What’s the consensus on a wind sensing awning? Do they work? Reliable?My thinking is I’d use the awning more if it had an automatic retracting feature. I camp in the desert frequently and am afraid to leave the RV for the day with the awning out, in fear of heavy wind popping up and destroying the awning.BTW - I’m in very early phases of shopping for a newer rig. The Newmar Ventana (4038) has about every feature on my wish list, except a wind sensing awning. The Dutch Star does have it, for an extra $40 - 50k.

Never owned one but I have seen two at campgrounds wrapped over the top of coaches due to a sudden wind burst. So if the wind give the awning a coupe of easy warning gust it will retract but it it is just hit with one big gust it is over your roof before it has time to sense it and retract it.Same with a manual, if the wind give you warning gust you can put it in, if not it can be over your roof before you think about it. I have an old fashioned manual on with down supports that I think take wind better than the scissor ones with no downward support. But then are a lot more work to open and close. But I would not leave for the day with any large patio awning out. I leave my window awning out.

If you've ever seen an awning retract it's easy to conclude that it would never retract in time before damage is done if the gust is strong enough. I am not sure I understand the logic behind self retracting awnings for this very reason. Any manual tells you anyway to never leave it out and unattended. We always pull ours in if we leave for any length of time. I've seen a few awnings with bent arms.

We retrofitted ours with one several years ago. Has a remote fob also. my only gripe is that wind sensor is very sensitive and it will retract in very little wind. Sometimes I turn off the wind sensor feature when we are sitting under the awning in a lit breeze. We never leave the awning down when we are not in or around the RV. Works great.CVD wrote:What’s the consensus on a wind sensing awning? Do they work? Reliable?My thinking is I’d use the awning more if it had an automatic retracting feature. I camp in the desert frequently and am afraid to leave the RV for the day with the awning out, in fear of heavy wind popping up and destroying the awning.BTW - I’m in very early phases of shopping for a newer rig. The Newmar Ventana (4038) has about every feature on my wish list, except a wind sensing awning. The Dutch Star does have it, for an extra $40 - 50k.

never owned one. never wanted one.bumpy

We thought ours had it, doesn't. Probably a good thing. It seems like, unless you have a Gerard set-up (we don't) the awning angle over a front room slide is real susceptible to wind. I suspect ours would automatically retract from a good sneeze. Manually, I bring it in at even the slightest breeze. It's pretty useless. A fantastic Newmar dealer in Moorpark (from Corona it is worth your drive) warned us that you can't just put the awning out & forget it. Wind gusts are the real culprit. Case in point. Sitting in a high end park about a year ago in No Cal. Guy pulls in with a 45' Zephyr towing a brand new Cadillac SUV. We start talking. He mentions his Gerard's had failed to retract during a heavy rain/wind storm at their last site. They were severely damaged. A mobile repair unit had to come in & fix them. He was a great guy, but actually had a mobile RV wash clean his coach because there were too many bugs on the front of it. I suspect he just put the awnings out & relied totally on the sensors. FYI. Our next coach will be a DS. We're in Murrieta. The dealership in Moorpark would be our first choice. Northern Oregon second.

Wind sense awning – worthwhile? | Good Sam Community

12 Replies

Effy
Explorer II
Jan 25, 2017
If you've ever seen an awning retract it's easy to conclude that it would never retract in time before damage is done if the gust is strong enough. I am not sure I understand the logic behind self retracting awnings for this very reason. Any manual tells you anyway to never leave it out and unattended. We always pull ours in if we leave for any length of time. I've seen a few awnings with bent arms.
jwolf55
Explorer
Jan 25, 2017
Never owned one but I have seen two at campgrounds wrapped over the top of coaches due to a sudden wind burst. So if the wind give the awning a coupe of easy warning gust it will retract but it it is just hit with one big gust it is over your roof before it has time to sense it and retract it.
Same with a manual, if the wind give you warning gust you can put it in, if not it can be over your roof before you think about it. I have an old fashioned manual on with down supports that I think take wind better than the scissor ones with no downward support. But then are a lot more work to open and close. But I would not leave for the day with any large patio awning out. I leave my window awning out.

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Wind sense awning – worthwhile?

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