive MH somewhere. But, that would be something else to find storage spot for. So, we just open awning when needed for shade or rain protection but mostly leave it in.